Various types of wild animals are found in the forests of India.

Since primitive
days the wild animals have close relationship with the mankind. The major wild
animals of India are elephant, tiger, lion, rhino, bear etc. They live in the de
nse forests.
The Sundarban of West Bengal is the home of the Royal Bengal Tigers. Similarly l
ions live in the Gir Forest of Gujarat, and rhinoceroses live in the dense, mars
hy and moist forests of Assam, north Bengal and Tripura. Elephants and tigers li
ve in the forests of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka and in the foot Himal
ayas and Chhotnagpur plateaus.
Besides, panthers, wolves, bears, deer. Antelopes, bisons etc. live in almost al
l forests of India. Ibex types of wild goats with long furs are found in Kashmir
. Musk-deer and yaks are found in the Himalayan region in the borders of India a
nd Nepal. Neel-gay is seen in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In our forests d
ifferent kinds of venomous snakes like python, cobra etc. are also found. In alm
ost all our forests live monkeys, hares, jackaks, foxes etc.
Varieties of birds are seen in our forests, the most important of which are the
peacock, cuckoo, myna, horn-bill (kochila khai), kite, vulture, hawk etc. Swans,
ducks, crows, golden oriole, cranes, doves etc. are found almost everywhere. Ti
ger is our national animal and peacock, the national bird. The number of wild an
imals is gradually diminishing as our forests are diminishing.
Preservation of Wildlife:
The Government of India have forbidden hunting of birds and animals and declared
it punishable under law as the number of many kinds of wildlife diminishes beyo
nd expectation. Many plans are being executed for preservation of wildlife.
There are at present 20 national parks and 190 wildlife sanctuaries in different
States of India for preservation of wildlife. In 1972 the Indian Wildlife Board
launched a national scheme called the "Project Tiger" to protect the tiger popu
lation.
This tiger project ensures complete protection to the tiger species in seven spe
cially selected reserves at Manas (Assam), Palamau (Bihar), Similipal (Orissa),
the Corbett National Park (U.P.), Melghat (Maharashtra), Manipur (Karnataka) and
Sundarbans (West Bengal). The other vanishing species like the rhinoceros and th
e lion are preserved in the Kaziranga National Park of Assam and the Girl Forest
s of Gujarat respectively.
In Orissa the Candace Forests near Bhubaneswar have been declared as Elephant Re
serve and Chalice Lake as the Bird Sanctuary. There are crocodile sanctuaries at
Satkosia of Tikarpada and Bhitar Kanika (Cuttack District) now Kendrapara Distr
ict.