The tiger's hold on the human imagination remains fast, even as the tiger's hold on the remnants of its former realm grows ever more tenuous. All across Asia, from Western India to the Russian Far East, tigers and tiger habitat are succumbing to the seemingly insatiable demands of expanding economies, growing populations, and rising material expectations. Commercial markets and the rampant illegal trade in tiger parts have penetrated the tiger's last remaining bastions in the wild, followed closely by logging, mining and advancing agricultural frontiers. Many observers have declared that the tiger is doomed. Ullas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society believes otherwise.
With the Foundation's support, he and his WCS colleagues have mounted a range-wide effort to conserve viable tiger populations in key landscapes across Asia: in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra States in India, the Western Forest Complex in Thailand, the Leuser Landscape in Northern Sumatra, the Endau-Rompin Landscape in peninsular Malaysia, Northeastern China and the Russian Far East. The Foundation is also supporting the World Wildlife Fund's efforts to protect viable tiger populations in Uttar Pradesh and Assam States in India.