I have been a frequent visitor to India owing to the demands of my job. But this time it was not a job assignment that prompted me to land here again- it was the magnetic pull of the Indian Wildlife, the Royal Bengal Tiger in particular.

In the Sunderbans delta I was driven into heights of wonder as I saw this reddish orange beast with narrow black, gray or brown vertical stripes stalking and then pouncing upon its prey. Tigers hunt mostly at dusk and during the day their stripes help them hide in the shadows of tall grasses. Their prey include medium and large animals such as deers, antelopes, pigs and buffaloes.

The ones that I saw were about 8-9 feet in length. My guide, a tiger enthusiast himself, told me that some of them grow even upto a length of 10 feet. I came to know that while female tigers are sexually mature at the age of 3 to 4 years, the males mature when they are 4 to 5 years old. The period of gestation is 98- 110 days after which the females can give birth upto 4 cubs at time. In the wild they live upto the age of 15, but in a controlled environment they live for as long as 18 years. I also learnt that less than 3000 Bengal tigers are left in the wild today.

In India they are found particularly in the tropical jungles, bushes, marsh lands and tall grasslands of Jim Corbett, Sunderbans, Ranthambore, Sariska and Periyar. It is listed by USFWS as endangered and protected by CITES.