The wildlife of India comprises a fascinating melting pot of animals from Europe, Asia and ancient Gondwanaland, all swirled together in a bewildering mix of habitats ranging from steamy mangrove forests and jungles to sandy deserts and icy alpine mountains. India is celebrated for its big, bold species – tigers, elephants, rhinos, leopards and bears. But there's much more, including a mesmerising collection of colourful birds and some of the world’s most endangered and intriguing wildlife, such as the Ganges river dolphin and the Asiatic lion.
If you had to pick India’s most charismatic species, the list would inevitably include tigers, elephants and rhinos, all of which are scarce and in need of stringent protection.
Asian elephants – a thoroughly different species to the larger African elephant – are revered in Hindu custom and were able to be domesticated and put to work. Fortunately they've not been hunted into extinction (as they were in neighbouring China), and many still survive in the wild. Because they migrate long distances in search of food, these 3000kg animals require huge parks; interspecies conflicts often erupt when herds of elephants attempt to follow ancestral paths that are now occupied by villages and farms. Some of the best parks for elephant viewing are Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand and Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka.
There are far fewer one-horned rhinos left and two-thirds (numbering 2401, according to a 2015 census) of the world’s total population can be found in Kaziranga National Park, where they wander lush alluvial grasslands at the base of the Himalaya. They may look sedate but rhinos are unpredictably dangerous, built like battering rams, covered in plates of armour-like skin and use their sharp teeth to tear off chunks of flesh when they attack – so let’s just say that it’s safest to watch them from a distance.
And then there's the tiger. This awesome, iconic animal is critically endangered but can be seen, if you're lucky, at tiger reserves around the country – your best chance of spotting one is in Madhya Pradesh.
Wildlife-watching has become one of India's prime tourist activities, and there are hundreds of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries offering opportunities to spot rare and unusual creatures. Your visit helps notify the government and local people that protecting endangered species and fragile ecosystems is important, and of economic value. So take some time to track down a rhino or spot a tiger on safari.
India is especially famed for its tigers, but is also home to 14 other species of cats.
Protection efforts have been successfully made on behalf of the Asiatic lion, a close relative of the more familiar African lion. A hundred years ago there were only 20 of these lions left in the world but their population, an estimated 523 according to a May 2015 census, indicates that they now seem to be doing quite well in Gujarat’s Sasan Gir National Park.
Up to 750 snow leopards exist in the alpine altitudes of Ladakh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh – where it is the official state animal. This much-celebrated big cat is so elusive that many locals claim it can appear and disappear at will. Your chances of seeing one are small, but if you want to seek this ghost-like feline, try the Spiti region for starters.
Other wild cats include the clouded leopard and its smaller cousin, the marbled cat, both of which lurk in the jungles of northeast India. They are strikingly marked with rosettes and rings for camouflage in the dappled light of their forest homes.
The country is also home to about 3000 wild Indian wolves, which can best be seen in Gujarat's Blackbuck National Park. Jackals, foxes and dholes can be spotted in enclaves around the country. The rare, and most ancient, breed of wolf – the Spitian – howls over Spiti Valley.
The most abundant forms of wildlife you’ll see in India are deer (nine species), antelope (six species), goats and sheep (10 species), and primates (15 species). In the open grasslands of many parks look for the stocky nilgai, India’s largest antelope, or elegantly horned blackbucks. If you’re heading for the mountains keep your eyes open, in the Himalaya, for blue sheep – with partially curled horns – or the rare argali, with fully curled horns, found in Ladakh. The deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat are home to arid land species such as chinkaras (Indian gazelles); while the mangrove swamps of the Sundarban Delta have chitals (spotted deer), who cope with their brackish environment by excreting salt from their nasal glands. Chitals are also the most prolific deer in central India's high-profile tiger reserves.
India’s primates range from the extremely rare hoolock gibbon and golden langur of the northeast to species that are so common as to be pests – most notably the stocky and aggressive rhesus macaque and the grey langur. In the south, the cheeky monkeys that loiter around temples and tourist sites are bonnet macaques.
When naturalist Jim Corbett first raised the alarm in the 1930s, no one believed that tigers would ever be threatened. At the time, it was believed there were 40,000 tigers in India, although no one had ever conducted a census. Then came Independence, which put guns into the hands of villagers who pushed into formerly off-limits hunting reserves seeking highly profitable tiger skins. By the time an official count was made in 1972, there were only 1800 tigers left, and the international outcry partly prompted Indira Gandhi to make the tiger the national symbol of India and set up Project Tiger (National Tiger Conservation Authority; http://projecttiger.nic.in). It has since established 47 tiger reserves totalling over 68,676 sq km that protect not only this top predator but all animals that share its habitat. After some initial successes against the practice, relentless poaching over the past decade has caused tiger numbers to plummet, from 3600 in 2002 to 1706 in 2011. Despite countless rupees and high-tech equipment devoted to saving this majestic animal, out of 63 wild tiger deaths in 2013, only one was from old age, while 48 were from poaching. Fortunately, the most recent tiger census results, from January 2015, show an encouraging rise in India's tiger population, to 2226. This census revealed that the country's highest number of tigers, in the age group of 1½ years and over, are in Karnataka, which has a total of 408 tigers. Karnataka is followed by Uttarakhand with 340 tigers. Other states with more than 100 tigers are Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.
Despite having amazing biodiversity, India faces a growing challenge from its burgeoning human population. Wildlife is severely threatened by poaching and habitat loss. One report suggested India had over 500 threatened species, including 247 species of plants, 53 species of mammals, 78 species of birds, 22 species of reptiles, 68 species of amphibians, 35 species of fish and 22 species of invertebrates. In 2012, the International Union for Conservation of Nature released a list of the 100 most threatened species in the world. It included four Indian species; a spider, a turtle and two birds – the great Indian bustard and white-bellied heron.
Even well-resourced conservation projects, such as Project Tiger, face ongoing challenges. Every good news story seems to be followed by yet another story of poaching gangs or tiger or leopard attacks on villagers. All of India’s wild cats, from snow leopards to panthers and jungle cats, are facing extinction from habitat loss and poaching for the lucrative trade in skins and body parts for Chinese medicine (a whole tiger carcass can fetch upwards of UK£32,000). Still, conservation efforts are seeing some notable successes, with a particularly positive growth rate among the country's tiger population.
Even highly protected rhinos are poached for the medicine trade – rhino horn is highly valued as an aphrodisiac in China and as a material for making handles for daggers in the Gulf.
Elephants are widely poached for ivory. Although reliable statistics are difficult to find (due to the illegal nature of poaching), ivory poaching has reportedly been responsible for anywhere between 44% and 68% of all male elephant deaths in three Indian provinces; we implore you not to support this trade by buying ivory souvenirs.
Various species of deer are threatened by hunting for food and trophies, and the chiru, or Tibetan antelope, is nearly extinct because its hair is woven into wool for expensive shahtoosh shawls.
India’s bear species remain under threat, although sloth bears are experiencing a reprieve with the recent demise of the dancing bear industry. In the rivers, India’s famous freshwater dolphins are in dire straits from pollution, habitat alteration and direct human competition. The sea-turtle populations that nest on the Odisha coast also face environmental challenges.
Threatened primate species clinging on in rainforests in the south include lion-tailed macaques, glossy black Nilgiri langurs and the slender loris, an adept insect-catcher with huge eyes for nocturnal hunting.
Human/animal conflict has been spiralling upwards across India in recent times, as wildlife habitat shrinks and human settlement expands.
There has been a rising number of reports of tigers taking up residence in inhabited areas, following hot on the heels of a huge increase in urban leopards, which have been spotted wandering around villages and even large towns. What is interesting is that the incomers are often tolerated by locals as a form of biological pest control. It has long been acknowledged that tiger attacks on humans are mainly carried out by elderly tigers who no longer have the vim to pursue their normal prey of boars, deer and other wildlife. The sense of symbiosis is striking: humans plant crops that attract boars, who in turn wreak havoc on said crops until tigers step in to restore the balance. At the same time, the presence of humans may deter prowling male tigers who might otherwise attack the female’s cubs.
Nevertheless, authorities still advise caution, as annually there are around 100 people reportedly killed or injured by wild jungle cats. While such attacks tend to get lots of press coverage and cause panic, it's actually rare for tigers to turn into true maneaters; those that do are generally old, injured or both. In comparison, around 45,000 Indians die each year from snakebite, and an estimated 20,000 die from rabid dog bites.
With well over 1000 species of birds, India is a birdwatcher’s dream. Many birds are thinly spread over this vast country, but wherever critical habitat has been preserved in the midst of dense human activity, you might see phenomenal numbers of birds in one location. Winter can be a particularly good time, as wetlands throughout the country host northern migrants arriving to kick back in the lush subtropical warmth of the Indian peninsula. Throughout the year, wherever you may be travelling, look for colourful kingfishers, barbets, sunbirds, parakeets and magpies, or the blue flash of an Indian roller. Keen types will take a special trip into the Himalaya in search of one of India’s (and the world’s) mostly highly sought-after birds, the enigmatic ibisbill.
Once considered the premier duck-hunting destination in the British Empire, when royal hunting parties would shoot 4000 ducks in a single day, the seasonal wetlands of Rajasthan's Keoladeo Ghana were elevated to national park status in 1982, and the park is rightly famous for its migratory avian visitors. Now whittled down to a relatively small pocket of habitat amid a sea of villages and agricultural fields, this is still one of the finest birdwatching destinations in the world. Even better, Keoladeo Ghana and its abundant birdlife are ridiculously easy to explore: just hop on a bike at the gate and tootle around the flat tracks that weave among the park’s clearly defined ponds and marshes.
India's largest contiguous protected area is the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, in Uttarakhand, covering 2237 sq km. It includes India's second-highest peak (Nanda Devi – 7817m) and the famous Valley of Flowers. India's smallest national park is South Button Island, in the Andamans, at less than 5 sq km.
Once upon a time India was almost entirely covered in forest; now its total forest cover is estimated to be around 22%. Despite widespread clearing of native habitats, the country still boasts 49,219 plant species, of which some 5200 are endemic. Species on the southern peninsula show Malaysian ancestry, while desert plants in Rajasthan are more clearly allied with the Middle East, and the conifer forests of the Himalaya derive from European and Siberian origins. The Forest Survey of India has set an optimistic target of returning to 33% cover.
Outside of the mountain forests found in the Himalaya, nearly all the lowland forests of India are subtypes of tropical forest, with native sal forests forming the mainstay of the timber industry. Some of these tropical forests are true rainforest, staying green year-round – such as in the Western Ghats and in the northeast states – but most forests are deciduous; during the hot, dry months of April and May, many forests lose their canopies, as leaves wither and fall from the trees. This is often the best time to view wildlife, as the cover is thinner, and animals seek out scarce waterholes.
High-value trees such as Indian rosewood, Malabar kino and teak have been virtually cleared from the Western Ghats, and sandalwood is endangered across India due to illegal logging for the incense and woodcarving industries. A bigger threat to forested lands is firewood harvesting, often carried out by landless peasants who squat on gazetted government land.
Several trees have significant religious value in India, including the silk-cotton tree, a huge tree with spiny bark and large red flowers under which Pitamaha (Brahma), the god of creation, sat after his labours. Two well-known figs, the banyan and peepal, grow to immense size by dangling roots from their branches and fusing into massive multitrunked jungles of trunks and stems – one giant is nearly 200m across. It is said that Buddha achieved enlightenment while sitting under a peepal (also known as the Bodhi tree).
The foothills and slopes of the Himalaya preserve classic montane species, including blue pine and deodar (Himalayan cedar), and deciduous forests of apple, chestnut, birch, plum and cinnamon. Above the snowline, hardy plants such as anemones, edelweiss and gentians can be prolific, and one fabulous place to see such flowers is at the Valley of Flowers National Park in Uttarakhand.
India’s hot deserts have their own unique species – the khejri tree and various strains of scrub acacia. The hardy sea-buckthorn bush is the main fruiting shrub in the high-altitude deserts of the Himalaya.
Prior to 1972 India only had five national parks. The Wildlife Protection Act was introduced that year to set aside land for parks and stem the abuse of wildlife. The act was followed by a string of similar pieces of legislation with bold ambitions but few teeth with which to enforce them.
India now has 166 national parks and 515 wildlife sanctuaries, which constitute around 5% of India’s territory. Additional parks have been authorised on paper but not yet implemented on the ground or only implemented to varying degrees. There are also 14 biosphere reserves, overlapping many of the national parks and sanctuaries, providing safe migration channels for wildlife and allowing scientists to monitor biodiversity.
We strongly recommend visiting at least one national park or sanctuary on your travels – the experience of coming face-to-face with a wild elephant, rhino or tiger will stay with you for a lifetime, while your visit adds momentum to efforts to protect India’s natural resources. Wildlife reserves tend to be off the beaten track and infrastructure can be limited – book transport and accommodation in advance, and check opening times, permit requirements and entry fees before you visit. Many parks close to conduct a census of wildlife in the low season, and monsoon rains can make wildlife-viewing tracks inaccessible.
Almost all parks offer jeep/van tours, but you can also search for wildlife on guided treks, boat trips and elephant safaris. However, many animal welfare organisations advise against riding elephants because of the health implications for elephants, and because of the techniques used to train elephants to carry passengers. New rules introduced in 2012 put an end to 'tiger shows', whereby resting tigers became sitting ducks for tourists that were radioed in, taken off their jeep and put on elephants to get close to the, presumably peeved, resting tiger. Also, in many reserves, safari vehicle visits have been reduced and some tiger sanctuaries may be closed to safaris one day a week. These rules still are in flux, so do find out the latest situation before booking your safari.
While national parks and wildlife sanctuaries have been crucial to protecting the habitats of India's endangered species, their creation has had some tragic consequences. As a result of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, which banned people from living in parks, about 1.6 million Adivasis and other forest-dwellers were evicted from their traditional lands. Many were resettled into villages and forced to abandon their age-old ways of life, resulting in profound personal suffering and irreplaceable cultural losses. Today, the Forest Rights Act of 2006 forbids the displacement of forest-dwellers from national parks (except in so-called 'critical wildlife habitat'), and should protect the four million or so people who still live in them. It's still too early to tell how successful the law will be at helping tribes remain in parks – and how their continued presence will impact fragile wildlife habitat.
For more on the Forest Rights Act and issues surrounding 'people in parks', visit www.forestrightsact.com; also see the Traditional Cultures Project at www.traditionalculturesproject.org.