Seventy-five percent of the world's wild tigers live in India — and on International Tiger Day, 29 July 2026, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stood in Nagpur, the city that sits at the heart of Maharashtra's tiger country, to announce a sharper, technology-driven plan to keep that number growing.

Addressing a state-level event organised to mark the occasion, CM Fadnavis underscored the ecological centrality of tigers to the food chain and noted that conservation efforts in Maharashtra have been running for over 30 years. 'Tiger reserves are not the sole responsibility of the forest department,' he said. 'Every section of society must contribute to conservation.'

A five-point formula for Maharashtra's forests

The Chief Minister outlined what he called a panchsutri (five-point strategy) for tiger conservation in the state. The plan covers: reducing human-wildlife conflict in villages bordering reserves; launching a Tiger Habitat Green Livelihood Mission; framing a CSR policy to channel corporate funds into conservation; creating a sustainable tourism policy to generate employment; and ensuring that tourism revenue is reinvested into forest protection. It is a model that treats the tiger reserve not as a walled sanctuary but as an economic engine for surrounding communities.

AI and cameras on the frontline of conflict mitigation

On the technology front, Fadnavis highlighted the deployment of camera tracking systems to monitor tiger movement and, crucially, an AI-based Early Warning System that alerts communities before a tiger enters a human-use zone. These tools sit within a wider national pattern: several Indian states have adopted GPS monitoring and AI-assisted surveillance to reduce retaliatory killings and livestock loss — the two biggest drivers of human-wildlife conflict near reserves. The Maharashtra Forest Department has also been facilitating voluntary relocation of villages from core reserve areas, with residents choosing to move rather than being displaced.

India and Nepal: the only two nations to hit the global tiger target

The backdrop to the event is a genuine conservation success story. When International Tiger Day was established following the 2010 St. Petersburg Tiger Summit, nations pledged to double wild tiger populations by 2022. Of all the tiger-range countries, only India and Nepal met that target. India's Project Tiger, launched in 1973, now oversees a network of reserves whose core areas have steadily expanded. Maharashtra has been a consistent contributor to that national count, with the state's tiger population on a sustained upward trajectory.

The Nagpur event was attended by Minister Ganesh Naik, Minister of State Dr. Pankaj Bhoyar, Minister of State Adv. Ashish Jaiswal, MLA Sumit Wankhede, and representatives from Bhutan, Cambodia, and Bangladesh, signalling that Maharashtra's conservation push is drawing regional attention.

The next test will be whether the five-point strategy moves from announcement to implementation — and whether Maharashtra's AI-warning infrastructure can be scaled fast enough to meaningfully reduce the conflict incidents that still cost lives on both sides of the forest boundary.