India’s tiger conservation efforts have suffered a multitude of major setbacks, and threats from inside and outside the country may lead to extinction of the wild tiger. Can the tiger be saved?
When Project Tiger was launched in 1973, India reported a tiger population of 1,827 tigers – a decline from 40,000 tigers in India at the turn of the century. Now, the tiger population in India is only approximately 1,400. The Indian public is outraged, and recently held a rally in support of saving its tigers.
It has now become clear that the almost four decade old Project Tiger has not been able to do much in stabilizing, let alone enhancing the tiger population in India. Its recent successor, the National Tiger Conservation Authority is said to be, for lack of better words, without teeth. And the tiger, perhaps unaware that so much is happening in its name is fast losing the battle to survive.
How did the tiger population in India get to such a sorry state?
Poaching driven by increasing demand for tiger parts
One of most deadly threats facing the tiger in India poaching for tiger parts. According to the Times of India, a single tiger “ground down and separated into various medicines” brings in around $50,000. Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India said in the article that poachers use Nepal to move between India and China, where increasing demand for tiger parts is driven by rising affluence:
It’s the traditional Chinese medicine market that’s driving demand.
This assessment is confirmed by the Wildlife Protection Society of India WPSI).
Recent undercover investigations by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) revealed that the trade in tiger and leopard body parts in China continues to thrive, operating without any hindrance from the Chinese government whilst driving India’s wild tigers closer towards extinction.
The market for tiger parts is, in fact, so pervasive in China that the country has tried (so far, unsuccessfully) to get the ban on trade in tiger parts lifted in hopes of legalizing its commercial tiger farms, where tigers are bred and raised for slaughter. The “tiger farms” – government-sanctioned animal abuse and cruelty – are flourishing in China. And Chinese demand for elephant ivory (for making decorative trinkets and displaying wealth) and rhino horn (for medicinal “potions” to cure fever and other common ailments) is also behind the industrial-scale poaching of elephants and rhinos – which is escalating along with China’s new affluence.
No more room for tigers?
WPSI reports that mining and other development projects are reducing tiger habitat.
Large development projects, such as mining and hydroelectric dams, are also taking their toll on the tiger’s habitat. In the past ten years, thousands of square kilometers of forest land have been diverted and destroyed to facilitate such projects. Though mostly outside the protected network, the loss of this vital habitat will have serious repercussions on tiger conservation in India.
And despite the recent good news of a sighting of two tiger cubs in Valmiki Tiger Reserve, mining activities are apparently getting in the way of identifying core critical habitat for tigers in the area.
Tigers and humans were pitted against each other again in 2006 when India passed a controversial new law giving forest-dwelling tribes and other traditional residents rights to occupy and cultivate land that they and their ancestors have lived on for generations.
Known as the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, the law applies to families that have lived in the forest for at least three generations.
However, the act happens to include “pristine wildlife habitat”, and it may prove over time to be a setback to much of India’s wildlife conservation efforts.
Ashok Kumar, a senior advisor and trustee to Delhi’s Wildlife Trust of India, criticized the act in a National Geographic article.
In my opinion this law is eco-suicide. It would pockmark the heart of tiger country and there simply won’t be any forest anymore.
Kumar’s opinion was seconded by Sejal Worah, program director of conservation WWF-India.
Critical areas of high biodiversity value constitute only 4 percent of India’s land, so this law should really have another mechanism for the people within these areas.
As part of the new act, scientific assessment and identification of “critical wildlife habitats” is allowed. And if relocation for forest dwellers is deemed necessary to preserve habitat, relocation can be done – as long as forest dwellers are involved in every stage of the process and are offered viable livelihood options.
However, outspoken critics like Prashanta Kumar Sen, former director of the government-run Wildlife Institute of India, say that the rules are unclear, and the resulting ambiguity is likely to stall the process indefinitely.
By the time critical wildlife habitats are actually identified—which could take one year or ten years—forests will have already gone down the drain.
Tiger protectors outgunned – literally
Poachers have the means to acquire the latest in assault weaponry, and apparently have no problems attracting new recruits. Sadly, this is in stark contract to those tasked with protecting tigers, as Askok Kumar recently revealed that forest guards, wielding lathis or .315 rifles, have to take on poachers armed with automatics.
There are huge vacancies in their ranks and most of them are old since there has been no recruitment for 20 years. They are not well-versed in legal procedures and 90% of the cases against poachers fail to stand up in court.
Furthermore, according to WPSI, while new protective strategies have been proposed, they have yet to be implemented.
Prevailing conservation efforts are not geared towards, nor have they adequately addressed, the new threats with new protection strategies ie. better law enforcement, training and support. Excellent new tiger protection measures (such as the recommendations of the (Subramanian Committee for the Prevention of Illegal Trade in Wildlife, 1994 and Tiger Task Force, 2005) have been proposed but not implemented and little effective action has been taken in the field. Few of the tiger reserves have an established intelligence network and nearly 80% of our tiger reserves do not have an armed strike force or basic infrastructure and equipment to combat poaching. The forest guards are often out-gunned and out-manned by poachers. In December 1998, three forest staff were murdered in Manas Tiger Reserve and several cases of murder and serious assault on forest guards have been reported since.
Brenda Wright of WPSI also told TOI that in the case of Panna Tiger Reserve losing its last 24 tigers, lack of coordination between centers and states resulted in tragedy: She stated that the Central team ignored warnings by the Madya Pradesh authorities.
Will the latest public outcries save India’s tigers?
Fortunately, the public has taken notice of tigers in crisis and organized a tiger rally in New Delhi.
… school children and several civil society groups in the Indian capital city of New Delhi are coming together to demand the basic right of the tiger – a Right to Survival. And in that, ensuring the survival of the entire human race. The Rally that follows a tiger consultation will also be a shift from all that has been done to all that needs to be done.
The Rally was deemed a success at raising awareness and bringing the public’s outrage over the crisis to the attention of politicians.
The event, that took place amidst a major tiger crisis, was one of the first attempts at reaching out to urban India and raise awareness about the inter-connectedness between the tiger and human survival and make the public move the politicians. The initial dent has been made, the follow up is what will now determine the fate of the tiger and of our future generations.
And why save the tiger? Take a look at the compelling case for saving the tiger in this Delhi Greens article.
Here’s to hoping India’s tigers have started the journey to recovery!
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27391161@N07/ / CC BY 2.0
About Rhishja Cota-Larson
The criticism made here of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, is incorrect. The act poses no threat to forest or wildlife conservation and is in many ways the biggest step forward for such measures, for it is the first law to apply some accountability to the massive forest bureaucracy that claims total control over India’s forests. The conservationists quoted here are all members of large heavily funded urban NGOs who work closely with the forest authorities and who are heavily invested in the forest bureaucracy. On the contrary, the biggest battles for protection of the environmen tin India today are not being fought by these types – who run away at the slightest sign of official wrath – but by communities in the affected areas who face both brutal police repression and attacks from forest authorities. See http://www.forestrightsact.com for more information on the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
From the author:
Thank you for providing additional information so that readers have the opportunity to consider the issue from a different perspective.
Hello I also am outraged at the Indian government for this decrease in Tiger population of India. I am half Indian myself ad live in the USA. What really needs to be done is more armed guards need to be protecting the Tigers for poachers and poachers need to face life in jail for what they have done. Also, if you can take almost every Tiger or every Tiger and put them in a captivity situation where it is regulated they need to breed as many as they can taking them from the wild into a safe situation for breeding and all. Is there anything at all I can do to help? I am trying to spread the word about this. Can I donate? The Indian government has not been serious at all and in my opinion very lax in their efforts to save the Tiger it is as if they really do not care. I am sorry but Tigers come first before people needing space to live in India. I strongly feel if no action is taken by the Indian government Tigers will be extinct in my lifetime and I am 31 years old. Please tell me anything I can do? If this world can donate so much money for earthquake people in Haiti why not Tigers it can be done with the a lot of commercials and media attention worldwide. This is a crisis and calls for dramatic action.
Hello I also am outraged at the Indian government for this decrease in Tiger population of India. I am half Indian myself ad live in the USA. What really needs to be done is more armed guards need to be protecting the Tigers for poachers and poachers need to face life in jail for what they have done. Also, if you can take almost every Tiger or every Tiger and put them in a captivity situation where it is regulated they need to breed as many as they can taking them from the wild into a safe situation for breeding and all. Is there anything at all I can do to help? I am trying to spread the word about this. Can I donate? The Indian government has not been serious at all and in my opinion very lax in their efforts to save the Tiger it is as if they really do not care. I am sorry but Tigers come first before people needing space to live in India. I strongly feel if no action is taken by the Indian government Tigers will be extinct in my lifetime and I am 31 years old. Please tell me anything I can do? If this world can donate so much money for earthquake people in Haiti why not Tigers it can be done with the a lot of commercials and media attention worldwide. This is a crisis and calls for dramatic action. I am angry that India has not protected it’s Tigers enough!
Hello I also am outraged at the Indian government for this decrease in Tiger population of India. I am half Indian myself ad live in the USA. What really needs to be done is more armed guards need to be protecting the Tigers for poachers and poachers need to face life in jail for what they have done. Also, if you can take almost every Tiger or every Tiger and put them in a captivity situation where it is regulated they need to breed as many as they can taking them from the wild into a safe situation for breeding and all. Is there anything at all I can do to help? I am trying to spread the word about this. Can I donate? The Indian government has not been serious at all and in my opinion very lax in their efforts to save the Tiger it is as if they really do not care. I am sorry but Tigers come first before people needing space to live in India. I strongly feel if no action is taken by the Indian government Tigers will be extinct in my lifetime and I am 31 years old. Please tell me anything I can do? If this world can donate so much money for earthquake people in Haiti why not Tigers it can be done with the a lot of commercials and media attention worldwide. This is a crisis and calls for dramatic action. I am angry that India has not protected it’s Tigers enough! The Tribes cannot continue to add to the decline of Tigers. India needs to take drastic action and put Tigers before the Tribes so that we can save them.
Krishan -
Start with Wildlife Protection Society of India http://www.wpsi-india.org/wpsi/index.php …this organization is doing very important work regarding tiger conservation.
Rhishja
most of the killing of tigers are done by govt.dep. only. dont they know where they can get tiger skin ,bones ,nails from. every thing is sold in open market .ten why govt.is trying to fool people.