Indian Animals

For the wildlife enthusiast India is the place that simply offers large variety of animal and bird-life. India holds for about 400 species of mammals and 1200 species of birds. Wildlife Safari in India is probably the best way to explore the rich flora and fauna and get close to the Mother Nature. To get the fascinating experience of the rich wildlife goes through the different National Parks and Wildlife sanctuaries in India. In totality India is the home to 80 National Parks and 440 Wildlife Sanctuaries. If you are going for the wildlife tour in India, you must live there for three to four days, to meet the wilds in their natural habitat. Spend time listening to the melodious and chirping sounds of the birds, spot the tigers in the wild, sleep in the open tents under the dark starry night. Tiger is the National animals and Peacock is the National Bird of India. These parks are vital for the protection and conservation of the endangered species such as Royal Bengal Tigers, Indian Elephants, Indian Rhinos, Siberian Crane, leopards and lions.

Many rare species of animals are found in India. Because of sheer geographical diversity India has diverse fauna as well as flora. These species are protected in a number of National Parks and Sanctuaries established throughout the country. Hunting used to be a famous sport practiced by many people in India. Due to indiscriminate killing of animals, the population of animals kept on decreasing. Then Government legislated several laws to protect the animals. It has put a ban on hunting and poaching. And set up Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks to conserve the endangered species so that they do not become extinct. Even the religious scriptures preach to respect all forms of life be it plants or animals. But due to increasing population, men resorted to deforestation. Due to cutting down of forests, these wild animals became homeless.

These ferocious animals then started coming to cities and towns. This led to their hunting and today these animals are on the verge of becoming extinct. However, the conservation movement started by the Government is spreading awareness about preserving the environment and the rare and jeopardized species of animals, birds and reptiles. Presently there are 80 national parks and 441 sanctuaries. Projects like Project Tiger and Project Elephant are launched to conserve Bengal Tiger and Elephants throughout the country. There are other individual projects as well, but they are confined to a particular region.

Indian zoos have bred tigers since 1880, the first time being at the Alipore Zoo in Calcutta. In the last two decades they have bred so successfully that there are now too many. Unfortunately other subspecies of tigers brought by dealers from outside India over the years have been mixed with Indian tigers, so that many zoo tigers are of questionable lineage and therefore not appropriate for conservation purposes. The 1994 International Tiger Studbook lists the current global captive population of Bengal tigers at 333 tigers; 289 have the typical orange coloration of most free-ranging tigers, the remaining 44 are the white color morph, a rarely observed form in the free-ranging population. All of the studbook-registered captive population is maintained in Indian zoos, except for one female Bengal tiger in North America. Completion of the Indian Bengal Tiger Studbook is a necessary prerequisite to establishing a captive management program for tigers in India.