TIGERS IN INDIA

Bengal tiger

India is home to around 75 percent of all remaining wild tigers — around 3,200 tigers — but holds just 25 percent of total tiger habitat. Tiger numbers have increased, but their habitat has shrunk and prey is not always plentiful, say experts.

In 2023, India reported a marked increase in their wild tiger populations according to figures released by the government. India recorded an average total of 3,682 tigers the minister of state for forest, environment and climate change said. The population rise amounts to an annual increase of six percent, the environment ministry said.[Source: Kathryn Armstrong — BBC News, July 30, 2023]

The BBC reported: The population growth is a major conservation success for India, which saw its tiger population plummeting to less than 2,000 in the 1970s due to rampant poaching and loss of habitat. "India's exemplary efforts in tiger conservation and the increase in tiger numbers is not just a statistic but a testament to the determination and commitment of the nation," union minister of forest, environment and climate change Bhupender Yadav said.

Another survey released in 2023 counted 3,167 tigers, 200 more than it had in 2019. According to the BBC: According to the 2022 report, the tiger population has increased substantially in the Shivalik and Gangetic flood plains in the north followed by central India, where tigers have entered new areas in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. But the Western Ghats, a mountain range that runs along the western coast of India, showed a decline in tiger population. The report also noted that the local tiger population had become extinct in several areas, including in some reserves, and warned that "serious conservation efforts" were required in states including Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. [Source: BBC, Mon, April 10, 2023]

Tiger Conservation in India

Project Tiger was launched in 1973 by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after the animal's numbers became worryingly low. Between 1875 and 1925 alone, some 80,000 tigers were killed in India, one estimate says. Bounty and sports hunting were rampant and by the 1960s, the number of tigers had dwindled precipitously. But since then, a number of government initiatives — including a ban on hunting and awareness drives in villages — have been put in place to conserve the tiger, which is also India's national animal. Laws were also strengthened to make it virtually illegal to kill or capture wild animals even when they were involved in conflict situations with humans. Since 2006, there has been a healthy uptick in tiger numbers.

Ullas Karanth, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's India Program, told the New York Times in 2006: “In India, wildlife conservation has an unusual history. Tigers were very much in decline until the 1970's, when Indira Gandhi came to power. She was an autocrat. But she was also a very keen naturalist, and she had complete control over the nation's politics. Mrs. Gandhi told her minions that there would be no more destruction of important wildlife areas and she enforced that order. She put in strong laws, stopped uncontrolled hunting and logging in the reserves. And thanks to her cracking of the whip, the tiger came back. That recovery continued until the 1990's, when Indian politics became very fragmented. The leaders we've had since are excellent on economic development, but none have shown much interest in conservation. [Source: Claudia Dreifus, New York Times, August 16, 2005]

When asked if he thought the Indian tiger could be saved. Karanth said, “Certainly. If there's the will. One thing that gives us a head start: India actually has more wild tigers than our neighbors. We won't need to reintroduce them. Also, tigers reproduce easily; they are not like pandas. Also, I believe that there are aspects of Indian culture that can be mobilized for conservation.If you look at the Hindu religion, there's real guilt associated with the killing of an animal. So if you are protecting a park and you catch a poacher, this sense of guilt puts the enforcement officials at an advantage. Another thing, at the core of our religion is the belief that man is a part of nature. This supports the idea that wild animals have a right to survive. I've talked with farmers whose crops have been raided by elephants, and they really hated them. But when you asked, "Don't elephants and tigers have the right to exist?" they always said yes. All these factors make me optimistic.

Bengal Tigers

The tigers that live in India are Bengal tigers, the most common tiger. There are reasonably large populations of them in the wild (2,970 to 4,300 animals) and they are found in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. They are the symbol of India and make up the majority of tigers seen in zoos and circuses. Their main prey are chital (spotted deer), sambar (a large Asiatic deer) and wild pigs. They are particularly fond of fawns.

An average male Bengal tiger weighs around 500 pounds (220 kilograms) stands 36 inches high at the shoulder, measure ten feet from the tip of their nose to end of their tail and has a head that is 16 inches long and 10 inches wide and pug marks that are seven inches across. Females are generally about a foot shorter and 100 pound lighter than males. The largest one on record, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was shot in Utter Pradesh on November 1967. It was 10 feet 7 inches long and weighed 857

Ranthambore Tiger Reserve — Best Place to See Tigers in the Wild

Caroline Alexander wrote in National Geographic: “My determination to see a wild tiger in my lifetime brought me to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, one of 40 in India. My first tiger was spotted within ten minutes, and in a four-day excursion I gloried in nine sightings, including a repeat appearance of that first tiger, a three-year-old female. In high grass she stalked with such patient, focused, deliberateness — each paw raised in slow motion and placed so very gently down — that it was possible to see her stealth. [Source: Caroline Alexander, National Geographic, December 2011]

distribution of the Bengal tiger

“It didn't matter that in most cases my experience was shared with a queue of other vehicles. Seeing tigers in the wild is now mostly a tourist experience — the Bengal tiger is not only India's national animal but also one of the country's largest draws. Elsewhere, my tiger-seeking travels had been made on rough roads, by river, forest trails, and even elephant, but in Ranthambore I departed at dawn in a jeep that awaited me outside the Oberoi lodge. In the jeep were a ranger, a guide, and most necessary in a place where tiger viewing is a blood sport, an expert driver, who barged ruthlessly to the head of the queue, ensuring me of that first, mystical tiger sighting.

“A modest 41 of these carefully enumerated tigers were living in Ranthambore. Conducting me through the park one morning, conservator Raghuvir Singh Shekhawat pointed out the variety of wildlife that flourishes where the tiger is protected — langur monkeys, spotted deer, wild boars, collared Scops-owls, kingfishers, and parakeets. And he offered a ground-level glimpse of tiger conservation, stopping his jeep beside a canvas tent in a clearing. "Would you like to see the hard life the field officers lead?" he asked, lifting a tent flap to reveal three slender cots. "Here is their kitchen," he said, gesturing to a pile of canned food and bowls. "In 30 years of service, at least five years is under the tent." The rangers put in up to ten miles a day on early morning foot patrol, taking plaster casts of any pugmarks they encounter and making notes of evidence of prey animals.

“Ranthambore's history reflects in miniature the history of the tiger in India. Formerly the private hunting estate of the maharajas of Jaipur, its original 109-square-mile core reserve is ringed by a containing wall, within which undulating forest skirts romantic maharaja-era ruins. One evening I met with Fateh Singh Rathore, the assistant field director of Ranthambore after it became one of India's first Project Tiger reserves in 1973. Tiger hunting was legal in India until the early 1970s, and as a young man, in the days when Ranthambore had been a hunting estate, he had worked as a game warden. "To shoot a tiger, maybe a hundred rupees," he recalled — a couple of dollars.

“Always fragile, tiger populations have fluctuated in recent years. Between 2002 and 2004, poaching of some 20 tigers in Ranthambore essentially halved its population. This was better than the fate of the nearby 300-square-mile Sariska Tiger Reserve, found to have no tigers at all: Every single one of its tigers had been killed by professional gangs — and in a reserve just 70 miles from India's capital, New Delhi.

Relocation of Tigers in India

Caroline Alexander wrote in National Geographic: ““Ranthambore is a hub for a contentious new conservation strategy — the relocation of "surplus" tigers to places like Sariska. Only days before, at a wildlife conference in New Delhi, I had heard heated criticism and questions from India's many outspoken watchdog organizations challenging the strategy: What constitutes a surplus tiger? Had the issues in Sariska and elsewhere been solved before importing new tigers? What research had been conducted regarding potential trauma to both the transported tiger and the home population from which it was taken? And what effect might such trauma have on breeding? [Source: Caroline Alexander, National Geographic, December 2011]

“So far, relocation has met with uneven success. Three tigers transported to Sariska were found to be siblings — undesirable for breeding. More eloquent than any of the valid scientific concerns was a story unfolding in the national media: The determined trek toward his home 250 miles away by a lone male removed from Pench Tiger Reserve to restock Panna National Park.

“The trek of this solitary tiger highlights another crisis. Many reserves exist as islands of fragile habitat in a vast sea of humanity, yet tigers can range over a hundred miles, seeking prey, mates, and territory. An unwelcome revelation of the new census is that nearly a third of India's tigers live outside tiger reserves, a situation that is dangerous for both human and animal. Prey and tigers can only disperse if there are recognized corridors of land between protected areas to allow unmolested passage. No less critical, such passages serve as genetic corridors, essential to the long-term survival of the species.

“It is a heady experience to see an idealistic map of Asia's tiger landscapes linked by arteries of these not-yet-existent corridors. A spiderweb of green tendrils weaves tantalizingly among core populations to form a network that encompasses breathtaking extremes of habitat — Himalayan foothills, jungle, swamp, deciduous forest, grasslands — that pay tribute to the tiger's adaptability. Close scrutiny breaks the spell. The places that have actual tigers — here-and-now, flesh-and-blood tigers — as opposed to hypothetical tigers, are represented by a scattering of mustard-colored blobs. The master plan represents a visionary undertaking, but is it feasible? Over the next decade, infrastructure projects — the kind of development that often destroys habitat — are projected to average some $750 billion a year in Asia.

Collarwali — India’s ‘Super Num’ Tigress

Regarded as fierce but friendly predator and dubbed the "super mum" tigress, Collarwali was of the most famous tigers in the country. She played a big role in changing the fortunes of the sanctuary where she lived — Pench Tiger Reserve in the central state of Madhya Pradesh — and died in 2022. With a name derived from her radio collar, she gave birth to 29 cubs in eight litters over her lifetime — a "prolific" legacy, according to one expert. She became one of India's best-known tigers after starring in the BBC Wildlife documentary, Spy in the Jungle, which tracked the lives of four tiger cubs over two years. [Source: Sharanya Hrishikesh — BBC News, Delhi, January 18, 2022]

According to to the BBC: “The documentary sparked a surge in visitors to the park, many of whom would ask after Collarwali and her charismatic mother, said Prabir Patil, a naturalist whose association with Pench began in 2004. She was born in 2005 as T-15 — her mother, known as "badi mata" or "big mother" was also a famous tigress. Her father's name was T-1. Later, she was called Collarwali — the one with a collar — when she became the first tigress in the park to be fitted with a radio collar, which allowed her to be studied for some years.

“She was also affectionately called "mataram" or "respected mother" by wildlife lovers — a name she earned over her life. "Before Collarwali was born, tiger sightings were rare at Pench. But she soon became the most-sighted tigress here," Mr Patil said. Conservationist Vivek Menon calls her the "face of Pench", crediting her unusual "temperament that allowed so many visitors and photographers to document her and her cubs". Collarwali rarely disappointed Pench visitors, said Mohammed Rafique Sheikh, a naturalist who grew up on the doorstep of the reserve. "She was a friendly animal who would come very close to tourist vehicles without any fear," said Mr Sheikh, who has guided hundreds of tourists through the sanctuary.

“Collarwali was special in many ways — after establishing her own territory "in the prime area of her mother's range", she rarely stepped out of it, and reigned there until her death. "She was so big that other tigers were scared to fight with her. Sometimes officials from other tiger reserves who visited Pench would mistake her for a male because of her size," Mr Patil said. Then there were her 29 cubs, of which 25 survived — a record in India, and possibly the world. Her first three cubs died of pneumonia in 2008 but she soon delighted experts by producing litter after litter at relatively short intervals — including a "bumper" one of five cubs in 2010, a rare feat according to naturalists.

“While most tigresses keep their cubs with them for more than two years, Collarwali encouraged them to become independent earlier by leaving them in areas where there was abundant prey."She was a strong mother, sometimes making two kills a day to feed her cubs," said Dr Akhilesh Mishra, the park veterinarian who treated Collarwali several times during her lifetime. He calls himself "one of the most fortunate people on earth" to have had the chance to work with the tigress.

Indian Tiger Travels 3,000 Kilometers

A three-and-a-half-year-old male tiger — nicknamed Walker — traveled some 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) over nine months, mostly in western India, presumably to find a mate. It was the longest journey ever recorded by a tiger in India. Fitted with a radio collar, he left his home in Dnyanganga wildlife sanctuary in the western state of Maharashtra in June 2019 and travelled through seven districts in Maharashtra and the neighbouring state of Telangana over nine months before "settling down" in another sanctuary in Maharashtra in March 2020. The collar was removed in April. “The 205-square-kilometer Dnyanganga sanctuary is home to leopards, blue bull, wild boar, peafowl and spotted deer. Walker was the only tiger living there, wildlife officials said. “He has no territorial issues. And he has adequate prey," Nitin Kakodkar, the senior-most forest official of Maharashtra state told the BBC.[Source: BBC, November 18, 2020]

The BBC reported: “Now wildlife officials are mulling whether they should move a female tiger to the sanctuary to give Walker a mating partner, a move which will be "quite unprecedented". Tigers are not solitary creatures, they say, and have a natural instinct to mate. However, moving a second tiger to the sanctuary, is not going to be a easy decision. "For one, it is not a big sanctuary. It is surrounded by farms and degraded forests. Also, if Walker breeds here, there will be pressure on prey and the new-born tigers will try to disperse," Mr Kakodkar said.

“Walker was fitted with a radio collar in February 2019 and continued to roam the forests until the onset of monsoon rains to "find a suitable area to settle". Wildlife officials say the big cat did not travel in a "linear manner". He was tracked through GPS satellite information every hour and was recorded in more than 5,000 locations. Over winter and much of this summer, Walker was tracked travelling back and forth over farms, along rivers, streams and highways. Winter is cotton growing season in Maharashtra, and the tall crop helped the cat to hide and walk through the farms. He mostly travelled at night, killing wild pigs and cattle for food.

“He came into conflict with humans only once, when it "accidentally injured" one person who traced his pugmarks to a thicket where he was resting. The man escaped with minor injuries. “What this long walk demonstrates is that in spite of development and rising human population, the rural areas of Maharashtra are still conducive for tigers to move freely. Development, in that sense, still hasn't become a barrier to animal movement here," Dr Bilal Habib, a senior biologist with the Wildlife Institute of India, told the BBC.

Tiger Conservation in India

In India, and Nepal, conservationists are working to establish links are corridors between isolated preserves and tiger habitat fragments. The project is focused on helping 200 tigers that live in the Terai. A region along the India-Nepal border that was once occupied by malarial swamps and grasslands but is now is a major agricultural area.

The Terai Arc Landscape Program, which is funded by the World Wildlife Fund, Save the Tiger and the Indian and Nepali governments, aims to connect the 11 reserves in the his area, help elephants and rhinos and deer and assisted displaced local farmers. It provided incentive for farmers to plant trees an thatch grass, which will provide cover for tigers and their prey and allow them to return. The project was launched in 2001 and is expected to take 50 years to complete.

The skins, carcasses and bones of tigers that die naturally are often burned to prevent them from being sold on the black market. The private possession in India of endangered cats listed under Schedules one and two of the Wildlife Protection Act is prohibited unless the person has a certificate of ownership for a wild animal he or she possessed at the commencement of the Act. Trade and commerce involving these animals is also prohibited under the Act unless previous permission from the Chief Wildlife Warden has been provided. The Wildlife Protection Act grants authority to the Central Zoo Authority of India to recognize zoos in the country. The Recognition of Zoo Rules regulates the recognition (licensing) process for all zoos and stipulates the minimum standards and norms for housing, upkeep, and healthcare of all animals in zoos. [Source: Library of Congress Law Library, Legal Legal Reports, 2013]

Project Tiger

In 1973, the government of India under Indira Gandhi and the World Wildlife Fund launched a campaign, called Project Tiger, to save the tiger, India's national animal, from extinction. The project began with a million dollar grant from the World Wildlife Fund and $4.5 million dollars from the Indian government.

"The object," said one Indian wildlife official, was “to start a nucleus of regenerating the species, a sort of series of nurseries for tigers, where they can rest, breed, spread out." Nine existing sanctuaries, encompassing teak and bamboo forests and mangrove swamps, were designated tiger reserves. Over the years Project Tiger has expanded the number of protected areas or tigers from 7 to 27. They are in more than a seven states and cover 35,00 square kilometers.

As part of Project Tiger, villagers were relocated; tiger hunting and trading in tiger skins and parts were banned; and problem tigers and leopards are not shot with dart guns and moved to national parks instead of being killed. Funds were used to pay park rangers, educate villagers on ways to feed their animals without encroaching on tiger habitats, build roads and dams, pay the cost of moving villages and problem tigers, and provide anti-poaching patrols with walkie-talkies, radios, jeeps and elephants. Over 10,000 men took part in Project Tiger census, systematically crisscrossing blocks of land with glass plates on which they traced prints and recorded their location.

To save the tigers in Kanha National, officials focused stopping disturbance caused by logging operations, villagers and cattle by relocating them. Then to rebuild the habitat — allow the grass to grow back , protect if from fire, build dams and water holes for the animals and, of course, stop shooting of any kind...The environment responds quickly, and once the forestry operations have ceased and the villages have been shifted, the animals lose their fear.

As a result of Project Tiger the number of tigers reportedly rose from 1,827 animals in 1973 to more than 4,000 in 1984 and 4,300 in 1992. The program was regarded as so successful that one Indian official told the New York Times in the 1980s, "You can say that there is now no danger of extinction of the tiger in India."

After Gandhi's death in 1984, power shifted from Delhi to state and local governments, where politicians more interested in winning the votes of villages, who were often more interested in tiger habitats for land for crops and grazing than tigers. In the late 1980s and early 1990s tigers in India in alarming numbers (See Above).

Problems with Project Tiger

In the early 1990s, Project Tiger figures have been called into question. New York Times correspondent John Burns wrote, “At best its officials were said to have succumbed to bureaucratic instincts, inflating tiger counts to please politicians in New Delhi. At worst, they were denounced as crooks, conniving with poachers by turning a blind eye to illicit hunting in the reserves. [Source: John Burns, New York Times, March 15, 1994]

On the methodology used in the original census one tiger expert told Ward, "It's all nonsense. I've been tracking tigers almost every day now for 40 years and even I am unable to differentiate from pugmarks alone between tigers of the same size and sex." Some filed workers turned in pug marking tracings with five toes even though tigers only have four.

"A new census was ordered involving independent conservationist. Strict application of method used for generations---plaster-casts and tracings of tiger "pugmarks," or pawprints, found on forest trails, and sightings of tiger appearing at water holes---produced stark results.

Ranthambhore, which had reported 45 tigers in 1991 was found to have only 28 tigers. Similar counts elsewhere, and guesswork about the two thirds of India's tigers believed to live outside the reserves, led some of India's top tiger experts to conclude that real count could be as low as 2,700.

India Bans Tiger Tourism

In July 2012, India's Supreme Court banned all tourism in so-called core areas of India's 41 tiger parks in a bid to protect the national animal. The move has been bad news for hotels and resorts outside the parks and even diehard tiger supporters question its effectiveness.Mark Magnier wrote in the Los Angeles Time, “Although disputes over unchecked development are nothing new, even many environmentalists think the judges are misguided, however well-intentioned, in their efforts to protect the tigers from extinction. Some even suggest the court was lashing out in frustration because 10 states had ignored its order in April to file plans for protective buffer zones around the parks. [Source: Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Time, August 13, 2012]

“Banning tourists is not the solution, critics say. Vehicle traffic, whether by tourists or forest rangers, provides more eyes and ears against poachers who slaughter wildlife for body parts, which command high prices in China for use in traditional medicine and aphrodisiacs. Until the ban, for instance, the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve limited tourist vehicles to 80 a day and levied a tax to help fund forest patrols. Residents who worked in the tourism business say the proof is in the numbers: In 2005-06, the park had 26 tigers. Despite more tourism, the population is now 53, including at least 25 cubs.

“Tourism also gives residents a stake in tiger preservation, the critics say, provided hotels don't block corridors linking wildlife sanctuaries. Many villagers who were kicked off their land to create the reserves were promised tourism jobs and could grow resentful, leading to more poaching and social unrest. Others point to poor management by the government agencies meant to protect the animals. "I think history has shown you can't keep protection of tiger reserves entirely up to the forestry department," said Belinda Wright, executive director of New Delhi's Wildlife Protection Society of India. "Many, many Indian reserves are virtually empty of tigers, often with virtually no tourism. Tourists offer an extra degree of protection."

Jugraj Mogiya, a former poacher who killed three tigers, told Times of London that poaching will probably increases with the scrutiny and money that tourists bring. Having tourists present scares off poachers. Deprived of income earned for tourism villagers might be tempted to take up poaching as a way to make money.

Magnier wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “Some say the real reason for the court's decision was pique. Tiger reserves are supposed to have a core area that no one but forestry officials enter, surrounded by buffer land that can be visited by tourist vehicles, with hotels and other commercial development outside the park. In April, the court ordered 13 states with tiger parks to file their zoning plans. Only three complied, amid difficulties creating the buffers related to land acquisition, compensation for relocated villagers and local politics. In late July, the court reacted with the blanket interim ban. Although it's scheduled to review its decision this month, residents are bracing for the worst. [Magnier, Op. Cit]

“The real problem, say some conservationists, is poor management. Some forestry officials don't control park access, have little interest in the work, cater to VIPs, even assist poachers for a cut. Poachers reduced the tiger population in the Sariska and Panna parks to zero around 2005 even as officials insisted for years that dozens remained. South Africa and Kenya, among other African countries, have used well-managed tourist programs and higher access fees to fund conservation programs, spur their local economies and fight poaching.”

India Tigers Being “Loved to Death”

In April 2010, the Indian government is said the Bengal tiger was being “loved to death” by tourists when it announced plans to phase out tourism in the core regions of the 37 tiger reserves, Rajesh Gopal, the head of India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority, told The Times. “We should not forget that tiger reserves are primarily for conserving the endangered tiger and tourism is just a secondary outcome,” he said. “Our reserves are small and prone to disturbance caused by tourism. They cannot compete with large African savanna parks, which can stand large number of tourists.” [Source: Rhys Blakely, Times of London, April 28, 2010]

Rhys Blakely of the Times wrote: According to government officials, the species has already disappeared or is in danger of becoming extinct in 16 reserves. The decline is largely due to poaching, but habitat damage caused by tourism has also reached critical levels, experts say. “Seeing a wild tiger has become a kind of status symbol,” M. K. Ranjitsinh, chairman of the Wildlife Trust of India, said. “People do not realise the harm to the broader ecosystem. They are loving the tiger to death.”

“Tourists, whether in vehicles or on top of elephants, destroy the high grassland in which the big cats hunt, and drive away their prey, Mr Ranjitsinh said. In many parks, lodges have been built in core reserve areas while hotels block the corridors that tigers use to travel from one territory or reserve to another. Some reserves have been criticised for using radio telemetry systems for tracking tigers for the benefit of tourists. Once found by a mahout “ an elephant driver “ brandishing an antenna, a single tiger can be hounded by dozens of tourist vehicles. “The parks’ priorities have become warped,” Mr Ranjitsinh said. The bamboo forests and grassland in Kanha provided inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

“Experts agree that only radical action can bring back the tiger from the brink of extinction, but add that tourism is only one of several dangers. Poaching to feed Chinese demand for traditional tonics has taken a heavy toll. So too has competition for space between tigers and India’s booming human population.

“Jairam Ramesh, the Environment Minister, said this month that unregulated tourism was as much a threat to tiger population as poaching. He said that he would clamp down on “mushrooming luxury resorts around tiger reserves”. He singled out Corbett National Park “ named after the British hunter-turned-conservationist Jim Corbett and a favourite destination with Western tourists “ as a habitat that had degenerated because of tourism. At least four tigers have died there in the past two months, according to reports.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated January 2025