A Tiger’s Tale

A Walk Through India’s Tiger Conservation History

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It is better to have lived twenty five days as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep: Tibetan proverb

The Early Years till 1875

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The magnificent and elusive tigers were apex predators and symbolised strength


Once upon a time India was a Tiger Country

People and governments believed within limits wild creatures have as much right to exist as the human race

In the early 1900s, tiger numbers crossed 1 lakh in India

In bygone years, there was almost inexhaustible supply of tigers.
At one time in parts of India at the beginning of the last century,
they were so numerous it seemed to be a question as to whether man
or the tiger would survive.
Thomas Williamson, author of Oriental Field Sports published in 1807,
tells of the incredible numbers that existed during the late eighteenth
century, mentioning that a traveler being conveyed by palankeen saw three
tigers lying by the side of the road along which he was proceeding.

The Rifle, the Shikhar and Doom

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As many as 80,000 tigers were slaughtered in India from 1875 to 1925


When a man wishes to kill a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wishes to kill him, he calls it ferocity

Hunting of tigers a symbol of bravery, masculinity

A tiger pelt fetched a princely sum of $10,000 in the 1960s to make rugs and coats, so favoured by Hollywood celebs

Section 4 — And then came Project Tiger

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The forest counts on the tiger, the tiger counts on the forest

Project Tiger set up tiger reserves to protect the jungle cats. India now has 58 tiger reserves

Jim Corbett has the most tiger count, Sunderbans the largest

Rules and rules to protect the tiger

Parliament passes Wildlife Protection Act in 1972
Principal objective to protect the tiger and its habitats
Tiger reserves set up to protect the big cats
Reserves divided into core and buffer zones
Tigers in core areas, buffers a balance between humans

Major tiger reserves in the country

Section 5 — What does the Numbers Say

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Loyalty is no more natural to man than a cage is to a tiger

Tiger population on the mend. Around 70% of the world’s wild tigers are in India

Tiger population fluctuated in the first period of Project Tiger but has stabilized since the formation of National Tiger Conservation Authority in 2006. A steady rise indicates the success of the conservation efforts

Export of tiger skins banned in 1969 but poaching rampant because of medicine demand from China. Virtually every part of tiger from whisker to tail used in Chinese traditional medicine

The NTCA (set up in 2006) made tiger conservation a central project. Prior to 2006 tigers were surveyed on the basis of their pug marks, which led to fluctuations in numbers. Since 2006, camera traps were used, which led to more reliable calculation