Tiger is India’s national animal. Here are some interesting facts:

• Status: endangered
• Only 3,200 tigers remain in the wild around the world (there were about 100,000 tigers in the wild a century ago)
• Of them, an estimated 2,226 tigers prowl Indian forests, as per findings published in 2014
• That’s up from an est. 1,411 in 2006 and an est. 1,706 in 2010
• Tiger census is held every 4 years
• In India, tigers are found across forests in 18 states
• India has 48 designated tiger reserves
• A tigress, on an average, requires 40-60 km territory for successful breeding
• Southern India’s Mudumalai-Bandipur-Nagarhole-Wayanad zone is home to the world’s single largest tiger population est. at 570
• The 2014 findings showed a significant increase in tiger population in India’s Chhattisgarh state; that’s because survey was conducted in Indravati Tiger Reserve for the first time in 12 years
• The 2014 survey covered a total of 378,118 sq. km of forests; that’s an area bigger than Germany’s total land mass
• Key survey methods include camera traps and scat analysis for DNA evidence
• Tiger replaced the Asiatic Lion as India’s national animal in 1972 because of its presence across the country and the need for its conservation; the lion on the other hand is only found in India’s Gir forest
• July 29 is celebrated as World Tiger Day