Esoteric Experiences Indian Wildlife
It was first the discovery of the white tiger in India that made headlines the World Over. India is blessed with amazing wilderness. Even after centuries of hunting and wood logging the country still retains considerable wilderness in 32 hundred thousand square km of land.
It is home to over 350 mammals, 2000 species of birds including the subspecies and an amazing number of reptiles and insects. India is known as the land of the tiger with more than half the global population of the predator. The most majestic and now critically endangered animal is the tiger. At the turn of the century, there were more than a hundred thousand big cats in India. Before independence, forty thousand tigers survived in the vast stretches of forests and grasslands.
But habitat destruction due to increasing agrarian practices and livestock keeping, most of the habitats were converted into fields and settlements. Post-independence, the forest habitats are completely fragmented. They are restricted to 51 tiger reserves and many National Parks and wildlife sanctuaries in an area barely comparing over one hundred thousand kilometres.
Wildlife habitats are in a disarray and cut off without any viable corridors facing the risk of extinction due to inbreeding and continuous habitat destruction. It was the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 that stemmed the rot.
Project Tiger Program was another saviour, and inviolate areas in the reserves provided succour to the beleaguered wildlife and the remaining ecosystems. Well, and good, the tiger numbers that had plummeted to 1400 or less have risen to 3000 plus now.
A lot of revenue is being pumped up for conservation from overseas and domestic tourism. A large populace is now wildlife-aware, and tourism is on the rise. Not only revenue for conservation, but wildlife tourism is also providing an immense opportunity for employment to locals and empowerment is taking place among the women and children in remote confines.
India's Esoteric Wildlife
The country is well known for the white tiger which has been found in the wild only once but the animal survives in very large numbers in captivity the World over. It was discovered at Sanjay Dubri National Park in Central India by the erstwhile Maharajah of Rewa.
The Cheetah once found all over the country became extinct in the fifties, but it has been again reintroduced in the wild. Hope lingers that it will survive and multiply.
Another charismatic animal that tourists seek in the country is the black panther. Its sighting has increased in Pench, Nagzira and Kabini. The Asiatic Lion once widespread in the plains and grasslands still survives in Gir National Park in Gujarat, and its numbers are growing. Indian one-horned rhino is found in many parks like Kaziranga, Manas, Pobitara and Dudhwa National Parks. These are the megafauna we are discussing here, but the country is home to amazing esoteric lesser-known wildlife.
- Red Panda
- Clouded Leopard
- Snow Leopard
- Takin
- Goral
- Hoolock Gibbon
- Pigmy Hog
- Golden Langur
- Nilgiri Langur
- Lion Tailed Macaque
- Hog Deer
- Hard Ground Swamp Deer
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| Photo Bengal Tiger |
Manas (Golden Langur)
- Kanha National Park
- Corbett National Park
- Bandhavgarh National Park
- Ranthambore National Park
- Pench National Park
- Tadoba National Park.
Uday Writes about tigers and safaris having worked as a naturalist for a number of years. He loves to write about Indian Wildlife. Uday provides content, SEO and digital marketing services as well.
He can be contacted by emails
pateluday90@hotmail.com
09755089323
