Call Of The wild

Call Of The wild:
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The tiger is the largest, most magnificent and exquisitely beautiful big cat in the world. Apart from being the national animal of India, it is also a crucial barometer of the country's ecological health. The tiger is under threat everywhere in India, due to poaching and habitat loss.



Half the world's surviving tigers are in India. In 2002 there were 3700 tigers in the country.However, the latest tiger census figures show that the Indian tiger count is only 1,411. This is truly alarming. Apart from the two well-managed tiger reserves in Corbett National Park and Bandipur, the tiger is vanishing.

Project Tiger, which was once led by brave and capable people such as Kailash Sankhala, now suffers from a leadership crisis. The latest news is that we have fewer wild tigers alive today than on the day Project Tiger was started in 1973. This is a matter of great shame for all those whose responsibility it was to save the cat, including our Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers of states in which tigers are found. The many conservationists and large NGOs will also be blamed by the future generation for failing the tiger. In truth, all of India itself has failed the tiger.

Why are things suddenly so bad for the tiger?
It has not been sudden. Tiger numbers have fallen gradually each year since 1990. India now has less than 1,500 tigers left alive. This means we have lost over 2,300 tigers in the last five years. You can see the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MoEF) press release at http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=35336

Who is killing our tigers?
Poachers of course. But large companies that mine or dam forests in which tigers live and who profit from the sale of trees are equally guilty. In fact, destroying the forest is the surest way to wipe out tigers forever.

Who is financing the poachers?
International crime syndicates and gangs are financing people to kill tigers, elephants, rhinos and almost any other species that can be sold for cash. Even the famous Kaziranga National Park has not been spared. Here, we have lost over 20 rhinos in 2007.

What does the latest report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority say?
In 1973, when the number of tigers in India was estimated to be just over 1,700, the whole world said that tigers were in grave danger and Project Tiger was launched. The new report from the National Tiger Conservation Authority suggests that in some tiger reserves such as Corbett, Kaziranga, Nagarahole, Kanha and Tadoba, the tiger is safe, but outside such protected forests and in forests where human beings still live, tigers have almost vanished, or are likely to vanish in a very short while. The report says that today we may have less than 1,500 tigers left alive. The fact is that tigers are relatively safe in those reserves where there are no humans or very few humans. In others, such as Palamau and Namdapha, they have virtually been wiped out. In 2004, Sariska lost all its tigers. In Panna, not a single tiger cub has been born seen since 2002 and over 50 per cent of the park seems to have no tigers at all. There was one breeding tigress in there, but even she has been missing since the middle of 2007. Late last year, traps and snares were discovered in the core area of the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh where everyone thought the cats were totally safe. Tiger skins regularly end up in shipments of wildlife contraband bound for far-eastern countries, including China, Japan and Hong Kong.

Ref: sanctuaryasia.com