Under what condition did tigers live 150 years ago?

Tigers have long been a symbol of grace, power and majesty. Because of this, their body parts are highly prized in Asian countries. A new study by environmentalists says this illegal trade in tiger parts and a loss of habitat are driving the tiger to near extinction.
    Scientists from various environmental organizations present their findings from a decade-long study. They ware that tiger populations worldwide are declining faster than had been predicted. The tiger habitat range once extended from the Korean Peninsula to the Black Sea. 90 percent of that has been lost in the last 150 years. The crisis was created by the expanding human populations in India and Southeast Asia.
    People encroach on tiger habitat, kill tigers illegally, and hunt the game that tigers prey upon. Many of the forests of Asia are devoid of prey. Tigers need large deer and wild pigs. In India they eat gaur, winch is a large wild cattle. And it’s loss of prey that’s actually one of the biggest things that threatens tigers. Tigers are poached for their valuable parts. Tiger skin is in great demand from an increasingly affluent Asian population. Tiger bone has been used ill traditional medicine for hundreds of years. The poaching goes on despite laws in most countries making trafficking in tiger parts illegal. India has even established parks for the protection of tigers, but the trend continues. Poaching a tiger is very attractive because you can earn more by poaching one animal than you could by working a full year.
    Those targeted populations that are investigated are not only stable but some are also actually expanding. Some of those stable and expanding populations can be found in the Russian Far East and on the border between Nepal and India. Scientists say with proper funding, education and government protection more areas can become habitable and help secure the lung-term survival of these majestic animals.