India's National Tiger Conservation Authority oversees 58 tiger reserves spread across 18 states, making it the world's largest tiger conservation network. Established under Project Tiger (1973) and given statutory backing by the Wildlife Protection Amendment Act 2006, these reserves operate under a core-buffer zoning system. Madhya Pradesh hosts the most reserves, while Corbett in Uttarakhand was the first. India holds roughly 75 percent of the world's wild tiger population according to the 2022 tiger census.

Tiger reserves in India are not simply protected forests — they are a layered legal and ecological architecture. The Wildlife Protection Amendment Act of 2006 gave statutory recognition to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and mandated the core-buffer zone model. The core zone is inviolate (no human activity), while the buffer zone allows regulated use by local communities.

Project Tiger was launched in 1973 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with just 9 reserves. The number grew steadily: 27 reserves by 2007, and now 58 as of the latest NTCA count. This expansion is exam-critical because UPSC regularly blanks out the current count or the number of states covered.

The 2022 All-India Tiger Estimation (Status of Tigers in India report) placed the wild tiger population at 3,682 — a 200% increase since 1973. India accounts for approximately 75% of the global wild tiger population, a fact that appears in both UPSC and NABARD questions.

Key institutional triangle: NTCA (nodal authority under MoEFCC), Wildlife Institute of India (conducts census using camera traps and pug marks), and State Forest Departments (field implementation). The nodal ministry is the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

For NABARD aspirants, tiger reserves connect to eco-tourism revenue, buffer-zone community livelihoods, and green finance for wildlife corridor maintenance — all tested through passage-based application questions.