Breeding programs for the Bengal tiger of India were started from the year 1880 only. The tigers were bred for the first time at the Alipore Zoo of Calcutta (now Kolkata). Since the breeding program for Indian Bengal tigers turned out to be very successful, more programs were carried out. The last two decades have seen many more programs receiving success. International Tiger Studbook of 1994 revealed the global captive population of the Bengal tigers to be somewhere around 333.

The quality of breeding programs is getting very much affected these days. The reason for this is that the Indian Bengal tigers are being mixed with other subspecies of tigers brought by dealers from outside India. The lineage of such captive tigers becomes highly questionable and they become inappropriate for conservation purposes. The entire captive population of Bengal tiger has been kept in the Indian zoos only, except for one female Bengal tiger that is presently in North America.

Many zoological parks in India are also carrying out breeding programs revolving around the Bengal Tiger of India under carefully controlled conditions. Not a very long time back, a lion cub was born in the Calcutta (Kolkata) zoo. However, the newborn cubs are genetically quite different from the older tigers. This is because of a feature of their genetic recombination, which is known as genetic variation. This genetic variation helps the cubs in adapting to the nature as well as fighting against any odds.