Safeguarding passageways is the next step for India’s growing tiger populations

India's tiger population has more than doubled since 1972 to roughly 3,682 animals, and about 35% of them now live outside protected areas, wandering through highways, railways and towns as young tigers seek territory that can span 200 square kilometers.

In response, India has built more wildlife underpasses and overpasses than any other Asian country, including a 12-kilometer underpass beneath a new expressway, with a government scientist boasting no developing nation has spent more on wildlife mitigation.

But conservationists note that the National Board for Wildlife, which is supposed to scrutinize projects in critical habitats, approved 97% of proposals over twelve years, and experts warn that corridors are useless without healthy core habitat on both ends — tigers don't obey lines on a map, whatever the infrastructure budget suggests.

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