How Many Tigers are There in India

Introduction

3,167 tigers are present in India, currently. According to data made public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the number of tigers in India increased from 2,967 in 2018 to at least 3,167 in 2022. Let's discuss about the tigers in detail. Tigers are a species that depends on conservation. Tigers face several serious threats, including habitat loss brought on by the ever-increasing demand for forested lands and poaching motivated by an illegal international market for tiger parts and products.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority, in cooperation with the State Forest Departments, the Wildlife Institute of India, and conservation partners, conducts a National assessment for the "Status of Tigers, Co-predators, Prey, and their Habitat" once every four years to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation efforts and to keep an eye on tiger populations and their ecosystems. The Tiger Task Force gave its blessing to the assessment methodology in 2005.

The number of tigers was estimated in 2006 to be 1,411 (1,165 to 1,657), which was significantly less than the earlier official estimates. As a result, management, legislation, and policy regarding tiger conservation underwent significant changes.

Village removal from core/critical tiger habitats and increased protection through the establishment of the Special Tiger Protection Force was given particular emphasis. Following these coordinated efforts, the tiger population trended upward, as evidenced by the 2010 population estimates of 1,706.

Tiger Habitat

India, Nepal, China, Russia, Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Sumatra (Indonesia), and Malaysia are among the countries that have tigers in the wild. In the past, there were eight subspecies of tigers, three of which have long since gone extinct.

Tigers can be found in a range of habitats, such as grasslands, mangrove swamps, tropical and subtropical forests, and evergreen forests. Tiger sightings in the Himalayan temperate forests have also recently been reported. Tigers can be found in 19 states in India. Forests have been designated as Tiger reserves, National Parks, and Wildlife Sanctuaries, also known as Protected Areas, for the better management of tiger habitats. Today, our nation has 51 tiger reserves, some of which were just recently added.

The Indian Tiger

The tiger has an orange coat with thick black stripes all over it. It has large forepaws, a long banded tail, and black ears with winking white spots on the backs of each. A tiger can weigh anywhere between 135-280 kg and has a total length from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail of between 2.6 and 3 metres. A tiger's lifespan in the wild typically ranges between 14 and 16 years.

Tigers are not as good at climbing trees as leopards because of their large bodies. They are limited to climbing along tall, slanted trees. However, tigers are skilled swimmers and adore the water. In the Sunderbans, tigers have been observed swimming between islands.

The White tiger

White tigers are not distinct subspecies; rather, their white colour is the result of recessive genes being expressed. It's interesting to note that white tigers are currently only seen in captivity and can only be found among Indian tigers. Madhya Pradesh state's Rewa forests are home to the last white tiger known to exist in the wild. Most likely, this one white tiger was captured from the wild in Madhya Pradesh and later bred in captivity. Pink-coloured noses, white to cream-coloured fur, and black, grey, or chocolate-coloured stripes are characteristics of white tigers.

The Myth-Tigers are Man-Eaters

Tigers, like all other wild animals, tend to stay away from people, but they may defend themselves by attacking if they are startled or if they are with their young. Humans may occasionally become randomly mauled or killed as a result of such occurrences. On rare occasions, a tiger that is too ill or injured to hunt its natural prey may also kill a human and consume the body. Some of these tigers might occasionally turn to kill people because they are easy prey. However, not all old, ill, or hurt tigers turn into man-eaters.

A healthy cub might also learn how to eat men from his or her mother. It is extremely difficult to pinpoint the precise causes of a tiger turning into a man-eater.

Endangerment of Tigers

According to the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species, tigers are considered to be Endangered. The number of tigers has drastically decreased all over the world. There may have been tens of thousands of tigers roaming freely around the world at the turn of the 20th century, with about a few thousand of them in India. According to a WWF-WCS survey, tigers have lost 93% of their former range. Tiger habitat has decreased by an alarming 45% in the last ten years. Just 7% of tigers' historical range is still in existence today. Although tiger populations are steadily increasing in India, Bhutan, and Nepal, this species is not faring as well in some south-east Asian nations.

There are many causes for the tiger population decline in India. The increase in the human population is the main cause. Large portions of ideal tiger habitat have been permanently lost to agriculture and development since the country's independence. Tigers were killed for sport in India up until the middle of the last century.

The Wildlife (Protection) Act, which was passed in 1972, was the first law that explicitly prohibited hunting tigers. The future of the tiger is gravely threatened by growing biotic disturbances, prey poaching, urbanisation, mining, and quarrying, as well as the poaching of tigers for their body parts.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) uses tigers' bones and other body parts, and their skins are used to make Chubas (the traditional robe worn by the Tibetans). One of the biggest threats to India's wild tiger populations still exists in the form of the illegal trade in tiger skins and other body parts in China and Tibet.