Tiger Conservation is under crisis

Deepak Kumar Mohanty

New Delhi

Sat, 04 Aug 2007: 

Aug 04: Recently the government official has confirmed that there are only 1300 to 1500 tigers left in India in all the 28 major tiger reserves, which is not lf of the previous census.

So here comes the question that what the government is doing since the establishment of the Project Tiger scheme in 1973.

In the National Wildlife board meeting the conservationists had pointed out that increasing number of Tiger poaching and the loss of natural habitats led to this declining number.

In India there are around 28 tiger reserves including the major ones like Manas (Assam), Palamau (Bihar), Similipal (Orissa), Corbett (U.P.), Kanha (M.P.), Melghat (Maharashtra), Bandipur (Karnataka), Ranthambhore (Rajasthan) and Sunderbans (West Bengal), Sariska which house a good number of tigers. However, the decreasing number sounds the death knell of not only tigers but indicates towards a big threat to the whole wild life.

Earlier it is believed that India provided shelter to over half of the world tiger population and this is the fact that tiger conservation programmes in India has gained momentum with active participation of various organisations including World Wildlife Fund, Save Tiger Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society and Tiger Trust. However, the present decline should strongly be taken into account by the government and find out the prime causes behind this loss.

According to some conservationists it is due to the illegal tiger poaching in wake of growing demand of tiger products in some parts of India and China. As there is wide demand for the traditional Chinese medicines, there must be some illegal trade going on that facilitates slaughter of tigers. Government needs to strengthen anti-poaching laws to halt Wildlife Crimes.

Lately China has openly supported tiger trade and farming but that seems to be totally to fulfill its medicinal needs and nothing to do with the tiger conservation. As poaching a tiger is easier and cheaper than rearing as said by some conservationists so people bank upon the existing population of tigers to fulfill their needs. This way flourishes the illegal trade.

As far as open tiger trade or farming is concerned the World Wild Life Fund and the International Tiger Coalition that constitutes 35 countries and over 100 organisations should strongly oppose the present approach of China. If the tiger trade in some parts of world is legalized then poaching of tiger will certainly increase and species will be extinguished one day. Hence the ban should be kept on this kind of illicit trade along with some stringent laws.