The habitat of any living organism comprises of four components — food, water, shelter and space, said noted tiger expert Sameer Kumar Sinha while addressing students on the occasion. Painting, essay writing and on-the-spot photography contests followed the discussions. The results of the contests would be declared after a week.

During the pre-competition interactive session on the status of tigers, the 1,000-odd children from several schools across the state capital were divided into four groups. The groups were named after the four components of habitat. They were provided tiger masks by the zoo authorities while they took part in the session.

Speaking about the number of tigers in the state, Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park director S Chandrashekhar told TOI there were 22 tigers in the Valmikinagar Tiger Reserve besides four adults and three cubs in the Patna zoo. He said the tigers were counted with the help of highly sophisticated cameras installed in the forest areas. This technology depends on the fact that similar to human fingerprints, the fingerprints of no two tigers are identical. He said one could log on to www.tigerday.org for further details.

As per the official International Tiger Day website, India has the maximum number of tigers (1,706) followed by Malaysia (500) and Bangladesh (440). The website says there used to be around a lakh tigers across the world in 1913 and the species could be extinct within five years if the decrease in its numbers continues at the same pace as now. It attributes this threat of extinction facing the species to habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and climate change.

It is reported 93% of the tigers lost their natural habitat due to the expansion of cities and agriculture by human beings. Fragmented habitats also make tigers vulnerable to poaching.