How Asia’s Longest Wildlife Underpass Is Helping India’s Booming Tiger Population
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📰 The quick summary: India’s tiger population has more than doubled since 1972, and the country is now building Asia’s largest wildlife underpasses and overpasses to keep these growing populations connected and genetically healthy.
📈 One key stat: India accounts for about 75% of all wild tigers left on Earth, making it the species’ last true stronghold and a critical factor in whether Bengal tigers survive long term.
💬 One key quote: “India could, in fact, accommodate up to 10,000 to 20,000 tigers if habitats are adequately protected,” said Ullas Karanth, one of the world’s top tiger experts.
1️⃣ The big picture: India’s Bengal tiger population has rebounded dramatically, growing from roughly 1,827 in 1972 to an estimated 3,682 in the 2022 census, making the country home to about 75% of all wild tigers on Earth. As tiger numbers grow beyond the capacity of existing protected areas, the big cats must disperse into human-dominated landscapes to find new territory, raising the stakes for safe passage between habitats. To address this, India has built more wildlife mitigation structures than any other country in Asia, including the world’s 10 largest wildlife underpasses and overpasses and Asia’s longest wildlife underpass at 12 kilometers beneath the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway. Protected forest corridors are now essential tools for maintaining genetic diversity among tiger populations that risk isolation and inbreeding without them. At the same time, rising poaching, rapid road expansion, and ongoing destruction of forested land mean that corridor protection alone cannot secure the tiger’s future.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: India’s tiger numbers have more than doubled over the past five decades, a conservation turnaround driven by Project Tiger, which launched in 1973 with just nine reserves and has since grown to 58 covering an area the size of Austria. Asia’s longest wildlife underpass, a 12-kilometer structure beneath the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway, opened in April 2026 and is already recording leopards, elephants, deer, and antelope passing through it safely. Scientists estimate that there are around 400,000 square kilometers of potential tiger habitat across India, and experts believe the country could support between 10,000 and 20,000 tigers if core habitats are properly protected. Indian states have also begun cooperating with each other on landscape-level conservation planning, a shift that gives wide-ranging tigers and elephants safer passage across state boundaries. Each new functional corridor not only helps tigers survive but also restores broader ecological connectivity, effectively giving land back to entire ecosystems.
3️⃣ What’s next: More tigers are set to be translocated from Corbett Tiger Reserve to the western section of Rajaji Tiger Reserve, with the hope that breeding pairs will eventually send cubs through the new underpasses into surrounding forests. Conservationists and government agencies are working to ensure that road expansion projects incorporate wildlife needs from the start, turning new infrastructure into a conservation opportunity rather than a threat. Securing and restoring core habitat remains the top priority for experts, who argue that corridors only work when healthy, prey-rich forests sit on both sides of them.
Read the full story here: Mongabay – India’s tiger numbers are rising. Protecting their pathways is next
