The article covers Celebrating Our Tigers, a seven-track album by sarod players Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, created as a musical tribute to India’s wild tiger population following the country’s conservation success under Project Tiger. Released in association with WWF-India, where the brothers serve as Goodwill Ambassadors, the album draws inspiration from major tiger habitats including Jim Corbett, Bandhavgarh, Ranthambore, Kabini, Pench, Kaziranga and the Sundarbans. Produced by Kabir Sehgal and featuring a lineup of classical collaborators — along with a special appearance by Ayaan’s sons — the project connects Hindustani classical music to themes of wildlife conservation.
At the start of the 20th century, tigers roamed across vast stretches of Asia., with an estimated 100,000 living in the wild. By the early 2000s, that number had crashed globally to around 3,200 due to hunting, habitat loss and poaching. Even India, home to the largest share of the world’s wild tigers, faced its own crisis in the 1970s, which led to the launch of Project Tiger in 1973. Decades of sustained conservation efforts have changed that trajectory. According to the latest All India Tiger Estimation, India’s tiger population has risen to over 3,000, making it the country with nearly 75 percent of the world’s wild tigers. The species is still classified as Endangered by the IUCN, and threats remain, but the recovery stands as one of the most significant conservation stories in recent history.
It is this story that sarod maestros Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash take forward in their new album, Celebrating Our Tigers. Recently named Goodwill Ambassadors for WWF-India, the brothers have announced the worldwide release of the seven-track album as a musical homage to India’s wild tiger population and the landscapes that sustain them. Fresh from their on-stage collaboration with British pop star Yungblud at Lollapalooza India, and earlier projects including work on Gorillaz’ ninth studio album The Mountain and the Grammy-winning Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the sons of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan continue to expand the reach of Indian classical music. With Celebrating Our Tigers, they turn their focus firmly toward India’s ecological legacy.
Launched in association with WWF-India, founded in 1969, the album traces a sonic journey through key tiger habitats: Jim Corbett National Park, India’s first national park; the forests of Bandhavgarh, once home to the legendary tiger Charger; Ranthambore’s lakes and fort-lined terrain; Kabini’s mist-covered backwaters; the teak forests of Pench that inspired Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book; Kaziranga along the Brahmaputra; and the mangrove ecosystems of the Sundarbans.
The compositions are written by Amaan and Ayaan and produced by Kabir Sehgal. The album features Subir Roy on flute, Debashis Halder on sarangi, Uday Mukherjee on tabla and percussion, Deb Sankar Roy on violin, Bhaskar Jyoti Kalita on flute, and Uditya Lahkar on percussion, with keyboard programming by Soumen Kutty Sarkar and select tracks mixed and mastered by Sawan Dutta.
A special moment comes with the track Kabini, which includes Zohaan Ali Bangash and Abeer Ali Bangash, the teenage twin grandsons of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and sons of Ayaan. Their participation and reflects a shared family commitment to conservation.The album is accompanied by visual collaborations with wildlife photographers Karam Srivastava, Shivang Mehta, Kalyan Varma, Vikramjit Singh Bal, and Rakesh Rana, alongside contributions from Felis Creations, Anand Bazaar Patrika and WWF-India.
For Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, this album grows directly out of the lineage they come from. Hindustani classical music has long been shaped by seasons, time of day, and the natural world. Ragas are built around atmosphere and mood, often linked to monsoon evenings, early mornings, or shifting light. Turning toward India’s tiger reserves comes from the same spirit. In Celebrating Our Tigers, the forests and landscapes become the starting point for the compositions. The tiger is placed within the larger ecosystem that sustains it — rivers, grasslands, mangroves, and protected parks across the country. At the same time, the animal carries strong cultural presence in India, appearing in mythology, art, and national symbolism. By focusing on these habitats through classical instrumentation and collaboration, the brothers connect their musical inheritance to a present-day conservation story. The album positions wildlife protection as something tied to identity, and landscape, showing how artistic practice can remain connected to the country’s environmental reality.
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