The manual traffic lights signal green for Bengal tiger to cross the main road. The tweet by Parveen Kaswan, a wildlife officer in India, explains it all. It is a very nice video of a magnificent tiger crossing the main road in what is believed to be Maharashtra. An official at opposite sides of the crossing hold back the traffic in deference to the tiger who ambles across the road. It is, after all, his territory. He was there before people and it is nice to see this but it is a reflection of the lack of space in India for the Bengal tiger. There are just too many people in India to provide the tiger with the vast amount of space that they require without some sort of human-tiger conflict.
Green signal only for tiger. These beautiful people. Unknown location. pic.twitter.com/437xG9wuom
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) July 22, 2022
Note: This is an embedded tweet. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
It is ironic that tourists from Europe and America can spend thousands of pounds to visit tiger reserves to spot an elusive Bengal tiger (sometimes they never see one) with the help of a tourist guide when daily commuters are treated to a front seat view free of charge. 😎 Lucky them.
Apparently, sightings of Bengal tigers are becoming more frequent in the state of Maharashtra because of their wildlife sanctuaries.
The video shows drivers keeping quiet on the directions of what I believe is a police officer or a wildlife officer. The tiger slowly emerges from the undergrowth and crosses the road unhurriedly and then disappears into the forest on the other side.
The Times report written by Amrit Dhillon, states that this sighting confirms the success of Project Tiger which was launched in 1973 to save this iconic cat species from dying out because of habitat loss and poaching, and, in general, increased human activity.
RELATED: a website on the tiger.
I’m not so sure that this is a sign of success of that project. The journalist says that the tiger population rose from 1,411 and 2006 to 2,967 and 2018 which is the date of the last census (note: 4 years ago).
I think that you will find that counting tigers is incredibly difficult and problematic. The Red List believes that the number of mature tiger individuals, which is a combination of Bengal and Siberian tigers, amounts to between 2,608-3,140. Although the information on the Red List website is confusing because there is an error currently on that site which is unsurprising. I can remember years ago being told that there were 3,500 Bengal tigers. That indicates a continuing decline which squares up with what the Red List states, which is meant to be the number one, go to, portal for information about tiger conservation.
Below are some more articles on the tiger.
