Bhutan Queen Jetsun Pema champions tiger conservation in the Land of Dragons

Queen Pema highlighted the importance of protecting tigers and tiger landscapes for the overarching well-being of the planet

Bhutan’s Queen Jetsun Pema has become an Ambassador of sorts in a global bid at tiger conservation, something that India and Bhutan is already focusing on in a big way. 

Gracing the Sustainable Finance for Tiger Landscapes Conference, a global summit co-organised by the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Tiger Conservation Coalition in Paro today, Queen Pema said, “Together, we can rewrite the narrative of extinction and loss, and instead create a beautiful story of compassion, resilience, restoration and reverence for all living beings”.

The Queen highlighted the need for sustainable funding to ensure sustained tiger conservation. “In our commitment to conservation, we must not neglect the realistic and vital need for sustainable funding,” the Queen said at the conference that is looking at mobilising USD 1 billion to fund the tiger conservation programme over the next ten years. 

Bhutan is one of the 13 tiger-range countries in the world, and home to 131 tigers. This is a 27% increase since the last survey held in 2015. Bhutan has also recorded the highest altitude in the world at which tigers have been found, at over 4000 metres.

Worth mentioning here that the Indian state of Assam, that has a 267 km border with Bhutan, boasts of being the home to 190 tigers in Kaziranga and Manas. Interestingly, Manas trespasses both India and Bhutan and is known by the same name – Manas, in Bhutan too. 

Arunachal Pradesh, another northeastern state, that shares a 217 km border with Bhutan, has a tiger population of 25.

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