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Bengal Tiger

Bengal tigers have been captivated in zoos since 1880. The first zoo in India to provide habitat to the tigers was the Alipore Zoo in Calcutta.

The Bengal tiger's characteristic reddish gold fur and black stripes are easily visible to visitors in a zoo. But in the tiger's natural habitat of forest and reed beds, the markings act as camouflage and enable it to disappear from view.

Project Tiger
Project Tiger is the most famous wildlife conservation project of India, which was lunched in 1972 to protect the diminishing population of Indian tigers. As recently as 1970, the hunting of tigers was legal in India and this majestic animal was hunted by the erstwhile royals and elites for pleasure .

With the launch of Project tiger in 1973, various tiger reserves were created in different parts of the country on a 'core-buffer' strategy. Under this strategy, the core areas were freed from all human activities and the buffer areas were to have 'conservation oriented land use'. Initially, 9 tiger reserves were established in different States during the period 1973-74. These nine Tiger reserves were Manas (Assam), Palamau (Bihar), Similipal (Orissa), Corbett (U.P.), Kanha (M.P.), Melghat (Maharashtra), Bandipur (Karnataka), Ranthambore (Rajasthan) and Sunderbans (West Bengal).

The main achievements of this project are excellent recovery of the habitat and consequent increase in the tiger population in the reserve areas, from a mere 268 in 9 reserves in 1972 to 1576 in 27 reserves in 2003.

White Bengal Tigers
Bengal tigers are also called as Indian tiger, they are the most numerous in population than any other tiger subspecies. They were killed as a part of sport carried out by Indian and British royalties. There number declined at a fast rate. They are one of the only two species of cats that like water. At full running speed they reach speed of up to 60 kilometers per hour. They do not possess great stamina. The average tiger animal sleeps between 16 to 18 hours.

WHITE TIGER FACTS

White tigers are born to Bengal tigers that carry an unusual gene needed for white coloring.
Because they are solitary animals, they mostly hunt at night
The White Tiger is a good swimmer, but a very poor climber.
The other four sub-species of tiger are Siberian, South China, Indochinese, and Sumataran.
There are only approximately 5,000 to 7,400 tigers left in the wild.
They may be slow runners, but they are stealthy enough to catch any prey in their sights.
It is belief that if you are born in the Chinese year of the tiger you are unusually lucky. Let s hope that some of this luck rubs off on the white tiger before it s too late.

Indian Tiger
Indian Tigers in the Indian Wildlife is one of the world’s most beautiful animals, faces extinction today. In this century alone, three sub species of tigers have been driven to extinction. Current estimates put at least one Tiger is poached everyday in the wild. There are only 50 Siberian tigers left. (only 20 of them in the wild). The primary threat to the tiger is the poaching of it’s bones for Chinese medicines. Increasing population and economic development is also forcing it’s way into Tiger habitat all over the world.

Tiger Pictures