New Delhi: The International Big Cat Alliance’s first-ever Global Big Cat Summit is set to be held in India in April, announced Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her Budget 2026-27 speech in Parliament today. This Summit is expected to attract leaders and dignitaries from over 95 countries, which form part of the range of Big Cats—lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, puma, snow leopards—globally.
The International Big Cat Alliance was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2023 to commemorate 50 years of Project Tiger. India has the largest population of wild tigers. The last census, in 2022, estimated a total of 3,682 tigers across the country.
IBCA was established as a forum for collaboration and research between 95 big cat range countries and even non-range countries. Right now, it has 21 member countries and three observer countries. There are also partner organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund International, Global Tiger Forum, International Union for Conservation of Nature and the United Nations Development Programme.
The Alliance is headed by Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and has a team of international advisors and specialists from countries such as the US, Russia, Malaysia, Mexico and Tanzania.
“We hope that, in addition to instituting strong protection measures for big cats living freely in the wild, the Global Big Cat Summit will also help to raise awareness on the plight of big cats in captivity,” said Shubhobroto Ghosh, Wildlife Campaign Manager, World Animal Protection in India. “We also hope that the BRICS countries will take this alliance seriously.”
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Reductions in wildlife, authorities’ budgets
The overall budget for the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change witnessed a marginal increase from Rs 3276.82 crore in 2025-26 to Rs 3536.66 crore in 2026-27. But certain sectors, such as wildlife and aquatic conservation, saw a decline in their allocation this year.
The budget documents revealed that the budget for the Development of Wildlife Habitats was slashed from Rs 148 crore in 2025-26 to Rs 102 crore in 2026-27. The allocation for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems also went down from Rs 35 crore in 2025-26 to Rs 21 crore in 2026-27.
This comes even as India has a continued focus on wildlife conservation through programmes like Project Cheetah, and expansion of Project Tiger and Project Elephant by building new reserves and wildlife corridors. In 2025, the Union Government also announced five new projects for ‘national-level species conservation’, which include dolphins, gharials, and sloth bears.
Apart from the Global Big Cat Summit announcement, the Budget speech did not have any major announcements regarding wildlife conservation and management in the country.
The biggest decrease, however, was in the budget for the Indian Institute of Forest Management, which went from Rs 10 crore in 2025-26 to Rs 3 lakh in 2026-27.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)