Awareness programmes mark Global Tiger Day in Tirupati

Tirupati: International Tiger Day also known as Global Tiger Day was observed in SV Zoological Park here on Monday with the slogan "their survival is in our hands".

The day was being observed every year on July 29 to raise public awareness and support about tiger conservation issues and promote the protection of natural habitat of tigers.

The day was created in 2010 at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit, which has issued "St Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation" with an aim to double the big cat population by 2022 which India achieved four years in advance.

It was found that in the last century 97 per cent of all wild tigers had disappeared leaving around 3,900 tigers in the world with about 3,000 of them are in India as per the Tiger Estimation Report 2018. In Tirupati, SV Zoological Park authorities have conducted a few programmes to mark the day. They organised a rally by zoo staff with placards on the importance of tiger conservation. Several school children have visited the zoo on the day for whom awareness programme on the importance of tiger conservation was conducted.

The children also planted saplings on the premises besides participating in essay writing competition. Pamphlets on tiger conservation were also distributed. The zoo is having two male and two female Royal Bengal tigers, and the efforts were on to open Tiger Safari soon.

The process was in acclimatisation stage and once the animals are acclimatised it will be open for public, said the Zoo Curator M Babitha. The visiting students were seen cheering up by seeing the tigers and other species.