Indian tiger

Panthera tigris tigris (Indian tiger)  

The Indian tiger lives in a wide range of habitats, including the high-altitude, cold, coniferous Himalayan forests, the steaming mangroves of the Bangladesh Sunderbans, the swampy reedlands, the scorched hills of the Indian peninsula, the lush wet forests of Northern India, and the arid forests of Rajasthan. A healthy male Indian tiger has an average weight of 221 kg. Indian and Amur tigers are considerably larger than other extant subspecies (Slaght et al. 2005). 

Indian tigers prey on amongst other species Indian Sambar (Cervus unicolor), Axis axis (Chital deer), Suidae (wild pigs) and ox (Bos gaurus). Their range size is estimated at 10-39 km2 for females and 30-105 km2 for males.  Tiger density and range size has been closely tied to prey availability and areas with high prey abundance support larger numbers of tigers with small territory sizes. Kaziranga, Nagrahole, Bandipur and Khana national parks in India are home to some of the highest densities of tigers in the world because of the abundancy of prey.

The actual number of tigers in India is a source of much contention. For many years, the status of wild tigers in India has been estimated from the individual identification of pug marks (or footprints), a methodology that has been challenged on grounds of human error and manipulation.

The first all-India census in 1971 produced a figure of 1,800 tigers. Project Tiger and Wildlife Institute of India officials reported in subsequent censuses that tiger numbers increased to 4,334 in 1989. These estimates were disputed by Indian biologists, who suggested that the number is about half of what officials estimate.

In response to this criticism, India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Project Tiger Directorate initiatived a survey of tiger and prey populations using the latest technology. This uses remote sensing and GIS to generate ecologically audited maps for all tiger areas in India.

Indian tigers are threatened by habitat fragmentation, poaching of tigers and their prey and retaliation killings resulting from human-tiger conflict. Pressure on the landscape continues from large scale development from mining, dams and other industry.  There are possibly 1,170 tigers left in the wild in India. Estimates suggest a further 300 live in Bangladesh, 100 in Nepal, 150 in Western Myanmar and 70 in Bhutan.