Nature & Environment : Cambodia to Receive Four Tigers from India in Late 2024

Cambodia will receive four adolescent tigers – 1 male and three females – from India as part of the latter’s wild tiger reintroduction efforts, after the absence of tigers in the Kingdom’s forests since 2007.

The four tigers from the Western Ghats Mountain range of India will be released in the Cardamom Rainforest in Southern Cambodia

At a press conference today, H.E. Dr. Devyani Khobragade, Ambassador to the Republic of India to Cambodia, stated that the tigers will be handed over to Cambodia in November or December this year.

Dr. Suwanna Gauntlett, CEO of Wildlife Alliance, confirmed that the four tigers will soon find a new home in Cambodia’s protected Cardamom Rainforest, which is the safest place to restore the tiger population in the country.

H.E. Chea Sam Ang, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Environment, explained the decision to bring tigers from India for tiger population restoration in Cambodia by similar weather conditions of both countries, which are conducive to the life of this species.

In November 2022, Cambodia and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Wildlife Management Recovery Strategy of Tiger and its Habitat. This agreement states that India will transfer 11 tigers to Cambodia.

WWF has confirmed that the last tiger in Cambodia was photographed by camera trap in 2007 in Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary of Mondulkiri province. In 2016, wildlife scientists definitively declared the big cat extinct in the Kingdom.