India's Bengal tiger is now seriously endangered and it is thought that there may be as few as 1400 tigers remaining in the wild in India. There are two main reasons for this: Firstly there remains a huge demand for body parts of tigers (and other endangered species such as the one-horned rhino) in other countries, principally China and Japan, which has made poaching a dangerous but lucrative activity in India and, secondly, the tiger's habitat has historically been increasingly under threat due to deforestation and encroachment of forest land by people and their cattle causing conflict and fragmentation.

The tiger is India's national animal and the absolute necessity of saving the Bengal tiger for the world resulted in India's Project Tiger Scheme being implemented in 1973 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme by the Government of India. Since that time 27 tiger reserves have been developed under the Project, although there are many more National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Bird Reserves where tigers can be seen in the wild.

The Reserves are planned with a central core area which is kept free of any disturbance such as forestry, human habitation or cattle grazing. Surrounding this core there is a buffer zone which provides additional space for wildlife as well as allowing traditional village life to co-exist in harmony. Tourism and labour intensive activities inside the tiger reserves has helped to alleviate the poverty of these local people and reduce their dependence on the forests. This increase in prosperity also helps to decrease the attraction of poaching as the people of India have an innate love of all animal life and are only driven to these barbaric measures by desperation.

While still struggling to control poaching and the decline of the Bengal tiger, Project Tiger's conservation measures have saved the tiger from the brink of extinction while at the same time helping to protect many other species - a viable tiger population requires a good prey base which in turn needs vegetation in undisturbed forests and plains to survive. The Reserves also support insect and therefore reptile and bird life - so in fact in saving the tiger from extinction Project Tiger has been fundamental in conserving the whole of India's ecosystem, protecting all of India's flora and fauna in their many and varied beautiful habitats.