Indian Bengal Tiger

Indian Bengal Tiger

The Bengal tiger, or Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera Tigris Tigris), previously Panthera Tigris bengalensis), is a subspecies of tiger, found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The Bengal tiger is the most numerous of the tiger subspecies. According to WWF, there are about 2,100 Royal Bengal tigers in the wild today, including 1,411 in India, 200 in Bangladesh, 150 in Nepal and 100 in Bhutan

The Bengal tiger is historically regarded as the second largest subspecies after the Siberian tiger even though recent scientific studies have shown that Bengal Tigers are, on average, larger than the Siberian Tigers.The Bengal subspecies P. Tigris Tigris is the national animal of Bangladesh, while at the species level, the tiger Panthera tigris is the national animal of India

Tiger records:-

Officially, the heaviest Bengal tiger with confirmed weight was a male of 258.6 kg (570 lbs) and was shot in Northern India in 1938; however, the heaviest males, captured by scientist at this time, are two tigers (M105 and M026) that weighed more than 270kg (600lb), tagged in Nepal in 1984.The largest known Bengal tiger, measured between pegs, was a male with a head and body length of 221cm, 150cm of chest girth, a shoulder height of 109cm and a tail of just 81cm, perhaps bitten off by a rival male. This specimen could not be weighed, but it was calculated to weigh no less than 272kg. Finally, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the heaviest tiger known was a huge male hunted in 1967, measuring 322cm in total length between pegs (338cm over curves) and weighing 388.7kg (857lb). This specimen was hunted in northern India by David Hasinger and is actually on exhibition in the Smithsonian Institution, in the Mammals Hall.

In the beginning of the 20th century, there were reports of big males measuring about 12ft (3.7 m) in total length; however, there was not scientific corroboration in the field and it is probable that this measurement was taken over the curves of the body

Behaviour

Tigers do not live in prides as lions do. They do not live as family units because the male plays no part in raising his offspring. Tigers mark their territory by spraying urine on a branch or leaves or bark of a tree, which leaves a particular scent behind. Tigers also spray urine to attract the opposite sex. When an outside individual comes into contact with the scent, it learns that the territory is occupied by another tiger. Hence, every tiger lives independently in its own territory.

Male Bengal tigers fiercely defend their territory from other tigers, often engaging in serious fighting. Female tigers are less territorial: occasionally a female will share her territory with other females. If a male happens to enter a female's territory, he will probably mate with her, if she is not already pregnant or has a litter. If she is pregnant or has a litter, he has no choice but to find himself a new territory and another potential mate. Similarly, females entering a male's territory are known to mate with him. Both males and females become independent of their mother around 18 months old, whereupon the cubs have to establish their own territories and fend for themselves. A male's territory is larger than a female's territory.

India (Bengal Tiger- Symbol of India)

The Bengal tiger has been a national symbol of India since about the 25th century BCE when it was displayed on the Pashupati seal of the Indus Valley Civilization. On the seal, the tiger, being the largest, represents the Yogi Shiva's people

The tiger was later the symbol of the Chola Empire from 300 CE to 1279 CE and is now designated as the official animal of India.

India has about two-thirds of the world's wild tigers, according to the IUCN Cat Specialist Group. in the past, Indian censuses of wild tigers relied on the individual identification of footprints (known as pug marks), which one review criticized as inaccurate. Using modern camera trap counting methods, the landmark 2008 national tiger census report, Status of the Tigers, Co-predators, and Prey in India, published by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, estimates only 1411 adult tigers in existence in India (plus uncensused tigers in the Sundarbans).

As of June 2009, Bengal tigers are found in 37 tiger reserves spread across 17 Indian states.An area of special interest lies in North India where 11 protected areas are found in the Terai Arc, comprising dry forest foothills and dune valleys at the base of the Himalayas. "The whole idea," says Seidensticker "is to maintain the connection between them, to create a necklace (of habitat) along the Nepal-India border, involving 1,000 miles from the Royal Chitwan National Park to Corbett National Park."

Once a royal hunting reserve, Chitwan became a national park in 1973. New economic incentives give villagers a direct stake in this renowned tourist attraction, with more than a third of revenues from park entrance fees being returned to the 300,000 people living in 36 villages in the surrounding buffer zone. As a result, locals are now creating and managing tiger habitat and consider themselves guardians of their tigers.

Rivaling Chitwan for the title of the world's best tiger habitat is the Western Ghats forest complex in western South India, an area of 14,400square miles (37,000km2) stretching across several protected areas. The challenge here, as throughout most of Asia, is that people literally live on top of the wildlife. The Save the Tiger Fund Council estimates that 7,500 landless people live illegally inside the boundaries of the 386-square-mile Nagarhole National Park in southwestern India. A voluntary if controversial resettlement is underway with the aid of the Karnataka Tiger Conservation Project led by K. Ullas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

A 2007 report by UNESCO, "Case Studies on Climate Change and World Heritage" has stated that an anthropogenic 45-cm rise in sea level (likely by the end of the 21st century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), combined with other forms of anthropogenic stress on the Sundarbans, could lead to the destruction of 75% of the Sundarbans mangroves.

Tiger Project India

While the Project Tiger initiative launched in 1972 initially reversed the species' population decline, the decline has resumed in recent years; India's tiger population decreased from 3,642 in the 1990s to just over 1,400 from 2002 to 2008. Since then, the Indian government has undertaken several steps to reduce the destruction of the Bengal tiger's natural habitat in India. In May 2008, forest officials at the Ranthambhor National Park in Rajasthan, India spotted 14 tiger cubs. In June 2008, a tiger from Ranthambhor was successfully reintroduced to the Sariska Tiger Reserve