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The International Big Cat Alliance, launched by India in 2023, seeks to build global cooperation for the conservation of tigers, lions, leopards, snow leopards, cheetahs, jaguars and pumas.
The blog argues that protecting big cats is not only about saving charismatic species, but also about safeguarding ecosystems, climate resilience, water security and local livelihoods.
India’s experience with Project Tiger, Asiatic lion conservation, snow leopard initiatives and Project Cheetah is presented as a model for other big cat range countries.
The Alliance aims to support knowledge exchange, capacity building, technological cooperation, financing and community participation across 95 big cat range countries.
The conservation of big cats is not merely about protecting charismatic species. It is fundamentally about safeguarding ecosystems, securing ecological stability, preserving cultural heritage, and ensuring sustainable futures for millions of people who depend upon healthy landscapes. Across continents, big cats function as apex predators and ecological regulators. Their survival reflects the health of forests, grasslands, mountains, wetlands, and river systems. Yet today, these species face unprecedented threats arising from habitat fragmentation, climate change, illegal wildlife trade, infrastructure expansion, and escalating human-wildlife conflict.
At this critical juncture, it was a defining moment in global conservation diplomacy when India established the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) in 2023, during the commemoration of 50 years of Project Tiger. The Prime Minister’s vision for IBCA emerged from India’s own conservation journey.
Over the past several decades, India has demonstrated that ambitious wildlife conservation goals can be achieved even amid developmental pressures and dense human populations. By proposing IBCA, India sought to transform its conservation experience into a platform for international cooperation and collective ecological action. The Alliance represents a shift from isolated conservation interventions towards integrated global partnerships for safeguarding apex predators and the ecosystems they inhabit.
The need for such an alliance has never been greater. IBCA focuses on the conservation of seven iconic big cat species—tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, cheetah, jaguar and puma—representing some of the world’s most ecologically significant and culturally revered apex predators. These big cats occupy diverse and transboundary landscapes spread across Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Their conservation challenges are interconnected. Illegal wildlife trade networks transcend national boundaries. Habitat fragmentation affects migratory corridors across countries. Climate-induced changes in ecosystems are altering prey availability and increasing human-wildlife interactions. No single country can address these challenges in isolation.
Moreover, majority of big cat range countries are low- and middle-income nations, where developmental priorities and resource constraints often limit conservation investments, underscoring the need for enhanced international cooperation, technical assistance and sustainable financial support through platforms such as IBCA. The future of big cats, therefore, depends upon international cooperation, exchange of scientific expertise, coordinated policies and shared conservation learning.
The significance of IBCA is also deeply linked to the global sustainability agenda. The Alliance’s core mandates—knowledge exchange, capacity building, resource mobilisation, technological cooperation and community participation—directly support the achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
IBCA’s vision is also closely aligned with the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity. By creating mechanisms for technical cooperation, financing and scientific exchange, the Alliance also supports the implementation architecture envisioned under the GBF.
India’s leadership in this space emerges from decades of demonstrated conservation success. India today hosts nearly 70 per cent of the world’s wild tiger population and supports the largest leopard population in any country. India has also achieved remarkable progress in the recovery and conservation of Asiatic lions in Gujarat, strengthened snow leopard conservation through community-based initiatives in the Himalaya, and established one of the world’s most extensive protected area networks. India’s Project Cheetah has demonstrated the country’s willingness to undertake complex ecological restoration initiatives at a continental scale.
These achievements hold profound international significance. India’s conservation experience demonstrates that large carnivore conservation is possible even within densely populated and development-intensive landscapes. This is perhaps India’s greatest contribution to global conservation discourse. Unlike many landscapes globally where wildlife survives in sparsely inhabited regions, India has shown that coexistence models, community participation, legal framework, scientific monitoring and political commitment can collectively secure viable populations of apex predators alongside human aspirations.
IBCA is steadily expanding its global footprint. IBCA is engaging with all 95 big cat range countries across the world and has already secured membership from 25 countries and observer participation from 5 countries. It is also building partnerships with leading international organisations, conservation institutions and multilateral agencies working in wildlife conservation, biodiversity governance and sustainable development which include World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Global Tiger Forum to name a few.
An important dimension of IBCA’s work is capacity building. Conservation success depends not only on policies but on trained frontline personnel, scientific expertise, technological capability and institutional resilience. Under the aegis of IBCA, several international training and executive programmes are being conducted for wildlife managers, conservation practitioners and policymakers from across the globe. These programmes facilitate practical learning on anti-poaching strategies, habitat management, wildlife monitoring, human-wildlife conflict mitigation and landscape governance.
India’s tiger reserves, protected areas and conservation institutions are increasingly becoming living classrooms for the world. IBCA’s Field-based prestigious Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Training programmes conducted in landscapes such as Kaziranga Tiger Reserve in Assam and Bandipur Tiger Reserve and Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka allowed practitioners from multiple countries to directly engage with successful conservation models. Such South-South cooperation is becoming a cornerstone of IBCA’s approach.
Importantly, the future of conservation cannot rely solely upon protected areas. Conservation policy globally, including in India, must increasingly adopt landscape-level approaches that integrate biodiversity conservation with ecological connectivity, climate resilience and sustainable development. Infrastructure planning must become more wildlife-sensitive through mitigation measures such as wildlife corridors, underpasses and landscape connectivity planning. The successful implementation of wildlife crossings along the Delhi–Dehradun Expressway reflects how development and conservation can be aligned through scientific planning and political commitment.
India’s conservation policies are already evolving in this direction. Greater emphasis is now being placed on coexistence, restoration of degraded habitats, community stewardship, technological monitoring, and recognition of lesser-protected ecosystems such as grasslands and high-altitude habitats. Going forward, conservation frameworks will become even more integrated with climate adaptation strategies, water security planning and nature-based livelihoods.
At a broader level, IBCA reflects India’s emergence as a leader in environmental stewardship and global ecological governance. The Alliance embodies the philosophy articulated by Hon’ble Prime Minister that ecological security is inseparable from human well-being and sustainable development. India’s leadership is rooted not only in its conservation successes, but also in its ability to build inclusive global partnerships grounded in equity, shared responsibility and collective action.
The story of big cat conservation is ultimately about hope and maintain planetary health since protection of apex predators and their habitats helps sustain ecological balance, climate resilience, water security and combats global warming. At a time when biodiversity loss and ecological degradation dominate global discourse, India’s experience demonstrates that recovery is possible when leadership, science, policy, institutions and communities work together.
Through the International Big Cat Alliance, India is now extending that message to the world — that conservation must transcend borders, that ecological futures are interconnected, and that the survival of big cats can become a unifying global mission for safeguarding the planet’s natural heritage and well-being of humanity.
S P Yadav is director general of International Big Cat Alliance. Part of the column was originally published in the cover story Rethinking Conservation, in the June 1-15, 2026 issue of Down To Earth.