NATIONAL ANIMAL OF INDIA

 

The national animal of India is Bengal Tiger. This belongs to the cat family with short thick fur coat in golden brown color with grey or black vertical stripes all over the body and patches of white color in face and bottom portion of the body. They grow up to 10 feet long and weigh from 200 to 250 kilograms. The scientific name of tiger is Panthera Tigris, Linnaeus. This animal has been adopted as the national animal of India in 1973 and it is a symbol of royal grace and strength. The tiger is attributed to the Hindu God Lord Shiva and in pictures and idols of Lord Shiva you can see him wearing tiger skin clothes and sitting on the tiger.

 

The royal Bengal tiger is seen in India and its neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The Sunderbans of Bengal is the home of these tigers. They are carnivorous animals and feed on cattle, fish and other small animals. They live for about 20 years. Sometimes due to ageing and physical weakness they also become man eaters. The man eaters are very dangerous types of tigers because if they taste the blood of man once they will only look out for hunting man. But usually the normal tigers do no harm to human beings and rather they are afraid of humans. The tigers are fast runners and equally excellent in swimming. They are gifted with good eyesight and so they can watch their prey even at a good distance and their vision can penetrate through the darkness in the wild.

 

The World Census RSeport says that there are only about 5000 to 7000 tigers in the world at present out of which around 4000 tigers live in India. There are eight species of Tigers in India and among them the royal Bengal tiger is the national animal of India. As this animal is at the verge of extinction, the Project Tiger was launched in 1973 by the Government of India. This is aimed at preserving the population of tiger and breeding them under natural conditions. As a part of this project 23 tiger reserves were established all over India and this covers 33, 406 square kilometers.

 

Today there are 39 tiger reserves in India to protect the national animal of India and these reserves include the Great Himalayan National Park, Dudhwa National Park, Kaziranga National Park, Namdapha National Park, Sariska Tiger Reserve, Nagarhole National Park, Bannarghatta National Park, etc.

 

Hunting of tigers is banned and is a crime to be punished severely. But still they are killed for their bones and skins as they have good demand in the market and are used for making Chinese medicine. The Wildlife Protection Society of India has recorded that from the year 1994 till 2009, 893 tigers were killed in India. Though there is a gradual increase in the population of tigers the returns are not very much satisfactory. The young children are taught about the importance of saving the national animal of India from extinction in their environmental education classes. It is the duty of every citizen of India to protect the National Animal of India.

Article Posted By : SumazlalView All Articles

Suhaina Mazhar is a freelance content writer and blogger with five years experience in content writing. http://sumazla.blogspot.com is her blog.

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Keywords :
NATIONAL ANIMAL OF INDIA , indian national animal , national animal tiger

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