The Bengal tiger is one of the world's best known tiger species because it is part of India's national crest, and also because this is one of the few tiger species to be bred successfully in captivity. Unfortunately, even though captive breeding programs have been successful, this tiger still faces extinction due to hunting and habitat loss. The last population count, done in 2000, estimates the tiger population to be between 3,159-4,715 with about 333 tigers in zoos worldwide. This is a high number compared to their cousin the Sumatran tiger; however, this species is still diminishing in numbers because of the exponential increase in the human population.

Currently, Bengal tigers can be found in a variety of different habitats in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Myanmar. This particular tiger can live in areas of high altitude, cold coniferous forests of the Himalayas, and even warm mangrove forests and swampy reedlands. Perhaps this adaptability to all sorts of different habitats is what has helped the tiger survive so long. Unfortunately, as the human population has expanded, the Bengal tiger has been pushed into smaller and smaller sections of land.

Male Bengal tigers require a territory of 20 square miles, and females require about 17 square miles in order for them to feel protected. The only time the two territories overlap is during breeding season, usually between February and March. About 65-70 days after mating, females will give birth to a litter of about 1-4 young. The young tigers are born with their eyes closed, and will not open them until ten days after birth. The young will then stay with their mother for 18 months, and then will move on to establish their own territory and start the breeding cycle all over again.

The Indian government, understanding how critically important the right amount of territory is to the Bengal tiger, set up a conservation program called "Project Tiger" in 1972. The aim of Project Tiger is to ensure maintenance of a viable population of tigers for scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural, and ecological values. Since this project began, 80 reserves for the tigers have been set up in India. Not just any park or game preserve can be considered by the Indian government to be a tiger reserve - there are criteria the area must meet before becoming a reserve. The criteria are: the area must have little or no disturbance to the land, no drilling, mining, or timber harvesting ventures are permitted in the reserve, and they must be in different providences, so that responsibility could be evenly distributed throughout the entire country.

In these reserves, certain areas are designated as breeding grounds for the tigers, and these areas are out of bounds for the public. Also outside these reserves, corridors were set up so the tigers could roam freely between the reserves. So far by giving the tigers these reserves, it has helped Project Tiger to be a success. Since the project started, they have increased the population from 1,800 to 4,000 tigers.

Although Project Tiger has been a success, it has been a long road to get there. Before it was implemented, almost 3,000 tigers were killed by hunters in the 1950's and 1960's. In 1970 however, India made it illegal to hunt tigers and export their skins. Hunting of the Bengal tiger is also now illegal in Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. This ban on hunting has helped reduce the number of tiger deaths at the hands of poachers, but land management techniques also have to be implemented in order to help this species.

One of the initiatives of Project Tiger was the relocation of villages, so that the reserves could be created without human interference. These villages were moved to areas where the human population would no longer conflict with the wildlife. Surprisingly, very little resistance was put up during the moves, because a good majority of the people from these villages were trained and then employed as workers in the reserves. Unfortunately, although this works very well in India where there is still room to move people around, in countries such as China or Japan, this might not be possible.

After all this work was put in for Project Tiger, and people were becoming aware of the tiger's plight, it seemed promising until just recently. In 1998, it was discovered that the Bengal tigers had started to inbreed with the Siberian tiger. Since the genetic diversity was already seriously eroded due to captive breeding techniques done in Indian zoos in the 1800's, scientists worried that there would not be enough tigers to keep up a viable population in the wild. So far, little has been done about this, but scientists are studying the effects of this inbreeding and keeping a closer eye on captive breeding through both the Bengal tiger and Siberian tiger studbook.

The other problem that arose is a mystery to scientists. In the past couple of years (since 1999), there have been almost 30 people killed in tiger attacks. Reasons for these attacks are unknown; however, the governments of India and Bangladesh are planning to study the tiger's behavior to see what has been the cause of these attacks. They are also going to study the effect of the saline in the water to see if that might have had an effect on the tiger's behavior.

The future for the Bengal tiger is uncertain. Despite the success of Project Tiger, the lack of genetic diversity and the recent human fatalities do not bode well for the species. Hopefully, the Indian and Bangladesh governments will be able to find out the cause of these attacks before it is once again open hunting season on the Bengal tiger.