India to Help Tiger Reintroduction in Cambodia


The Republic of India will help restore the wild tiger population in Cambodia through reintroduction of the big cats and provision of cooperation so that they can live in natural forests.

The Cambodian Ministry of Environment and the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Changes last week reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Wildlife Management Recovery Strategy of Tiger and its Habitat.

The MoU was inked between H.E. Say Samal, Cambodian Minister of Environment and H.E. Ms. Devyani Khobragade, Ambassador of India to Cambodia who represented the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Changes, under the witness of Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and H.E. Jagdeep Dhankhar, Vice-President of the Republic of India, during their bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summits and Related Summits in Phnom Penh.

The MoU is aimed to promote biodiversity conservation by focusing on the preservation and restoration of tiger population in Cambodia, especially in key landscape areas, including the Cardamom Mountains and the Eastern Plains, said the Ministry of Environment.

Reintroduction of tigers, sharing and exchange of skills and good practices, and promotion of sustainable biodiversity management are also part of the MoU, it added.

According to WWF, in Cambodia, the last Tiger was photographed by camera trap in 2007 in Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary of Mondulkiri province. In 2016, wildlife scientists declared the big cat is functionally extinct in the Kingdom.