From just 1411 tigers left in the wilds of India in 2006, when their very survival seemed to have hung by a thin thread, they now number about 3,000. An impressive comeback from the jaws of annihilation, no doubt. But to say that the tiger is out of the woods might be pre-mature.
While the numbers of tigers have increased substantially, the tiger habitat in India has been shrinking alarmingly. Thus, you have more and more cases of tigers coming out of their protected forests, often entering into conflict in humans. These conflicts, which results in death of humans or poaching of the big cats, often happen on the fringes of India’s tiger reserves and sanctuaries.
But today being the day of the tiger, people have been busy showering their love and affection on this most magnificent of big cats, whom the great hunter turned environmentalist Jim Corbett had called “a large-hearted gentleman’’
