tiger

Recently the development of industrialization, urbanization and growing consumerism has resulted in the massive destruction of the forests. One reason that these forests are being destroyed is due to logging and mining companies who ignore the law and develop projects such as, thermal power plants, dams and other human encroachment on the land. They even build on "protected" land and threaten the tiger's habitat at a vastly rate. India's population is rapidly expanding and taking away the land from the tigers, when they need a lot more space than humans do. All over India, the once enormous forests have been cut down for timber or conversion to agriculture. What are left there are only small areas of forest surrounded by a growing human population. As forest space is reduced, the number of animals left in the forest is also reduced, and the tigers cannot find the prey they need to survive. Its diet consists mainly of deer, antelopes, gaurs and wild pigs. Sometimes they also capture birds, lizards, turtles, fishes, frogs and crabs. As a consequence, tigers begin to eat the livestock of villagers who live near them. Sometimes they might even attack humans and these people will kill the tigers in order to protect themselves and their livestock. Another major problem created by habitat loss is population fragmentation. As human populations move farther into the forest, villages and farms separate groups of tigers from each other. This means that tigers in one area can no longer mate with tigers in nearby areas. Instead, tigers must breed repeatedly with the same small group of animals. Over time, this inbreeding weakens the gene pool, and tigers are born with birth defects and mutations.
             Another key reason that The Royal Bengal Tiger is endangered is due to poaching. The decline of the tiger in India was, until recently, associated almost entirely to habitat loss but now it has become clear that the tiger faces an even greater threat from poachers.