Tigers of Ranthambore & Western India Landscape

[Ashutosh]

@BorneanTiger, presence of tigers in present day Pakistan was observed till late 1800s when they were functionally extinct. Actually, human history is one major reason why they were reduced to such a state. The Indus valley has been continually occupied since 7000 BC and therefore, forest has been continuously cleared out for human settlement, resources and farming. The landscape that tigers inhabited in Pakistan is sandwiched between the thar desert and Sistan balochistan area. Very comparable to area surrounding NILE in egypt as area around the river is highly fertile but other than that it is very arid in the sindh province.

Plus the Indus has changed course many times in history(before 1819 earthquake it used to flow into rann of kutchh). So, the tigers from Ranthambore or other parts of Rajasthan couldn’t have had a direct link to tigers in Pakistan. Instead, what is more likely is that tigers from Punjab were actually related to the ones in Pakistan (there weren’t many even in the last millenium) just like Caspian tigers were only found in remote areas and were functionally extinct from human settled areas.

As for the Caspian and Bengal not coming close, that is very much down to geography. Either would have to cross Balochistan to reach the other in the southern part which is not possible for such a large animal as an arid area like that doesn’t have any decent prey base or camouflage. On the northern side, the Karakoram and Hindu Kush are high but again, not enough food to sustain crossing over. I found a couple of reports of Indian tigers found in Pakistan (not sure how credible they are because in one the tiger only “bites” a cow)

https://www.dawn.com/news/1122928

https://tribune.com.pk/story/129132/tiger-crosses-indian-border-into-mithi-mauls-two-villagers/?amp=1

On a side note, a seal from Indus Valley from 2500 BC shows a tiger, rhino and asiatic water buffalo. So, the landscape in this area was matching those of grasslands of some parts of India. With Indus flooding time to time, it is possible that these were floodplains historically. Afterall, the Asiatic cheetah also lived in this landscape. Reply