Amid the verdant thickets and undulating terrain of Thailand’s western wilderness, a remarkable event unfolds. Twenty sambar deer, with a collective burst of newfound freedom, leap into the heart of the habitat inhabited by one of Asia’s most enigmatic and elusive hunters — the Indochinese tiger. This dramatic release, set in the lush expanses of Khlong Lan National Park, in Central Thailand’s Kamphaeng Phet, is the latest move in a bold initiative enthusiastically backed by the government and WWF. It aims to rejuvenate the dwindling population of wild tigers by reviving their prey base, a strategy that seems to be yielding a bounty of transformational results. “Since starting the project, we’ve seen tigers become regular residents here and successfully breed,” enthuses Worrapan Phumanee, the research manager at WWF Thailand. Indeed, the figures tell a tale of resurgence. Over a span of 15 years, tiger numbers in the nation’s Western Forest…
