• As per an order on June 23, 2023— Project Tiger and Project Elephant have been merged, meaning a common allocation will fund both beginning this year.
• The merger was announced in April 2023.
• A new division, ‘Project Tiger and Elephant Division,’ has been notified under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

International Tiger Day has been observed annually on July 29th since its inception in 2010 during the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit.

• The staff and divisional heads of Project Elephant (PE) will now report to the additional director general of forests (ADGF), Project Tiger (PT), who has now been designated as ADGF (PT&E).

PROJECT TIGER

• Launched in 1973, Project Tiger is probably one of the most successful species conservation programmes in the world.
• Started with 9 tiger reserves, today the Project Tiger has 53 tiger reserves spread over 75,000 km and more than 70 per cent of the world’s wild tigers are thriving in Indian forests.
• Precursor for the launch of other species conservation projects such as Project Elephant and recently Project Lion and Project Cheetah.
• Implementing Agency: National Tiger Conservation Authority, which is a statutory body.

PROJECT ELEPHANT

• It was launched in 1992 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme by MoEFCC.
• Aims to provide financial and technical support to major elephant-bearing States in the country.