One of India’s main tiger parks, Panna Tiger Reserve, has admitted that it has no tigers left.
Just three years ago the park had at least 24 tigers, but park officials have been either unable or unwilling to protect the animals from poaching. Even more discouraging, Panna is now the second tiger reserve in India where numbers have dwindled to zero.
Officials from the reserve’s wildlife department said there was no “explicable” reason for the falling number of tigers. But according to an independent report by India’s central forest ministry, it’s pretty obvious what has killed the tigers: poachers. The report claimed that “warning bells” have been going off for almost a decade, and park officials simply failed to address them.
The problem is so severe that the grim news is likely to get repeated regarding a third Indian tiger reserve– Sanjay National Park– where all of its 15 tigers are also suspected to have disappeared. These events raise serious concerns: Just how inadequate are India’s tiger reserves, and can anything be done to save wild tigers from extinction?
A century ago, there were an estimated 40,000 tigers roaming throughout India. Today there are only 1,400– and quite possibly less than that, if counting practices like those in Panna are any indication. The region’s forest minister reassured reporters that Panna’s counting practices were uncharacteristically incompetent, and listed several other parks– such as Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench– where counts are up-to-date and park management is held in high esteem. Even so, for a park like Panna to suddenly announce that all of its tigers have disappeared only 3 years after a healthy count of 24, seemingly right from under officials’ noses, makes such claims highly suspect.
Surely, with tiger numbers plummeting so quickly, someone should have taken notice before now.
The sad reality, however, is that the business of illegal poaching has become increasingly more sophisticated and deadly over the last few years. Cartels with organization and techniques similar to drug-smugglers have made it very dangerous and expensive for authorities to stop. Meanwhile, park officials probably turn a blind eye to the killings, either from apathy, corruption or being ill-equipped to combat it.
In order to save India’s wild tigers, more will have to be done besides buckling down on poachers and smugglers. Those smugglers won’t have a business if they don’t have any buyers. International pressure needs to be applied to consumers of poached tiger products, the main buyers for which are typically in Far East countries like China, Taiwan and Korea. Education needs to be widespread regarding the threat of poaching to the survival of tigers, and superstitions need to be dissolved regarding the erroneous belief that tiger products are medicinal.
After the Panna Reserve counted zero tigers left, 2 female tigers were immediately shipped into the park from surrounding regions. Four more (2 males) are likely to join them shortly in an attempt to repopulate the now beguilingly named “Tiger Reserve”. Though now, coupled with all of the publicity, it’s not clear whether these tigers will fare any better or if they’ll be more easily marked. Hope may be won or lost for India’s ability to protect its tiger populations pending the outcome.
Source: BBC NEWS, via TreeHugger
Image Credit: catlovers on Flickr under a Creative Commons License
About Bryan Nelson
Check the success of the Gur lion reserve in Gujarat – not much better!
The tiger has been in trouble in India for quite some time now. The situation is even surpassed the alarming bell stage. Poaching is indeed the real threat, proximity to China and sharing an almost porous border courtesy the buffer nation of Nepal only adds to the miseries.
The age old Indian Forest Service, first conceived more to exploit and derive from forests by the British Raj in India, seems to be doing the same even today……or closing eyes to all that is happening.
one cannot but come to the conclusion that india and tigers do not mix. the tigers apparently are better off elsewhere, even if that means their extinction.
Really Tiger life are in trouble not only in India but in many other counties also.
We have to fight for them. Its a request to all wild life loving people that they have to work hard to save there life else we are not able to see them after few years.
Wow!……I Think The International pressure needs to be applied And The Government Should Take A Step In And Do It Quickly, can anything be done to save wild tigers from extinction?
So can we now shoot the officials?
I hear that their bones make good luck charms.
Agree with Govind. Russ, the Gir lion Reserve s doing fine. THe story of Panna is a repeat of Sariska Reserve in Rajasthan.
Definitely seems like they need to send some tigers to reserves in other countries.
… Why aren’t animal activists jumping on this more?
Get Real..
we are humans, there is nothing that can be done.
some prick will wipe them all out eventually.
take a look at everything else and you might understand.
eg:
Wild Buffalo
Most monkey species
Anything that we place value on.
Anything packing ivory.
the list goes on and on.
Tigers are simply fodder.
there is nothing left, and trying to save them is a waste of time at this point.
Humans are pure evil. and there is nothing you can do about it.
if anything, we should start wiping out the humans.
Bring on the apocalypse.
Very sad
This simply exposes the total fraud the World Wildlife Fund,Greepeace and other faux environmental groups are.
The commitment, the time,the energy and the money they put into saving Elephants,Hippos, Tigers, leopards from African and Asian poachers is a tiny fraction of what they spend on the obscure “minnow de jour” They pour million into destroying local farmers in Idaho or California creating artificial droughts while paying only lip service. In reality these phony environmentalists interest in the endangered mammals of Asia and Africa begins and ends with their calendars and money raising activities. Little stuffed tiger toys and pictures bring in bigger donations than some obscure tiny fish which is virtually identical to 5,000 other species of tiny fish.
Even if their were some glimmer of honesty and some desire to actually protect wild animals in the third world and some one proposed serious effective action to stop the poaching all it would take is some politically correct harangue about racism to kill the effort.
Any attempt to point the finger at the real villains, the governments and the local inhabitants of Africa and Asia (in particular the arch-villains the Chinese government) and away from US corporations is immediately suppressed, because it doesn’t serve the real not so hidden agenda of these radicals.
If you car at all about these animals do not give a dime to any of these faux environmental groups, seek out the few obscure groups who are actually concerned about these animals.
This is awful!!! it kills me to see how this stuff just happens. Money has to be involved….and what really sucks is that money can be used to make almost anything just disappear or be ignored. Not only does this happen in real life, everyday situations. It happens in freakin india, with “animals”. Unfortunately, this had to happen to some beautiful tigers who just wanted to live. Not mess with anyones life, not ruin someones career, not wreck someones home….just live. No wonder the world is crashing the way it is. I hear that there are other ways to make money…..its really cool….you know…make things, cooking,….this isnt the only way for these money hungry assholes to make it in this world. Ive managed to work for the past 13 yrs without harming a single soul….why is that not possible for everyone else to do?………….sorry, im done blabbering…this stuff just heavily pisses me off.
Man – we are a species that can’t even prevent ourselves from killing each other, in fact we come out with more inventive ways of killing each other (gun, bomb, gas etc)
We want to protect other species ? save the planet, save the world ?
false hopes.
We are doomed.
I need help with a lolcat caption.
I was gonna say “tiger reserve is tigerless” but I’m not sure what kind of image to use. Sure it makes sense to use a picture of a tiger but then that suggests that a tiger is actually “there” (in the reserve) when the point of the caption is that there are no tigers. See the problem?
Why put more tigers into a park that poachers are obviously targeting? They are sitting ducks.
How about ship all the tigers out of India and into a safer country – should a suitable one be found.
I am near tears. Some one at the park is reponsible. Find out why this happened and put people in charge that will be responsible . And let us make a tiger preserve in someother county if India can not do it.
Just put the poachers in charge of maintaining the tiger population. Tell them if they kill them all, they won’t have any left to kill. Under this system, the population will thrive. Just a thought.
ye hamari badkismiti hai jahan hamare desh mein 40000 se jada tiger the ab sirf 1200 rahe gaye hai vo bhi conferm nahi hai ki 1200 tiger hai bhi ya nahi.
Hamari sarkare bhi bayeiman hai har tharaf rishvat khori hai from last 40 years se itne sarkare aaee aur gayee kisi ne kuch nahi kiya tiger marte rahe aur wild officers ye sab kuch dekhte rahe har ek wild reserve mein 100 se jada members hote hai lakin tiger marte rahe bohot sharam ki baat hai.
Har saal wild reserve ke naam par bohot jada paise diye jata hai par sab paise kaha liye jata hai aur tiger marte rahate hai bohot sharam ki baat hai,hamara desh india ek mahan desh hai iski mahnata hamare haat mein hai, please save the tiger,nahi toa ek time assa aaega jab hum tiger ko picture mein hi dekh paayge, so please “SAVE THE TIGER FOR HUMAN BEING,FOR COUNTRY”.
It is most important to remember that wildlife extinction is funded by money. As a planet, we have the power, albeit $1 at time, to create a money supply that will surpass bribes and payoffs. It doesnt require a few wealthy people to battle. Instead, it requires the smallest amount possible from everyone committed. This is the kind of leadership to be sought both in government and in wildlife organizations. People of Earth simply must take a position and hold the line.
My poem – my tribute:
Last oasis
Black and orange stripes rippled through the forest canopy
where sunrise eyes reflected in limpid pools-
Haunting sinuous bodies moved silently in search of food in a
diminishing oasis –
Poaching has now shamelessly exposed your last estate-
Death held your final judgement-it lingered for a while as it waited to echo these last words of greed’s ignorant gain – “It is finished!”
An orange sunset sinks your vibrant colours into the last horizon of one of life’s treasures – into the shadows, into the darkness of everlasting sleep
Concluding – Another extinction is written.
TIGER, TIGER, eyes burning bright your growl
no longer haunts the night; except from pictures
and in dreams of what we once had – yet did not esteem.
I weep for our ignorance
By Brenda V Northeast
huhuhu… please, let’s save the tigers!! I LOVE THEM!! I love tigers! if only I could do something to protect them.. I don’t want the tigers to go extinct ..
oohh… this is an old post.. i just saw this now while searching for tigers.
i being a facial surgion seen animal attacks i feel we go to their domain . At panna we have people dedicated to finest of our animals iam with you