Tiger turnaround as populations grow in India

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Tiger numbers in India are starting to rebound after decades of being perilously low. This recovery offers lessons for conserving other rare animals.

By

  1. William F. Laurance

    1. William F. Laurance is at the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science and in the College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4878, Australia.

  2. Uma Ramakrishnan

    1. Uma Ramakrishnan is at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560065, India.

Until a few tens of thousands of years ago, Earth harboured a remarkable collection of large animals1, including giant ground sloths (Megatherium), woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) and elephant birds (Mullerornis and Aepyornis). Most of these iconic beasts are now extinct, and many large mammals are vanishingly rare following widespread human persecution and habitat disruption. Yet in India, a nation with a burgeoning human population, good news is reverberating about the population of wild tigers (Panthera tigris). Writing in Science, Jhala et al.2 present findings about tigers that provide key lessons for conserving imperilled large animals elsewhere in the world.

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Nature 640, 603-604 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01027-w

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Competing Interests

U.R. has collaborated on other research projects with Y. V. Jhala and Rajesh Gopal, who are co-authors of the paper this article discusses (Y. V. Jhala et al. Science 387, 505–510; 2025), and Y. V. Jhala is an Indian National Science Academy Senior Scientist at NCBS, where U.R. works. However, U.R. has not participated in any way in the research implementation or publication of Jhala et al. 2025.

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