🔆 Indian Tiger (Royal Bengal Tiger)
(Panthera tigris tigris)

📍 Status & Importance
✅ National Animal of India
✅ Top predator in the ecosystem
✅ Protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
✅ Listed as Endangered by IUCN Red List
✅ In Appendix I of CITES

📍 Habitat & Range
✅ Found in high mountains, mangrove swamps, grasslands, dry forests, and evergreen forests
✅ India hosts ~70% of the world’s wild tiger population
✅ Also found in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar

📍 Major Threats
✅ Habitat loss and depletion of prey base
✅ Poaching, illegal wildlife trade, and man-animal conflict
✅ Unsafe infrastructure at religious or forest fringe areas

📍 Project Tiger (1973)
✅ A Centrally Sponsored Scheme under MoEFCC
✅ Implemented by NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority)
✅ NTCA is a statutory body under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
✅ Currently, 58 Tiger Reserves across India

📍 States with Maximum Tiger Population
✅ 1. Madhya Pradesh
✅ 2. Karnataka
✅ 3. Uttarakhand

📍 Top Tiger Reserves (Population-wise)
✅ 1. Jim Corbett – Uttarakhand
✅ 2. Bandipur – Karnataka
✅ 3. Nagarhole – Karnataka
✅ 4. Bandhavgarh – Madhya Pradesh
✅ 5. Dudhwa – Uttar Pradesh

#Environment #TigerConservation #UPSC2025