This year 79 tigers were captured on hidden cameras in Thailand’s Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng forest, which is an increase of more than 70% from 13 years ago. The forest accounts for half of the country’s tiger population.
According to the WWF, wild tiger numbers are starting to gradually increase globally. Tiger populations are stable or increasing in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia and China. An estimated 3,900 tigers remain in the wild, but in some areas, including much of Southeast Asia, tiger numbers are declining.
BBC Thai spoke to researcher Sompoch Duangchantrasiri about why it is important to keep the big cats in Thailand’s forests.
Bhutan, officially known as the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas in South Asia. It is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north, the Chumbi Valley of Tibet and is barely separated from Nepal, from the Indian state of Sikkim in the west and the Indian states of Assam, West Bengal, and Arunachal Pradesh in the south, east and southwest.
Bhutan is geopolitically in South Asia and is the region’s second-least-populous nation after the Maldives. Thimphu is its capital and the largest city, while Phuntsholing is its financial center.
The government is a parliamentary democracy; the head of state is the King of Bhutan, known as the “Dragon King.” The Royal Bhutan Army maintains a close relationship with the Indian Armed Forces.
China is the third largest country in the world by area and the largest country in the world by population. Properly known as the People’s Republic of China, the political territory of the country includes Tibet and Hong Kong. The capital is Beijing.
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the second-most populous country, the seventh-largest country by land area, and the most populous democracy in the world. New Delhi is the capital.
It has an exceptionally diverse population, with Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and other religions speaking over 21 recognised languages.
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a sovereign country in South Asia. It is mainly in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It is landlocked, and borders China in the north and India in the south, east and west, while Bangladesh is located within only 27 km (17 mi) of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the capital and the largest city. Nepal is a multiethnic country, with Nepali as the official language.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.
Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. Moscow is the country’s capital.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
