TIGERS UNDER THREAT

 

TIGERS UNDER THREAT

 

 Nikunja Bihari Sahu

 

     Conservationists are now concerned about the declining population of the largest predating big cat of India, the Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris). While there were 40,000 tigers in India at the beginning of the twentieth century, there are now hardly 2200 tigers surviving today. Loss and fragmentation of habitat due to deforestation and development, lack of prey, hunting and poaching and overall hatred feeling of people have taken a heavy toll of this majestic animal and pushed them to the brink of extinction. As a result, tigers in India have been declared as an endangered species by IUCN since 2008.  Although the Govt. has shown keenness for its conservation through major initiatives like Project Tiger (launched since 1973) there has not been any appreciable increase in the population of tigers.

 Indicator of Ecological Health

       Tigers are primarily maintained for their scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values. Protecting tigers, we protect forests vital to the planet’s life support system, preserve fresh water sources as tiger landscapes often overlap major watersheds areas, maintain other wildlife like elephants, sustain lives and livelihoods of traditional and indigenous people of the region and promote tourism.  Due to this, tigers in the wild are regarded as the indicators of the ecological health of the planet.  Being the top predators of the jungle ecosystem, they feast on the herbivores like deer to keep their population under control which could potentially destroy forests by consuming the plants.

    Heritage Animal

 Tigers have been long associated in our folklores and epitomized in our culture as symbol of bravery and, hence, adorned as the National animal of India.  One of the earliest portrayals of the tiger in India is found in the Harappan seals from the Indus valley culture, dating back to 2500 BC, which depict an intricate association between people and tigers. In the language of Jim Corbett, the famous English hunter, “The tiger is a large hearted gentleman with boundless courage and that when he is exterminated- as exterminated he will be unless public opinion rallies to his support- India will be the poorer by having lost the finest of her fauna.”  India being home to about 70 per cent of the global tiger population, the country has an important role to play in the field of tiger conservation.

 Difficulty in Maintaining a Tiger in the Wild

         However tiger, being a carnivore, largely remains a threat to the man and the livestock. We cannot   ignore the agonies of the family members of the people falling victims to tigers.  Hence, all our conservation measures should ensure that the big cats are not starved of food in their own territories. Otherwise, they will be forced to make their way into the human habitats like the recent case of Sundari, the tigress of the Satkosia Reserve that frequently strayed into the farms eying for cattle.

           It is not quite easy to maintain a tiger in the wild, as a tiger is a fierce territorial and needs quite a large area to prowl which it generally marks with urine, feces, rakes and scrapes. Across their range, tigers face unrelenting pressures from poaching, retaliatory killings and habitat loss. They are often forced to compete for space with the dense and often growing human population. Tigers, being mostly solitary animals, are also difficult to be spotted and counted.

Conservation

        If tigers are to survive this century and beyond, their home ranges urgently need protection and restoration. This requires sustained support from Government and the communities. The tiger cannot be preserved in isolation. Because it is at the apex of a large and complex biotope, its habitat, threatened by human intrusion, commercial forestry and cattle grazing, must first be made secured.  Frontline forest officials should be properly trained and equipped with modern instruments for surveillance for monitoring its movements and smart communication system to trace the poachers. Above all, we should change our mindset to understand its importance in the world around us and propagate this message in our effort to save and sustain this beautiful, iconic animal.

                                                 

                                                     Education Officer

                                                    Regional Science Centre

                                                    Bhopal

 

 

 

 

                                     Royal Bengal Tigress Sundari of Satkosia

                        Reserve, Odisha that often strayed into villages killing

                             man and livestock

 

 

                                            Tiger’s historic and present range around the world

  

                                                                 Poaching of Tiger

 

 

 

                     The Champawat tigress that reportedly killed 430 people in Nepal and India

                     was finally killed by the legendary India born British hunter Jim Corbett in 1907.