About Indian Tiger or Royal Bengal Tiger
Indian Tiger or Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera Tigris) is the tiger species native to India.
• It is a flagship species of India and has been declared as the National
Animal of India.
o Flagship species are selected to act as an ambassador, icon or symbol
for a defined habitat, issue, campaign or environmental cause.
Do you know ?
while Tigers are generally solitary animals but mother tigers stay with their cubs for about two years and teach them to hunt.
• Indian Tiger Conservation Status
oInternational Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Endangered
o Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I
o Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix I
• Habitat: The largest population is in India, but there are some smaller groups in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. It may also be present in areas of China and Burma.
o India is home to more than 70% of global tiger population.
• Distribution of Tiger population in India:
o In India, tigers inhabit a wide variety of habitats ranging from the high mountains,
mangrove swamps, tall grasslands, to dry and moist deciduous forests, as well as evergreen and shola forest systems.
o Madhya Pradesh has the maximum number of tigers followed by Karnataka and
Uttarakhand.
• Significance of tiger conservation:
It is both an Umbrella species (its conservation ensures conservation of other species of wild animals and forests) and a Keystone species (has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance).
• Characteristics:
o Tiger is solitary and territorial, and the territory of an adult male may encompass
territories of two to seven females.
o Tiger stripes are individually as unique as human fingerprints.
Achievements of Tiger conservation in India
• Increase in Estimated Tiger population from 1,411 in 2006 to 2,967 in 2018.
• India achieved the targets set under TX2 initiative in 2018 (4 years in advance).
o Tx2 is the global goal to double the number of wild tigers by the year 2022. It was adopted in 2010 at the St.Petersburg Tiger Summit by 13 tiger range countries.
• 14 Tiger Reserves in India have been awarded with international Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) accreditation.
o CA|TS are globally accepted conservation tool that sets best practices and standards to manage tigers and encourages assessments to benchmark progress.
International cooperation for Tiger conservation
• Global Tiger Initiative (GTI): It is a global alliance led by the 13 tiger range countries (TRC), including India, and other organization like the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), etc.
• Global Tiger Forum: India is one of the Founding members of the intergovernmental platform working exclusively for the conservation of Tigers in the wild.
• Bilateral instruments:
o Protocol on conservation of tigers with China.
o Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh on conservation of the Sundarbans
o MoU with Myanmar to combat timber trafficking and conservation of tigers and other wildlife.