To celebrate International Tiger Day, the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan elaborated on the national program on the restoration of tigers in the Ile-Balkhash region, which is expected to last 15 years, Qazmonitor reports.
This program includes the preparation of habitats, the release of tigers into the wild and monitoring of the program's success.
The Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve has been designated as a protected natural area. Several measures are being taken to prepare an ecosystem that will support the growth of the tiger population. Those measures include increasing the density of wild boar, kulan, and gazelles through biotechnical measures, as well as restoring the population of Bukhara deer.
In 2010, Kazakhstan announced its readiness to return the population of the Turanian tiger to Central Asia at the International Tiger Summit. Fast forward to 2017, a Memorandum was signed between Kazakhstan and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on the implementation of the Tiger Reintroduction Program in the Ile River Delta and South Pribalkhash.
The first tigers in the wildlife of Kazakhstan may appear as early as 2025.
