The Bengal tiger and the Indian elephant are endangered species which are protected by Project Tiger and Project Elephant programmes run by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. [1] [2] [3] Indian Leopards are vulnerable and protected species. [4] The tiger numbers are of animals aged above 1.5 years. [5] [6]
India is home to 75% of the world's tiger population [7] as well as 60% of Asian elephant population. [8]
| State | Tigers (2022) [11] | Elephants (2018) [12] | Leopards (2015) [13] | Asiatic lion (2020) [14] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | 62 | 74 | 343 | 0 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 29 | 1,614 | 0 | 0 |
| Assam | 182 | 5,719 | 0 | 0 |
| Bihar | 31 | 25 | 32 | 0 |
| Chhattisgarh | 19 | 247 | 846 | 0 |
| Goa | 2 | 0 | 71 | 0 |
| Gujarat | 0 | 0 | 1,355 | 674 |
| Jharkhand | 3 | 679 | 29 | 0 |
| Karnataka | 524 | 6,049 | 1,131 | 0 |
| Kerala | 183 | 3,054 | 472 | 0 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 785 | 7 | 1,817 | 0 |
| Maharashtra | 444 | 6 | 908 | 0 |
| Meghalaya | 0 | 1,754 | 0 | 0 |
| Mizoram | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Nagaland | 0 | 432 | 0 | 0 |
| Odisha | 20 | 1,966 | 345 | 0 |
| Rajasthan | 88 | 84 | 194 | 0 |
| Tamil Nadu | 306 | 2,791 | 815 | 0 |
| Telangana | 21 | 57 | 268 | 0 |
| Tripura | 0 | 203 | 0 | 0 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 205 | 232 | 194 | 0 |
| Uttarakhand | 560 | 1,839 | 703 | 0 |
| West Bengal | 131 | 700 | 90 | 0 |
| Total | 3,010 [15] | 27,875 | 9,593 | 674 |
The Bengal tiger is a population of the Panthera tigris tigris subspecies and the nominate tiger subspecies. It ranks among the biggest wild cats alive today. It is considered to belong to the world's charismatic megafauna.
Mysore Zoo, officially known as Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, is a composite of zoological gardens and animal park located in the southern Indian city of Mysore, Karnataka. Stretching across a 157-acre (64 ha)-expanse and situated at about 700 metres from Mysore Palace, it is the oldest zoo in India and one of the oldest in the world. One of the most popular zoos in India and one of the city's most popular attractions, it is home to a wide range of over 168 species.
Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as Sasan Gir, is a forest, national park, and wildlife sanctuary near Talala Gir in Gujarat, India. It is located 43 km (27 mi) north-east of Somnath, 65 km (40 mi) south-east of Junagadh and 60 km (37 mi) south-west of Amreli. It was established in 1965 in the erstwhile Nawab of Junagarh's private hunting area, with a total area of 1,410.30 km2 (544.52 sq mi), of which 258.71 km2 (99.89 sq mi) is fully protected as a national park and 1,151.59 km2 (444.63 sq mi) as wildlife sanctuary. It is part of the Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests ecoregion.
The Asiatic lion, also known as the Persian lion, is a population of Panthera leo leo that today survives in the wild only in India. Since the turn of the 20th century, its range has been restricted to Gir National Park and the surrounding areas in the Indian state of Gujarat. Historically, it inhabited much of southwest Asia to northern India.
India is the world's 8th most biodiverse region with a 0.46 BioD score on diversity index, 102,718 species of fauna and 23.39% of the nation's geographical area under forest and tree cover in 2020. India encompasses a wide range of biomes: desert, high mountains, highlands, tropical and temperate forests, swamplands, plains, grasslands, areas surrounding rivers, as well as island archipelago. Officially, three out of the 36 Biodiversity Hotspots in the world are present in India: the Himalayas, the Western Ghats, and the Indo-Burma region. To these may be added the Sundarbans and the Terrai-Duar Savannah grasslands for their unique foliage and animal species. These hotspots have numerous endemic species. Nearly 5% of India's total area is formally classified under protected areas.
The chinkara, also known as the Indian gazelle, is a gazelle species native to India, Iran, Afghanistan And Pakistan.
The Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project is an initiative of the Indian Government to provide safeguards to the Asiatic lion from extinction in the wild by means of reintroduction. The last wild population of the Asiatic lion is found in the region of Gir Forest National Park, in the state of Gujarat. The single population faces the threats of epidemics, natural disasters and other anthropogenic factors. The project aims to establish a second independent population of Asiatic lions at the Kuno National Park in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. However, the proposed translocation has been bitterly contested by the state government.
India is home to a large variety of wildlife. It is a biodiversity hotspot with various ecosystems ranging from the Himalayas in the north to the evergreen rainforests in the south, the sands of the west to the marshy mangroves of the east. India lies within the Indomalayan realm and is home to about 7.6% of mammal, 14.7% of amphibian, 6% of bird, 6.2% of reptilian, and 6.2% of flowering plant species. India's forests contain about 500 species of mammals and more than 1300 bird species.
Indira Gandhi Zoological Park is located amidst Kambalakonda Reserve Forest in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the third largest zoo in the country.
The state of Karnataka in South India has a rich diversity of flora and fauna. It has a recorded forest area of 38,720 km2 which constitutes 55
of the geographical area of the state. These forests support 25% of the elephant population and 20% of the tiger population of India. Many regions of Karnataka are still unexplored and new species of flora and fauna are still found. The mountains of the Western Ghats in the western region of Karnataka are a biodiversity hotspot. Two sub-clusters of the Western Ghats, Talacauvery and Kudremukh, are on a tentative list of sites that could be designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks which fall outside these subclusters were included in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve in 1986, a UNESCO designation. In the Biligiriranga Hills the Eastern Ghats meet the Western Ghats. The state bird and state animal of Karnataka are Indian roller and the Indian elephant. The state tree and state flower are sandalwood and lotus. Karnataka is home to 524 tigers.
Project Elephant was launched in 1992 by the Government of India Ministry of Environment and Forests to provide financial and technical support to wildlife management efforts by states for their free-ranging populations of wild Asian Elephants. The project aims to ensure the long-term survival of the population of elephants in their natural habitats by protecting them, their habitats and migration corridors. Other goals of Project Elephant are supporting the research of the ecology and management of elephants, creating awareness of conservation among local people, and providing improved veterinary care for captive elephants.
Tiger and Lion Safari, Thyavarekoppa, Shimoga is located the state of Karnataka, India, with an area of 250 hectares (2.5 km2), at a distance of about 10.0 km (6.2 mi) from Shimoga town, and 275.0 km (170.9 mi) from Bangalore. Started in 1988, it is Karnataka's second safari park, after Bannerghatta National Park near Bangalore. Despite the name, the lion and tiger are neither the only animals here, nor are they the only big cats here.
The Dudhwa Tiger Reserve is a protected area in Uttar Pradesh that stretches mainly across the Lakhimpur Kheri and Bahraich districts and comprises the Dudhwa National Park, Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary. It covers an area of 1,284.3 km2 (495.9 sq mi). Three large forested areas are extant within the reserve, although most of the surrounding landscape is agricultural. It shares the north-eastern boundary with Nepal, which is defined to a large extent by the Mohana River. It ranges in altitude from 110 to 185 m, and several streams flow through the reserve from the northwest across the alluvial plain that encompasses the reserve.
The tiger reserves of India were set up in 1973 and are governed under Project Tiger, which is administered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Government of India. Tiger reserves were designated in 50 protected areas until 2018. In 2022, the 53rd tiger reserve was declared in Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh, and the State's third tiger reserve.
The Ratapani Tiger Reserve, located in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, in Vindhya Range in central India, is one of the finest teak forests in the state and is less than 50 kilometres (31 mi) away from the capital Bhopal.
The National Zoological Park is a 176-acre (71 ha) zoo in New Delhi, India.
The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) was founded in 1994 by Belinda Wright, its Executive Director, who was an award-winning wildlife photographer and filmmaker till she took up the cause of conservation. From its inception, WPSI's main aim has been to bring a new focus to the daunting task of tackling India's growing wildlife crisis. It does this by providing support and information to government authorities to combat poaching and the escalating illegal wildlife trade - particularly in wild tigers. It has now broadened its focus to deal with human-animal conflicts and provide support for research projects.
More than 70 years after India's native subspecies of the cheetah—the Asiatic cheetah —became extinct there, small numbers of Southeast African cheetah have been flown in from Namibia and South Africa to a national park in India. The experiment has been permitted by India's supreme court on a short-term basis to test long-term adaptation. The Asiatic subspecies is now found only in Iran in critically endangered numbers.
Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve is a protected area and tiger reserve located along the area straddling both the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats in the Erode District of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Sathyamangalam Forest Division is part of the Bramhagiri-Nilgiris-Eastern Ghats Elephant Reserve notified in 2003. In 2008, part of the Sathyamangalam Forest Division was declared as a wildlife sanctuary and enlarged in 2011, it covers a forest area of 1,411.6 km2 (545.0 sq mi). It is the largest wildlife sanctuary in Tamil Nadu. In 2013, an area of 1,408.6 km2 (543.9 sq mi) of the erstwhile sanctuary was notified as a tiger reserve. It was the fourth tiger reserve established in Tamil Nadu as a part of Project Tiger and is the third largest in the state.
The Gulf of Khambhat, also known as the Gulf of Cambay, is a bay on the Arabian Sea coast of India, bordering the state of Gujarat just north of Mumbai and Diu Island. The Gulf of Khambhat is about 200 km (120 mi) long, about 20 km (12 mi) wide in the north and up to 70 km (43 mi) wide in the south. Major rivers draining Gujarat are the Narmada, Tapti, Mahi and the Sabarmati, that form estuaries in the gulf.
