On International Tiger Day, celebrated on July 29, USAID honored three foreign service nationals for their outstanding contributions to tiger conservation in South Asia. The awardees are Sumaiya Feroze from Bangladesh, Soumitri Das from India, and Netra Sharma Sapkota from Nepal. USAID celebrated these dedicated individuals for their relentless efforts to ensure the survival and wellbeing of these magnificent creatures for future generations.

In 2010, USAID launched a mission to protect tigers, when only 3,200 of these majestic animals roamed the wild. Through collaborative conservation efforts, the global tiger population increased to 5,574 by 2023. However, despite these gains, tigers remain endangered due to persistent threats to forests and ecosystems. Their survival is essential for regulating prey populations and maintaining the balance of the entire food cycle.

To address this issue, prominent tiger champion Sumaiya Firoze, recognized by Michael Schiffer, Assistant Administrator for USAID's Bureau for Asia, played a significant role. In 2014, as a Senior Technical Specialist for USAID Bangladesh, Sumaiya Firoze managed USAID's Bengal Tiger Conservation Activity, known as Bagh. This initiative was implemented by WildTeam in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, and the Bangladesh Forest Department, focused on Tiger Conservation in Bangladesh.

When humans and tigers live in proximity, conflicts can arise due to habitat encroachment and competition for resources, leading to tiger attacks on humans or retaliatory killings of tigers. Between 2014 and 2018, the Village Tiger Response Teams (VTRTs) responded to numerous human-tiger conflict incidents. Trained by USAID, the VTRTs, in collaboration with the Bangladesh Forest Department, successfully managed these incidents, ensuring the safe release of the tigers back into the wild.

"I managed a significant project to protect Bengal tigers, which demonstrates USAID's trust in women-led local leadership and solutions," said Sumaiya. "The Bagh project was one of USAID Bangladesh's first locally led initiatives and required extensive cross-learning and a solution-focused team approach. The lessons learned from Bagh continue to influence our wildlife conservation efforts. In Bangladesh, we remain committed to protecting the Bengal tigers and the Sundarbans in collaboration with local communities and authorities," she added. In India, Soumitri Das, and in Nepal, Netra Sharma Sapkota, echo Sumaiya's dedication. They recognize that saving tigers is not just about preserving a majestic species, it is about securing our future.

"Through the Bagh project, Sumaiya not only trained the VTRTs and the Forest Tiger Response Team (FTRT), but also established BaghBandhus (Tiger Ambassadors) and TigerScouts around the Sundarbans, building a social network of local heroes who now voluntarily work for tiger conservation," says Professor Md. Anwarul Islam, CEO of WildTeam. "Although Bagh ended in 2018, Sumaiya remains a revered name among the people in the Sundarbans as she helped them change the game for nature," recalls Professor Islam. "To make Bagh a successful project, two other dedicated tiger advocates from the USAID Bangladesh, Dr. Karl Wurster and Colin Holmes, also played an instrumental role," he adds. Tiger conservation preserves the health and balance of the region's ecosystems, supports thriving biodiversity, and ensures a sustainable future for all life on Earth.