This International Tiger Day, we revisit the tiger chapter of our Vanishing Icons report. It investigates the loss of tiger habitat, 57% of which is within 5km of a road, and the impacts of population growth.

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.”

David Attenborough, Population Matters Patron

If one creature can live up to that quote, it must be the majestic and captivating Bengal tiger. Many people consider tigers, the largest of the big cats, to be one of the most beautiful of all animals. Unfortunately, tigers are also one of the most well-known creatures permanently on the endangered species list – if not for the panda, WWF could have chosen the symbol of the tiger.

Tiger habitat Loss

Across their range, tigers face unrelenting pressures from habitat loss and are now confined to less than a tenth of their historic range. They are forced to compete for space in areas with some of the fastest-growing human populations. Over 70% of the remaining global tiger population is found in India.

The current population of India is 1.4 billion people, having recently overtaken China as the world’s most populated country, and will keep growing into the second half of this century. The effect is not only limiting available habitat space but increasing demand for natural resources, driving deforestation, resource extraction and road building which further fragments and degrades remaining tiger habitats.

Globally, over 60% of tiger subpopulations occur within protected areas; with 65% of India’s tiger populations found in tiger reserves. Human pressures still affect these designated habitats, as many tiger conservation areas have concessions for resource extraction, including logging, plantations, oil drilling, and mining.

Roads to ruin

An under-recognised but significant threat is the proliferation of roads, dividing and segmenting tiger habitat. A study published in Science Advances in 2020, calculated the extent and potential impacts of road networks across the 13-country range of remaining tiger habitats. They found that roads totalled 134,000 km across tiger conservation landscapes, even in priority protected areas.

Approximately 43% of the area where tiger breeding occurs and 57% of their total available habitat fell within the road-affected zones, defined as 5 km from the nearest road. The study concluded that these road networks also drive down available prey abundance by more than 20%, leaving tigers with both less room and less food.

Road use pressures will likely increase as major investment projects, such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative, fund the construction of nearly 24,000 km of new roads in tiger conservation landscapes by 2050. The continent across which tigers once roamed freely is becoming more and more subdivided by human development.

Developers commonly construct roads to facilitate extractive industries, such as logging and mining, leading to habitat degradation and increasing poaching. Expanding roads into remote areas creates transport links between wild habitats and urban areas, allowing criminals to poach and smuggle endangered species, such as tigers, for sale in underground markets.

Within Vietnam and China, demand for tiger products is high, and the rising affluence of consumers across the region has also increased the consumption of tiger products.

People pressure

Another significant pressure on tigers is the loss of prey species, such as wild boar and deer, which makes it harder for the remaining tigers to survive. Many people living alongside tiger habitats are reliant on the forests for timber and livestock pasture, this can drive deforestation causing insufficient habitat to support healthy wild pig and deer populations, limiting the availability of prey species for tigers. As tigers struggle to survive in shrinking homes, there is a greater risk of conflict between them and local people.

However, it’s not just the impact of local people that can cause unintended harm towards tigers but visiting tourists too.

Tigers are a beloved species the world over, but a study published in Conservation Physiology in 2019, found wildlife tourism, such as tiger safaris, can be harmful as it increases species stress. The study found elevated levels of stress hormones for tigers in proximity to human settlements or frequent interactions with wildlife safaris. Just like humans, when animals deal with prolonged periods of stress this can have a detrimental impact on their health, weakening their immune system and making them more susceptible to disease, as well as less likely to
effectively reproduce.

The world must do more than declare its love for tigers; it needs to take serious actions to minimize the impacts of population growth and resource demand, ensuring the future preservation of one of nature’s most breathtaking creatures.