When the British Killed India’s Tigers

This week, a curious statistic started floating around: India had doubled its tiger population from 1,706 tigers in 2010 to 3,682 in 2022. These numbers weren’t new, but found a new lease on life on X. Commentators started sharing photos of British people in hunting gear, standing triumphantly behind the striped beasts they had slain. These hunts would push tigers to the brink of extinction.

Though India’s tigers are making a comeback, their numbers are a fraction of the tens of thousands that once roamed the subcontinent. The British campaign against them — which they considered “vermin” and as “deceitful as women” — was insidious. Tigers weren’t the deadliest animals (that title belongs to snakes). But killing a tiger was a spectacle, a show of power. And as Britain’s grip on its colony weakened, this hunger for supremacy only intensified.