By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline
Published: 13:41 GMT, 16 January 2019 | Updated: 14:58 GMT, 16 January 2019
48 shares
35
View
comments
Tigers may be wiped from existence and consigned to history within a decade, a charity claims.
Born Free says the dramatic demise of tigers in the wild has seen 96 per cent of their population disappear in the last hundred years.
As few as 4,000 are believed to exist in the wild today due to poaching and habitat destruction.
The British charity has today launched an international plea to save this iconic species.
Scroll down for video
The dramatic demise of tigers in the wild has seen 96 per cent of their population disappear in the last hundred years. As few as 4,000 are believed to exist in the wild today
Born Free is working alongside seven Indian NGOs to increase efforts to to save the tigers.
More than 500 of the estimated 2,000 tigers found in India are in the central region of Satpuda.
They are hoping to tackle the poaching crisis, safeguard tiger habitats, and promote conservation interventions that will enable communities and wildlife to live harmoniously.
'India is home to some of the greatest diversity of wildlife on Earth,' said Howard Jones, CEO of Born Free, based in Horsham, Sussex.
'Within this extraordinary ecosystem, tigers need our intervention more than ever due to countless threats including human-wildlife conflict.
'[That includes] poaching for their body parts for traditional 'medicine'; and habitat loss due to deforestation and chaotic or ill-considered rural development.
'It's unimaginable to think of a world without tigers but unless we act now, the consequences could be