ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[Shardul]

Malaria was present everywhere, but in the Terai it was extreme. It's the degree that matters here. Mosquitos need stagnant water bodies to survive and reproduce which the Terai has in plentiful all year round, plus the tall grasses make it a heaven for mosquitos. Most of Northwestern, western and central India has dry deciduous forests that see extreme summers and limited water supply, which means the malaria threat is far lesser. Plus, the relatively open terrain means tigers are easier to spot and hunt. The tigers of north western India were being hunted far before 1900, because they had some of the highest human population density and was also the area that faced the most invasions and saw the largest wars. This means the tigers there already had been depleted in their gene pool.

There's a reason I use the term Terai, since its a landscape that is half in India and half in nepal, and all of Nepal's tigers are found there. When you talk of north western India, the topography is vastly different. The whole of India is very diverse in terms of geography, and that plays a part in tigers being hunted in those areas more or less. Reply