Global News - December 2007
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Indian tigers forced to higher ground by habitat loss
Wed 19 December 2007 12:30 UK — Asia,Big Cats
India's endangered tiger population is being forced to move to new grounds, including high mountains, by continued loss of its habitat.
Experts have reported growing numbers of tiger sightings at high altitudes in India's northeast and west, as forests in foothills are increasingly built over and cleared for farming, the Gulf Times reported.
However, they warned that tigers lack the adaptability of other big cats such as leopards and, while sufficient food is available, the tigers will remain endangered.
As a result of the movement, local conservationists have called for an in-depth study to be undertaken to examine the reasons for the change and the effect it is having on the country's tiger population.
"There needs to be a special study done to find how they are doing and to learn about the extent of disturbance in the habitat below that forced them to move up," Valmik Thapar, a tiger expert, told the Gulf Times.
A census of India's tiger population undertaken in 2001 and 2002 indicated that their numbers had fallen from a peak of 40,000 a century ago to somewhere between 1,300 and 1,500 animals in the wild.
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