Assam’s Manas National Park jointly received the Tx2 Tiger Conservation Excellence Award with Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan for their contribution in increasing the tiger population.

Manas has shown the world that doubling tiger numbers is possible, since the historic commitment made by the heads of thirteen tiger range countries in 2010 in The Tiger Summit held at St. Petersburg, Russia. The Manas Tiger Reserve in the Bodoland Territorial District Areas (BTAD) or Assam within the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area (TraMCA) has surprised all with its tiger number in 2019.

The Manas Tiger reserve had received severe burnt of the decade long ethnopolitical conflict trouble that started in late 1980s continuing until 2003, when the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) was formed as a political solution to the Bodo agitation for a separate state. During the conflict time the park infrastructure was badly damaged in all three ranges except part of the Bansbari Range on the left bank of the River Beki. The whole park was left open due to lack of patrol by forest staff who were harmed by armed miscreants at times. This led to thinning of populations of almost all species and loss of habitats across due to severe human disturbances.

It was around 2005, local community organizations were promoted by park managers and BTC to safeguard the sanctity of the park which showed results over time.

While all the rhinos were poached by the time peace returned, most of the herbivores were killed for meat and tigers were poached and some moved to areas deeper in the Bhutan hills of the adjoining Royal Manas National Park. However, Manas today has come a long way in conservation of tigers and other animals, which is one of the few Tiger Reserve originally declared as ‘Project Tiger’ by the Government of India in 1972.