There was a time when India had lost nearly all of its tiger population which stood at about forty thosand heads at the beginning of the19th century. The Royalty , both British and local , and the British Army officers in India had made tiger hunting their favorite pastime. They hunted this magnificent animal with such a wild passion that it reached to the brinks of near extinction. Awareness came in 1973 , when under the leadership of late Prime Minister Mrs . Indira Gandhi "Project Tiger" was launched by the Government of India , to ensure a viable tiger population in the country in its natural habitat and protect the animal from extinction. Since then the Project Tiger and conservation activities have made a notable progress. The Central Government formed apex body - the National Tiger Conservation Authority now looks after the entire management of tiger conservation efforts in the country. India has fifty five tiger reserves now and some more are under consideration. Tiger reserves like Tadoba Andhari , Bandhavgarh , Dudhwa and Corbett can be cited as shining examples of the success story and models of best conservation practices. The tiger population is also on the increase. A total of 1706 tigers are said to be in Indian jungles as per 2011 tiger census report. The latest tiger census is going on presently and we will have to wait for sometime for the new tiger population figures. There is increasing public awareness also. The Global Tiger Day is celebrated in the country every July with lot of fanfare . Many NGO's , film stars and media houses have committed their support to the cause of tiger conservation . This all is very heart warming . But there are serious challenges too to be met otherwise the tiger may face a near extinction situation again in about two decades from now.
Areas of Concern : I think there are two most crucial ares which need serious thought and urgent action if we want tiger to prosper in India. The first is the preservation of tiger habitat from shrinkage and fragmentation . The sad news is that the tiger habitat is shrinking very fast and forest corridors facilitating tiger transit and movement are vanishing . As per Wildlife Institution of India report country's tiger habitat lost twelve thousand kilometers in four years between 2006 to 2010. It shrunk to 82000 sq.kilometers from 94000 sq.kilometers. Wild life experts say that a mature tiger needs about fifty square kilometers of contiguous area for movement . If so then the current available area seems to to be just enough for the present tiger population.
This habitat loss has many dangerous implications . It means less living space for the tiger population which is recovering gradually , overcrowding , more territorial fights and resulting deaths , increased man-animal conflict , shrinkage of natural prey base forcing tigers wander out in buffer areas and human habitations and then falling prey to poacher's snare , poison or bullet.
As if this was not enough , India is set to lose a further of ten thousand square kilometers of tiger habitat in next ten years in Central India where pressure to release prime forest land to coal mining is gaining momentum. Its coal versus tiger situation. Let's see who wins the tussle.
The second crucial area of concern is poaching which unfortunately continues unabated. And unless poaching is contained effectively , tiger has a bleak future in India notwithstanding all current efforts at its conservation.
Tiger mortality due to poaching is very high. In 2012 seventy two tiger deaths were reported by the National Tiger Conservation Authority. The majority of deaths were due to poaching and less by natural cause or forced elimination by the forest department. The 2013 data is still more alarming. The NTCA report says that India lost sixty three tigers in 2013. Forty eight or seventy six percent of them were poached.
The tentacles of poaching are very widely spread in the Central and Noth India which include the states of M.P. , Rajastahn , Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand. Last year a poacher was arrested near Nagpur who admitted having poached nine tigers from M P and Maharashtra forests. Upon identifiaction of tiger skins revoceved from his possession it was revealed that he had paoched one from Pench Tiger Reserve also. Fifty Two leopards were paoched in Uttrakhand alone in the year 2012.
The poaching net work in India is run and controlled by the international poaching syndicates with the help of local associates and operators who are mostly nomads (Baheliya or Kanjar communities ). The men folk of these tribes are traditional hunters expert in the art of tracking and trapping. They peg their camps at secluded places and reconnoiter area carefully locating pug marks and then set up snares ( spring shut metal clamp traps called Khatka locally ) or place poison laced carcass . The money they get is good. I was told that a poacher gets around six-seven lakhs for a tiger which includes full skin , bones and nails. This commodity is then smuggled to Tibet via Laddakh or to Myanmar via Kolkata for bigger profits.
I strongly feel that an all out war need to be waged to contain the menace of poaching . A multipronged strategy begining with legislative changes , an amendment in the Wild Life Protection Act 1972 to make it real deterrent to wild life crimes, is required. It is suggested that tiger poaching , trading and possession of tiger body parts and all repeated wid life offenses must be made non-bailable and invite mandatorty sentence of life impriosonment. Similarly wild life offense cases must be disposed off with in a given time frame. There are many such cases pending in the courts for the last two-three decades.
Certain other measures are required at the State and local reserve levels. The vacant posts of Forest Guards must be filled immediately and their service conditions must be improved. They are the cadre who protect wild life by risking their lives. They must be given weapons, SLR's , to match the poachers. Regular patrolling around buffer areas and a strong intelligence network at the local level needs to be established so that any ouside or suspetecd movement could be reported to forest authorities. Poaching must be made a very difficult activity to pursue.
One may differ with me. But I am sounding the warning bell . Time to save the tiger is running out fast . So let's act while there is still some to preserve tiger habitat and contain poaching otherwise it will be too late.
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