Despite the fact that respect for environmental and wildlife conservation have always greatly been in practice since hundreds of years in India, today the plight of Indian Tigers can't be ignored. Falling in big cat category of wild beast, Tiger, about which, if i was taught accurately in my 2nd or 3rd grade, is the national animal of India. Wonderful!
So, what is making Tigers a hot talk now-a-days? First, let me contradict that Tigers have never been a matter of deep concern. How many times have you heard parliamentarian of India having a debate over Tiger conservation in the country? Yes, some credit have to be given to some of environment journalists as well as some media publication houses.
Why Tigers Are So Important
The first question that has to be directed here that why biologists and environment specialist keep talking so much of Tigers. Dear honey, Tigers are predators, who play an important role in balancing the food chain of our Eco system. Facilitating it to understand, Tigers belong to category of carnivore, which according to the food system control the population of herbivore. (Herbivore are animals like Cow and Sheep who live by eating plants only. Now don't ask who are carnivores.) So, if herbivore quits becoming prey to predators, then the increased number of plant eating animals (herbivore) will become threat to the greenery of our environment. That is where predators like Tiger comes to great handy of protecting our Eco system, as it controls the number of herbivores, and balance the entire ecological food system.
The Current Grueling Figure
The decreased number of Tigers in India, which claims to be proud home to almost half of the Tigers, has become serious environmental concern for years. Lets play with figures. A hundred year ago when the Tiger population in India was no less than 40,000, in the year 1972 when the widely celebrated Project Tiger were instituted, the number fell down to 1827.
Thanks to Indira Ji, the Indian version of 'Iron Lady' and the then Prime Minister of India, who gave her full support to this world's most successful wildlife conservation program, the number of Tigers in merely next 7 years (in 1979) rose to 3017, which soared further to 3959 in 1984. The recently promulgated report of Wildlife Institute Of India (WII) has it estimation that the number of Tigers in India may descend to around 1200, though the full national figures will be published by WII by the end of this year. Little to surprise, on the another hand, biologists claim that the figure might be as less as 800.
Poaching – The Most Serious Threat
Tiger poaching, causing the serious threat to Indian Tigers, though not have been the single reason, but definitely can be termed as the most important reason. if unofficial sources are to be believed, almost 200 Tigers alone in India fall prey to poachers every year. The poached Tigers are marketed by smugglers to neighbouring countries, especially to Tibet and China where Tiger skins are worn as traditional dress (in Tibet), and bones are used as effective reliever of several of diseases (in China). Each part of Tiger's body come at a price here. Bones – £200/kg, Penis - £425 per piece, Tooth - £60 p/p. And when it comes to buying a full bodied dead Tiger, in black market it costs around £25,000.
Figures are really dreadful piercing a needle to our thoughts to believe that survival of big cats including Tigers and Leopards becoming arduous. And if we make our imagination a bit more horrid, few years down we would be seeing them only in celebrated television show of National Geographic and Discovery channels.
What Needs To Be Done
It is not that government is not aware of such ill-intentioned game of poachers, who blinded in material gaining kill Tigers. But the initiatives as well as funds allocated by Ministry Of Forest And Environment have not been appropriate to meet the challenges posed before Tigers.
To relocate the 1500 villages inhabited by 3,00,00 people falling inside the total 28 Tiger reserves of India, NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) have allocated a meager and ridiculous amount of 200 crore of rupees for the next 5 years. Besides, to protect Tigers from being speared and poisoned by poachers, Government ought to understand that we do not need only Tiger Task Force, but also a suitable and effective management system minus any political motive to give the Tiger conservation program a successful run.
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