Most conservationists agree that strong protection of wildlife reserves has been the key to the tiger's survival so far. It is vital, however, that wildlife conservation and habitat protection are not isolated solutions, but an important part of a multifaceted tiger survival strategy.
Habitat loss is only one of several significant threats to the tiger's survival.
As long as the demand and market for tiger parts in traditional Chinese medicine thrive, lives of tigers will be threatened. Economic and political circumstances within many of the tiger countries also require serious attention and international support. The first ecological study of tigers in the wild, conducted in the mid-1960s, shocked those already suspicious about the tiger's endangered conditions with numbers that pushed the tiger to the brink of extinction. India responded most rapidly with the formation of Tiger Task Force followed in 1973 by Project Tiger, which established India's first tiger reserves and financial support from the Indian government for habitat conservation and tiger protection. The governments of all tiger-range countries have established protected areas or national reserves.