Let's make a difference...

"A tiger is a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage, and 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."- Jim Corbett

Yesterday an advertisement caught my eyes with a Royal Bengal Tiger in the background and it says, "Only 1411 of them are left…you can make a difference.” Then I realized how correct Corbett was about his prophecy! Moreover this was a figureaccording to the National Tiger Census 2008 and more than 130 tigers died since. Which means the remaining tiger in the wild of India has come down to an alarming number of nearly 1300! But what has caused such a serious situation for the big cat family?

According to the experts, various reasons are there for which our national animal is on the verge of extinction. The first and foremost of which is poaching of tigers. More than 35% of the death of tiger every year is caused by poaching. The tiger parts are being exported to china through Nepal border where it is used for traditional medicines, aphrodisiac, piece of dress or talisman. A local poacher gets Rs. 7000 to 15,000 for a tiger and in foreign market a tiger costs as high as $20,000. So high market value is reason behind poaching.

Secondly, the unprotected areas of the forests all over the India don't have much tigers left, not just because poachers are killing them, but because their prey species are being hunted out. So lack of food is causing a great deal of harm towards the survival of the tigers...not times even in the protected areas.

But is that all? Can't we do really anything regarding the problem? Have we tried enough to save our tiger? If we look at the way govt. handled the situation, we see an unfortunate story.

At the inception of the Project Tiger (presently known as National Tiger Conservation Authority or NTCA) it did a good job and it showed result. And they were very happy at themselves. But the time changed, political scenario changed, our population increased, demand for tiger parts increased, modus operandi for poachers developed, technologies advanced, but what didn't change was the defensive attitude of forest dept. and their mode of working. They are reluctant about any external expertise or advanced technologies and information. In 2002,a Wildlife Protection Act amendment made it mandatory for the state governments to create advisory committees for all sanctuaries; these were to include Panchavati Raj institutions, NGOs and wildlife expert members. But none have been created yet. What was more surprising that NTCA had many experts but not a single tiger expert!! When supreme court warned in 2005,that tiger condition in Madhya Pradesh is critical no one paid attention to it and in 2008 department reluctantly accepted that only 1 or 2 male tiger is left in Panna forest and they are thinking of introducing females!! And these are just few instances of govt. inefficiency.

So coming back to the point we started with, we can make a difference. But for that we will have to start afresh. Wildlife science is much more developed now a days. With the help of this advanced information and technology, involvement of experts both inside and outside the government it can be done effectively. A Tiger Conservation Committee, free from autocratic and outdated systems, taking care of the tigers all over the nations is what we need today. So let's roar to save our tiger…let's make a difference...