Tiger

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is India's national animal – a symbol of strength, grace and power. India is home to the majority of the world's wild tigers, which live in habitats as different as the mangroves of the Sundarbans, the grasslands of the Terai, the dry forests of central India and the hills of the Western Ghats.

In the early 1970s tiger numbers had fallen sharply because of hunting and habitat loss. Project Tiger, launched in 1973 at Jim Corbett National Park, created a network of tiger reserves that now covers dozens of protected areas across the country. Regular all-India tiger estimations, carried out by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, have recorded a steady recovery in recent decades.