Coimbatore : Out to create awareness about the tiger, two enthusiasts from the city on Monday started their 65 days journey from here on World Tiger Day, to cover 25 countries.

The youths will cover nearly 25,000 km and spread the message of conservation and protection of tigers, in view of the dwindling population of big cats over the decades.

The sojourn of Gauthan Menon, founder of Wild Tiger Foundation, and companion Paul George was flagged off by Meenakshi Arivind, who has once covered major countries by car.

After passing through different States in India, the journey will cover China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Estonia, Latvia,Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy and France.

According to Menon, the tiger population, which was over 1 lakh a century ago across the world, has come down drastically and India has nearly 2,500.