Bengal Tiger in India

The Bengal Tiger or the Royal Bengal Tiger is the second largest carnivore belonging to the cat family after the Siberian Tiger. This magnificent animal is available in various countries of Indian sub-continent such as India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Southern Tibet. According to the World Conservation Union Cat Specialist Group, currently Indian Sub-continent has population 1,300 to 1,500 of Bengal Tigers in the jungles of the region.

Bengal Tigers are classified into two types according to their color. One type of Bengal tiger has orange and black stripes that appear on their pelt. These stripes are used to break up the coloration of the tiger when it is hunting. This strips helps the Bengal Tigers to hide themselves while hunting and easily captures their prey. Another kind of Bengal tigers are white in form.

Male Bengal Tigers are physically different from their female counterparts. The males may reach lengths of 10 feet from head to tail, and weigh around 500 pounds in the wild while the females are usually smaller, averaging around 8-9 feet long and weighing approximately 300 pounds.

Mating period for these Bengal Tigers can occur at any time, but happens to be usually between November and April. The females can have cubs at the age of 3-4 years; males reach maturity in about 4 years. After the gestation period of 103 days, 2-5 cubs are born. Newborn babies weigh about 1 kg (2.2 lb) and are blind and helpless. The mother feeds them milk for 6-8 weeks and then the cubs are introduced to meat. The cubs depend on the mother for 1.5 years and then they start hunting on their own.

One distinguishing character about Bengal Tigers is that they love to live in solitary, unlike lions. They have a tendency to control their own territory around 5-30 square miles. Other tigers are not allowed in their territory. Male Bengal Tigers always overlap the territories of the female Bengal Tigers. They always marks their boundary by scratching their scent into trees or they urinate on the trees throughout their territory.

Bengal Tigers are carnivore animals, mostly feeds on deer (sambar, chital, barasingha, hog deer and muntjac), wild boar, elephant, rhinoceroses, water buffalo, gaur, nilgai antelope etc. Sometimes they even feeds on small prey such as monkeys, hares, birds (primarily peafowl), and porcupines.

Scientifically known as Panthera tigris tigris or Panthera tigris bengalensis, Bengal Tigers are the largest found Tiger in India. There are 66 different zones demarcated as the protected zones by the Indian Government for the Bengal Tigers in India. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India, at present India has a population of 1,411 wild Bengal tigers residing in various natural habitats such as grasslands, subtropical and tropical rain forests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests, and mangroves. Due to such less population, Bengal Tiger's are enlisted in the critically endangered species.

For the conservation of Bengal Tigers in its various wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, Indian Government has launched its “Project Tiger”, on April 1, 1973. At present, India has 40 Project Tiger Wildlife Reserves encompassing an area of 37,761 sq km. It is one of the successful wildlife conservation ventures of Indian Government. Sunderban National Park(West Bengal), Corbett National Park(Uttaranchal), Kanha National Park and Bandhavgarh National Park (Madhya Pradesh) are some of the well-known wild abodes of Bengal tigers in India.