HISTORY
The tiger is not a native of India, surprising, as it may seem in the present day, because for the last two centuries it has been almost exclusively associated with India. It actually migrated south from the cold northern climes of Asia, and is still to be found in the taiga of Siberia and Manchuria, much as it existed in pre historic times. After centuries of acclimatization, the southern Asian tiger is slightly smaller than its northern progenitor, and had adapted itself to the heat and humidity of southern Asia by shedding its long hair, while remaining essentially a cold weather animal. Study shows the prevalence of tiger in Vedic times, like the word vyaghra which was never taken to mean any other animal then the tiger. Seals from Mohenjodaro and Harappa, the cradles of the Indus valley civilization, now placed at 2500 to 1700 BC, have some times pictures of animals which are unmistakably tiger on them. In pancharatna, that delight full collection of tales with a moral believed to have been written down in the second century BC, there is the story of �The ass in the tiger skin�. There is also reference of the tiger in very old Tamil writings, which are the oldest of the Dravidian group of language. There is further significance in this. The dravidians being pushed south by the Aryans invaders into India from the northwest and therefore the tiger has also penetrated and established it self in the southern parts of the sub continent in the pre historic times. In its historic migration, it settled in region with heavy cover only and bushy country. So it spread into the great forest belt that were available then, unbroken for hundreds of miles in India, Burma, Malaya, Indo-china, and far east in Bali. It seemed that it could survive the heat, as long as thick cover was available. The forests again were the natural homes of a variety of herbivores, the tiger�s food supply. In every way therefore the forest track of southern Asia become ideal homes for the tigers, and in recent times its most important abode.