India is home to a large portion of the world’s wild tiger population. The tiger, a symbol of strength and grace, is deeply embedded in Indian culture and history, often associated with royalty and various deities. As an apex predator, the tiger also plays a role in maintaining ecological balance within its habitats.
Tiger Habitats and Population Trends
Tigers in India are found across diverse geographical regions and habitat types. These include evergreen forests, swampy mangrove forests like the Sundarbans, tropical rainforests, savannahs, and grasslands. Significant tiger populations are found in the northern Terai region, encompassing areas like Dudhwa and Corbett. Other key areas include the forests of Bandipur, Nagarhole, and Periyar, the tropical dry deciduous forests of Ranthambore, and the bamboo-rich central Indian highlands of Bandhavgarh and Kanha.
Historically, India’s tiger population declined from an estimated 100,000 a century ago to about 1,700 in 2011. Conservation efforts have led to a rebound, with the 2022 tiger census estimating the population at an average of 3,682 individuals (ranging from 3,167 to 3,925). This assessment, conducted every four years by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), employs a double sampling approach. This methodology involves extensive foot surveys for carnivore signs and prey abundance, along with the deployment of camera traps across vast forest habitats to identify individual tigers.
India’s Conservation Efforts
India has implemented initiatives to protect its tiger population, most notably Project Tiger, launched in 1973. This initiative, under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, was established following the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, which legally ended hunting and protected individual species. Initially, Project Tiger established nine reserves covering approximately 9,115 square kilometers, expanding to 54 reserves across 18 states and encompassing over 78,000 square kilometers.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body formed in December 2005 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, oversees Project Tiger and the tiger reserves. The NTCA provides legal and technical support, monitors tiger habitats, estimates populations, and approves conservation plans from state governments. Community involvement is a component of these conservation strategies. For instance, programs like “Kulhadi Band Panchayat” in Ranthambore involve local communities pledging not to cut trees. The “Baagh Mitra Karyakram” in Pilibhit trains local people as “tiger friends” to mitigate human-tiger conflict.
Threats to Tiger Survival
Despite conservation successes, several dangers continue to challenge tiger survival in India. Habitat loss and fragmentation pose a threat, as human expansion and urbanization lead to isolated tiger populations. This fragmentation can disrupt natural evolutionary processes, potentially leading to inbreeding and reduced genetic diversity within isolated groups. Road construction and other development projects further degrade and sever wildlife corridors, which are important for tiger dispersal and genetic exchange.
Poaching and illegal wildlife trade remain threats, driven by demand for tiger parts like skins, bones, claws, and teeth in international black markets. Poachers often utilize methods such as snares, electrocution, and poison. Human-wildlife conflict is another ongoing issue, with tigers sometimes preying on livestock due to habitat loss and depletion of natural prey. This can lead to retaliatory killings by affected villagers, often through poisoning carcasses.
The impacts of climate change further compound these threats. Rising sea levels, especially in low-lying mangrove forests like the Sundarbans, are shrinking tiger habitats and contaminating freshwater sources. This forces tigers to seek higher ground, potentially increasing conflict with human settlements. Increased droughts lead to water scarcity, driving tigers out of forest areas into villages in search of water. Rising temperatures also contribute to more frequent and intense forest fires, devastating ecosystems and directly threatening tiger habitats and prey availability.