>But there has also been an increase in human-tiger conflict recently and one reason is that India has too many tigers and too few forests that can sustain them unless more protected reserves are added. //
So they've stopped people killing them, but haven't unfortunately, it seems, been able to address the issue that leads to people killing them.
Presumably at some point the forest area needs to increase, or people will start killing tigers to protect themselves?
I wonder too how much of the increase is improved technique in finding (and recording?)?
If conditions are good, the tigers will presumably increase in number to fill any additional forest area available to them, as well. So I expect the best-case scenario is to provide enough reserved land for the tiger population to be at a safe size, and maintain that population by culling if needed.
They'd only adopt all forest if food was limitless, they're going to reduce their growth below replacement by over-predation before they inhabit the entire World. It's possible that forest increase would see a commensurate increase in prey, but it's not a given, I imagine.
You sound spot on with the culling, population management is a complex problem given the tendency towards chaos for such systems.
So they've stopped people killing them, but haven't unfortunately, it seems, been able to address the issue that leads to people killing them.
Presumably at some point the forest area needs to increase, or people will start killing tigers to protect themselves?
I wonder too how much of the increase is improved technique in finding (and recording?)?