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 here on the afternoon of May 23, H.E. Dr. Devyani Khobragade, Ambassador to the Republic of India to Cambodia, said the tigers will be handed over to Cambodia in November or December this year.

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

For his part, 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 lif
e 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, under which India agreed to transfer 11 tigers to Cambodia.

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.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse