Other threats to the tiger

What are the other threats to the tiger?
Almost every forest in India is under attack from agriculture, cattle grazing and commercial projects including dams, coal mines, four-lane highways, thermal plants, cement factories, steel plants, ports and even nuclear reactors. Those who truly love wildlife are not empowered to save the tiger and those in whose hands we have left the tiger seem not to care about the cat.

What is wrong with the Forest Rights Act?
With this dangerous new law in place, people have already started moving into wildlife areas to cut down trees and claim land. This will not only result in the death of tigers and other wildlife, but will make our existing climate change problem even worse. Over 25 per cent of all the greenhouse gasses released by India are a result of deforestation. This situation will worsen and, potentially, 7.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide could be spewed into the air. This will also affect our lakes and rivers and, therefore, our agriculture.

Can’t the MoEF do anything?
That is what they were set up to do, but instead of protecting forests, the ministry has become a tool in the hands of politicians who ‘somehow’ manage to convince the ministry to approve very destructive industrial projects. Over 15,000 hectares of forest land was destroyed with their permission for 49 industrial projects, including mining, irrigation and windmills. This could mean cutting down around three million trees. Additionally, lakhs of trees are being cut for state and central government projects that need 40 hectares of land or less.