IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Sankhala, K.S. | |
| The Vanishing Indian Tiger (Mammals 1 c) Eleventh technical meeting | |
| 1970 Conference Proceeding | |
The Indian tiger was once distributed all over the Indian sub-continent except snow-clad mountains of the Himalayas and the extreme western desert of Rajasthan. Its western limits were the Sal forests of Kalashar in Haryana, tropical dry thorn forests of Sikar Khetri, Kumbhalgarh in Rajasthan; Banaskanta, Panchmahal in Gujarat; dangs and West Coast forests of Maharashtra. In the South, tigers were quite common in Mysore, Hyderabad and parts of Madras. The dry deciduous sal forests of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and the dry deciduous teak and mixed forests of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh were its haunts. The Sunderbans of south Bengal were considered an inexhaustible reservoir of tigers. They were rated as pests in high rainfall areas of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. Even the dry deciduous forests of Gwalior, Dholpur, Sawai Madhopur, Bundi, Alwar and Chittorgarh were famous hunting blocks of the rulers of the Princely States. Tigers are still found in many parts of India; a brief description of their habitats is given. People have shot as many as 400 tigers and thereafter stopped counting. In the recent past quite a few Maharajas and Rajas claim to have shot over 1,100 tigers. Some forest officers claim to have killed over 30 tigers during their 30 years' service. Our exports claim a boost in foreign exchange earnings from the sale of tiger skins. As many as 2, 354 skins (tigers and leopards) were exported from April to October, 1968 (after imposition of the ban on export of these skins). This raised the price of a skin from Rs. 300 to Rs. 3, 000-an effective incentive to the use of poison in the quest for the skins of these magnificent beasts. The result is not far to seek. The population of the tiger has dwindled to an incredibly low number. Corbett estimated 2, 000 tigers in India in 1955, Gee raised the figure to 4, 000 in 1964; Seshadri in 1968 returned to Corbett's figure of 2,000. Nobody knows the true population. There has never been a serious attempt to census tigers in the country. But from the shrinking habitat and trends in numbers, one can safely say that under present conditions the Indian tiger is endangered. An estimate of the population, based on the author's own observations and reports from Chief Conservators of forests and other naturalists, is between 2, 000 and 3, 000. This population represents one tiger per 259 sq. km of suitable habitat (100 sq. miles), as compared to one Indian lion per 7. 25 sq. km (2. 8 sq. miles), and they deserve a special programme for their protection. India is the only country where tigers can still be seen with ease. The Indian Tiger should be included in the Red Data Book and given complete protection. |
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