<P> Reginald Innes Pocock (1939) mentioned that some people had the opinion that the tiger played a role in the near - extinction of the Indian lion, but he dismissed this view as' fanciful' . According to him, there was evidence that tigers inhabited the Subcontinent, before lions . The tigers likely entered Northern India from the eastern end of the Himalayas, through Burma, and started spreading throughout the area, before the lions likely entered Northern India from Balochistan or Persia, and spread to places like the Bengal and the Nerbudda River . Because of that, before the presence of man could limit the spread of lions, tigers reached parts of India that lions did not reach . However, the presence of tigers throughout India did not stop the spread of lions there, in the first place, so Pocock said that it is unlikely that Bengal tigers played a role, significant or subordinate, in the near - extinction of the Indian lion, rather, that man was responsible for it, as was the case with the decline in tigers' numbers . As such, Pocock thought that it was unlikely that serious competition between them regularly occurred, and that even if Indian lions and tigers met, the chance that they would fight for survival was as good as the chance that they would choose to avoid each other, and that their chances of success, if they were to clash, were as good as each other's . </P> <P> Before the start of the 21st century, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and former members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, such as Azerbaijan, were reported to have had Asiatic lions and Caspian tigers . Besides Asia, lions and tigers had occurred in Europe, in the region of the Black Sea, with tigers occurring in Ciscaucasia, and lions occurring in the Balkans, up to Thrace and Macedonia, and possibly the Danube River, at least . </P> <P> Velikiy Kniaz Vladimir II Monomakh of Kievan Rus', in his work, "Poucheniya Detyam" (1117), said that while he ruled Turov (in what is now Belarus) and Chernigov (in what is now the Ukraine), he was on a hunt when he was attacked by a lyuti zver (Russian: лютый зверь, Old Russian for "fierce animal"). The zver sprang towards his thighs, and hurt him and his horse . Traditionally, the zver was considered to be a wolf or lynx, but, according to Heptner and Sludskii (1972), neither would spring at a rider or injure a horse, so it was more likely to be a big cat, with some people thinking that it could have been a leopard, or that it was more likely to be a tiger than a lion . The occurrence of the lion at the southern Russian Steppes, or the area of the mouth of the Don River, is disputed, whereas tigers likely occurred in the Russian Steppes or at the estuary of the Don River . </P> <P> In Afghanistan, it is possible that lions occurred at least in the southwest and southern parts . Tigers bred at the upper reaches of the Hari Rud or Tedzhen Darya at Herat . Tigers were found at a tributary of the Amu Darya called the "Pyandzh River," from where they could invade another place (like Persian tigers that invaded what was the Soviet Union), and the Geri, Kunduz and Murghab Rivers . Intrusions from the Soviet Union were reported in the 1960s . The last known sighting of a tiger was in the Babatag Range, which is on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, in 1998 . </P>

Who would win a fight lion or tiger