Tigers in India constituted more than 75% of the global tiger population as of 2025. India operates 58 tiger reserves. Tigers are the national animal there.
India is one of the founding members of the intergovernmental platform of Tiger Range Countries – Global Tiger Forum. With a global share of 17% of the human population and 18% of the livestock population inhabiting 2.4% of the world's land, India has conserved the world's largest population of free range wild tigers, combatting a century of decline. Initiatives in the form of amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act created the "National Tiger Conservation Authority", delineated Core Areas in Tiger Reserves and incentivised voluntary relocation programs, among many that are critical in protecting tiger populations, biodiversity, and ecosystem services of their inhabitat.
The Project Tiger Division under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is dedicated to conservation efforts. In 2022, the 54th tiger reserve in India was declared in Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the state's fourth tiger reserve.
Tigers are present in multiple Indian landscapes. Some have a rich and viable population with adequate habitat. Others are prone to human interference, but retain the potential to support their tiger population. Still other habitats with a once thriving tiger population later disappeared. As of 2020, it waas estimated that nearly 30% of the tiger population lives outside the Tiger Reserves. India achieved its target of doubling its population (TX2) ahead of its committed time-frame. Tiger habitat increased by 30% between 2006 and 2018 to about , mainly by controlling poaching, extending protected areas, fostering coexistence in multi-use areas, and offering economic incentives to local people.
Common names In India, tigers are known by various names in different languages: Hindi: Bāgh (बाघ) Bengali: Bāgh (বাঘ) Gujarati and Marathi: Vāgh (વાઘ) Kannada: Huli (ಹುಲಿ) Malayalam: Kaduva (കടുവ) Manipuri: Kei (কৈ) Odia: Bāgha (ବାଘ) Punjabi: Śēr (ਸ਼ੇਰ) Sanskrit: Vyāghra Śārdūla (व्याघ्र शार्दूल) Tamil and Telugu: Puli (புலி) Tulu: Pili (ಪಿಲಿ) Urdu: Śer (شیر)
Bengal Tigers The Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the species found across most of the country except in Thar Desert, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Kutch regions). They have the largest bodies among the Felidae family, and are also called Royal Bengal Tigers. Hides measuring up to 4 meters are recorded. From nose to tip of the tail, they can measure up to 3 meters and weigh up to 280 kilograms, with males heavier than females. Their life expectancy is about 15 years. However, they can survive for up to 20 years in the wild. They are solitary and territorial.
Tigers in India usually hunt chital (Axis axis), sambar (Cervus unicolor), barasingha (Cervus duvacelii), wild buffalo (Bubalis arnee) nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) and gaur (Bos gaurus) and other animals such as the wild pig (Sus scrofa) and even other predators such as leopards and bears. Elephant calves (Elephas maximus) may be prey.
The tiger is estimated to have been present in India since the Late Pleistocene, 12,000 to 16,500 years ago. Tigers are found in 20 Indian states occupying habitats including grasslands, mangrove swamps, tropical and sub-tropical forests, as well as shola forest systems and from plains to mountains over 6000 feet.
Tigers are found across 12 regional tiger conservation landscapes (TCLs). India is home to 6 global priority TCLs, harboring more than 60% of the global genetic variation in tigers.
The tiger is classified as Endangered on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species.
Description The tiger is a large, heavy cat. Its coat is predominantly reddish-orange (pale yellow ochre to burnt sienna) with black stripes arranged irregularly and smooth, short hair. The ventral parts including chin, throat, breast and belly are generally white with black stripes. In some tigers, brows and cheeks are white. Males have longer whiskers. Tigers in the plains tend to grow bigger than those in hilly areas. Tigers measuring up to 12 feet were frequently recorded in the early 20th century.
Contemporaneous accounts mention 12 foot-long tigers in 1861 with a hide allegedly 13 feet 5 inches long. Many tigers over 10 feet were killed during British rule. Reduction of the gene-pool due to excessive hunting is a likely cause of the smaller size of 21st century tigers.
Tigers are good swimmers. They can endure thirst. Sanderson recorded two wounded tigers caught in a net during hot weather who survived without water for 10 days. Tigers cannot climb but claw markings on tree bark reach up to 10 feet. Tigers are cannibals and scavengers. Enthusiastic 19th-century tiger-hunter Alexander Angus Airlie Kinloch observed: Unless provoked, the tiger will rarely attack a man, but does his best to get away quickly.
Culture The fifth parva of the epic poem Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, includes one shloka that reads: निर्वनो वध्यते व्याघ्रो निर्व्याघ्रं छिद्यते वनम् ।तस्माद्व्याघ्रो वनं रक्षेद्वनं व्याघ्रं च पालयेत् ॥nirvanō vadhyatē vyāghrō nirvyāghraṁ chidyatē vanamtasmādvyāghrō vanaṁ rakṣēdvanaṁ vyāghraṁ ca pālayēt. which can be translated as Do not cut down that forest with its tigers! Let not the tigers be driven from that forest! There can be no forest without tigers, and no tigers without a forest. The forest shelters the tigers and tigers guard the forest!
The tiger is admired and feared in Indian mythology. Goddess Shakti (Durga) rides on the tiger. Deities such as Dingu-Aneni (in North-East India), Bonbibi (in West Bengal), Sabarimala Ayyappan (in Kerala), Huliraya (in Karnataka), Vaghdeo or Vaghoba (in Maharashtra) and Chandraghanta are associated and venerated with tiger. Puranas and folklore often mention tiger as vahana. The Matsya Purana, while narrating Shiva's marriage with Sati, describes some of the Ganas, Shiva's attendants, who resemble a tiger. Harivamsa Purana often uses tiger qualities as adjectives.
One Buddhist mythical tale suggested that Gautama Buddha in a past incarnation presented himself to a tigress as food as she was about to cannibalize her own cubs. This highlights compassion, the greatest virtue in Buddhist philosophy. Taoism depicts tiger as a prominent temple element.
Tiger images can be seen in mesolithic cave paintings found in Bhimbetka rock shelters. Tiger featured on seals discovered in Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan shows its significance in Indus civilization and culture. The earliest known pictorial depiction of Shiva wearing tiger hide are from Kushana Period. Tigers hold cultural significance for many adivasis in India. Kharia, Bhaina, Savar (or Saur), Parja, and Kusro in Madhya Pradesh have totems of tiger. Baigas consider tigers as their brother. Gonds are known for propitiating the tiger, which they see as a protector. Korku worships Baghdeo (tiger god). For the Murias, Chitan Deo (tiger god) is the god of good hunting. Bhagashwar (tiger god) is worshiped by the Bharias who believe that they will not be killed by a tiger. Koyas people consider Konarzu to be their tiger god. Tribal people who share their lands with tigers consider them to be sacred.
Tiger hunting by Islamic Invaders can be traced to Mughal cultural links with Mongol and Timurid ancestry which practiced cat hunting (lions, in their region) as a ritual "to formalise any kind of authority" and considered killing them as a good omen. Conversely, if the hunt was unsuccessful and the animal escaped, it would invite trouble.
Naturalists observed that tigers were regarded by locals with awe that prevented killing them by locals, even when they had power. European religious magazines and publications played a crucial role in introducing tigers to their audiences. English missionaries passing through jungles might encounter what they called the "most savage and destructive of animals". Many were killed by tigers. Then would ask their readers: What do you think it was? Why, it was the body of the poor man who had been killed. ... It was, indeed, a horrid and painful sight, and one which I shall never forget. On looking at it my blood seems to curdle in my veins. ... Youthful reader, did you ever feel thankful that you were born in a country where you are not in danger of being killed and eaten by those cruel and blood thirsty beasts? Missionaries also noted: In many places, the inhabitants appear to have resigned the dominion to the tigers, and take few precautions against them; regarding them as sacred.
The popular myth that tigers are known to suck the blood of prey was disproved in the early 20th century.
Traditionally, India has had a culture of conserving forests and wildlife.
History
Arthashastra, a political treatise authored by Kautilya more than two thousand years ago, mentions vyaala vana (wildlife and tiger reserve), a protected area in the kingdom by Royal Command. King Ashoka of the Maurya Empire rejected hunting as a royal hobby.
Humans and tigers have co-existed for millennia. Tigers are elusive and avoid humans under normal circumstances, but may charge when wounded or to protect cubs. Tigers have attacked humans and cattle, leading some villages to be abandoned. Killing was not seen as a solution. Instead, tigers were revered in many places.
The British and some native rulers viewed capturing/hunting tigers as a symbol of masculinity. Tigers were seen as a "merciless blood sucking beast" justifying kingship and empire. Hunting was a "Royal Privilege" for Mughals through which they demonstrate their authority over the natural world. This sport portrayed rulers as heroes capable of slaying the fiercest of beasts. The weapons employed by the British Raj and the popularity of hunting reduced the tiger population. Hunting events were chronicled in personal diaries, memoirs, official gazetteers and photographs. The British enacted the Forest Act of 1878 which treated forest as hunting ground for tigers that they labelled vermin. Hunting was dangerous, and was considered a manly feat. Photos of British royalty beside tiger carcasses during the late 19th and early 20th centuries symbolized British dominance.
In the early 19th century, Bishop Heber wrote a poem that mentioned tigers: Our task is done! On Ganga's Breast The sun is sinking down to rest; And moor'd beneath the tamarind bough, Our bark has found its harbour now. With furled sail and painted side, Behold the tiny frigate ride. Upon her deck, mid-charcoal gleams, The Muslim's savoury supper steams, While all apart, beneath the wood, The Hindu cooks his simpler food. Come walk with me the jungle through; If yonder hunter told us true, Far off, in the desert dank and rude, The Tiger holds his solitude; Nor taught by secret charm to shun The thunders of the english gun; A dreadful guest but rarely seen, Returns to scare the village green.