India's International Big Cat Alliance Expands Conservation Cooperation Globally

The International Big Cat Alliance, launched by India in 2023, is building global cooperation across 95 big cat range countries to protect tigers, lions, leopards, snow leopards, cheetahs, jaguars and pumas through knowledge exchange, capacity building and community participation. India's Project Tiger, Asiatic lion conservation and snow leopard initiatives are being presented as models for other range countries.

The International Big Cat Alliance represents India's bid to translate its domestic conservation record into global diplomatic and institutional influence. With tigers recovering in India's protected area network and the Asiatic lion population stabilising in Gujarat, India has substantive conservation achievements to share. The alliance is structured to support not only flagship species but also the ecosystems they anchor, recognising that big cat territories overlap significantly with critical carbon sinks, freshwater catchments and biodiversity corridors.

Conservation of big cats is framed in the alliance's mandate as inseparable from the protection of ecosystem services, community livelihoods and planetary health. Research consistently shows that apex predators regulate prey populations, which in turn affects vegetation structure and water retention across large landscapes. The 95 range countries span multiple biomes and development contexts, making the alliance's capacity-building and technology-sharing functions more practically significant than purely symbolic.

The alliance aims to mobilise conservation financing for range countries that lack India's institutional capacity and political will on wildlife protection. Project Cheetah — reintroducing cheetahs to India after a 70-year local extinction — is itself a product of international scientific collaboration and provides a test case for the kind of trans-boundary knowledge exchange the alliance is designed to facilitate. India's leadership role in the alliance strengthens its profile in biodiversity diplomacy ahead of COP16 follow-up processes.

Key figure — 95 big cat range countries in the alliance