NEW
DELHI - India's magnificent big cat, the Bengal
tiger, is on its way to becoming a relic.
According to a disconcerting census conducted
recently by the National Tiger Conservation
Authority (NTCA), set up at the behest of Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, a piffling 1,411 tigers
remain in the Indian wilds today, a dramatic
plummet from 3,642 in 2002 or 40,000 a century
ago. Even these numbers could be inflated, assert
environmentalists who fear the alarming downward
spiral may well wipe out India's national animal
by as early as 2010.
Whittled down by a
population explosion, habitat destruction,
poaching, loss of prey, modern constructions like
dams, depleting forest cover and human conflict,
Indian tigers - which constitute a third of the
world's surviving tiger populace - may face
extinction
unless something urgent is done
to save them.
The disquieting Indian trend
is a microcosmic reflection of what's happening to
the tiger worldwide. Globally, tiger numbers have
plunged from 100,000 in the 20th century to around
5,000 today. In fact, the tiger's habitat has
shrunk so much that it now only comprises Asian
forests in India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar,
China and Malaysia. Even in these locations, say
experts, three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan
and Caspian, have completely disappeared while the
five remaining: Amur, Bengal, Indo-Chinese, South
China and Sumatran - are on the World Conservation
Union's "endangered" list.
"As compared to
the 18th and 19th centuries, tiger habitats today
are in fragmented forest areas which make it
really tough for these beasts to procreate," said
a wildlife expert from India's Ministry of
Environment and Forests. "This has severely
impacted the species' survival and pushed them to
the brink."
The latest census - which took
about two years to complete and cost the
government exchequer some US$10 million -
incorporated a range of assessment tools,
including habitat evaluation, estimates based on
available prey and strategic placement of cameras
fitted with motion sensors. The census established
an inverse link between livestock and tiger
populations in forests and between human trails
and tiger population. On the contrary, it found a
direct co-relation between forest cover density
and the tiger population in an area.
"India's large mammals, particularly
tigers, elephants and rhinos, require a huge
amount of space for movement and procreation.
Deforestation hampers this ability which in turn
impacts their gene pool and undermines the
species' viability," said environmentalist Ramesh
Thakur, who has trekked extensively across Indian
forests. "So, the key to protecting the tiger is
to protect our forest cover."
But this is
easier said than done: according to the Ministry
of Environment and Forests, only 20.6% of India's
land mass is forested. And of this, nearly half
has already been eroded by rampant farming,
livestock grazing and forest fires. To check these
developments, the government drafted a National
Forestry Action Program in 2002 with the aim to
cover 33% of the Indian landmass by forests in 20
years. But the scheme has yet to show any tangible
results.
On the contrary, the State of
Indian Forests Report 2005, released last month
shows that India has failed to achieve its 10th
Plan target (2007-08) of increasing its forest
cover to 25%. To make matters worse, the report
highlights that the country has lost an additional
728 square kilometers of forests to dam
construction and the havoc wreaked by the 2004
tsunami.
Indian researchers who have
analyzed high-resolution satellite images of
deforestation in the Himalayas - a crucible to
rare flora and fauna - have discovered that as
much as 15% of the region's forest cover vanished
between 1970 and 2000. If the current downtrend
continues, ecologists fear that the area will have
lost half of its forests by 2100, perhaps sooner,
due to a population explosion and the frenetic
agricultural activity needed to feed an expanding
population.
Poaching presents another big
threat to the Indian tiger. Despite an
international ban on tiger trade, Indian poachers
kill over 200 tigers a year, according to
government estimates. These deaths have pushed the
tigers deeper into reserves, skewing the tiger's
habitat so much that in many of India's 23
wildlife sanctuaries, tigers are rarely spotted.
Many visitors to Sariska in Rajasthan, a popular
tiger reserve, for instance, simply can't recall
when they last saw a big cat stalking its woods. A
tiger taskforce, set up within the reserve a few
years ago, has apparently not been very effective.
Making the tiger arithmetic worse is the
trafficking in wildlife products which involves
poaching of tigers for their skin, bones and body
parts for use in Oriental medicine. There is an
illicit skin trade run by criminal gangs between
the sub-continent and Tibet. Organized criminal
syndicates - which buy from poachers in India -
send their contraband through Nepal into Tibetan
markets where wealthy Chinese buy up spiffy, and
allegedly potent, tiger products.
A tiger
pelt, for instance, fetches a staggering $50,000
in China while the teeth, claws, whiskers and
bones can net between $5,000 to $10,000. The
Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI)
estimates that at least 440 tigers have been
killed in India in the past four years so that the
carcasses could be sold for use in Chinese
medicine.
In a recent report, the
Environmental Investigation Agency and the WPSI
stated that the Himalayan plateau has become a
lucrative bazaar for Indian tiger skins. Indian
undercover investigators who traveled to Tibet
have caught on camera shops in Lhasa openly
selling tiger skins. The team also recorded
ceremonies with local herdsmen dancing while
wearing tiger skin robes. Tiger skins were also
being openly sold as trophies and wall hangings at
a local fair, right under the noses of conniving
police officials. "One tent at the fair had been
crafted out of 108 tiger skins," read an
investigator's report.
Ground tiger bones,
whiskers and penises have been used in traditional
Chinese medicines for thousands of years to treat
everything from skin diseases to convulsions to
impotency. With China's population exploding to
1.3 billion, the demand for tiger products has
also simultaneously ratcheted up.
"Curbing
such poaching can be tough because unlike earlier
when only tiger skins and trophies were being
sold, today whole tigers are being smuggled out of
India as each part of the animal is worth its
weight in gold," said Thakur.
Also adding
to the tiger's woes is the rise in the insurgency
in India's northeastern and southern states,
particularly Andhra Pradesh, where left-wing
extremists (Naxalites) are instigating local
villagers to kill tigers because the government is
procrastinating over paying them for their cattle
slaughtered by the beasts.
Worried by the
tigers' plummeting numbers, the Indian government
launched Project Tiger in 1972. Funds flowed in
from all over the world and by 1989 the number of
tigers in India had crept up to 4,300. But the
main problem with Project Tiger is that while it
succeeded in driving up tiger numbers within
forest reserves, it hasn't been especially
effective in the non-protected forest areas.
Sadly, Indian states have not yet woken up
to the enormity of the tiger problem. It has been
five years since the government asked them to set
up a steering committee for an effective
coordination, monitoring and protection of tigers.
But so far only three - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
and Mizoram - of the 17 tiger range states have
done so, even though it is a mandatory requirement
under Section 38 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act,
1972, as amended in 2006.
Similarly,
except Kerala, Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh,
none of the other states have as yet set up the
Tiger Conservation Foundation (TCF) despite
several reminders from the Center. Establishing a
TCF is a requirement - under Section 38 of the
Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act 2006 - in each
tiger reserve to facilitate and support tiger
reserve management.
The tiger conservation
plan for each reserve has to specify delineated
core and buffer areas, incorporating strategies
for wildlife conservation in the core and
management in the buffer zones. This facilitates
promote better movement of the animals and prevent
man-animal conflicts. But none of the tiger range
states have so far notified the buffer zone around
the tiger reserves.
State apathy towards
the tiger is also evident in the vacant posts of
many forest guards and other field and frontline
staff in many reserves; many have been abandoned
for months. At last count, about 17,500 such posts
were vacant across the country. This is hardly
surprising as there are few takers for the
positions of guards who are overworked, underpaid
and under-armed. According to India's renowned
wildlife expert Valmik Thapar, advisor to the
Prime Minister on Wildlife, India ought to provide
modern weapons to forest guards and create
inviolate areas for tigers which would greatly
help in protection efforts.
But why should
India be protecting the tiger in any case? "Tigers
are imperative to maintain a balanced ecosystem,"
said conservationist Anita Nulla. "Wherever
there's a tiger habitat, it is the sole source of
a river system. If our rivers die, all life comes
to a halt. There's no drinking water, no
irrigation, the soil is eroded without tree cover
and the area's civilization is destructed."
To gauge the benefits of tiger forests,
Nulla points to the case of the Narmada River
which flows through Kanha Tiger Reserve in the
central state of Madhya Pradesh. The reserve
supplied water to the Narmada even when other
sources dried up, and thus kept the area's
ecosystem alive.
Keeping the massive
threat to the tiger in mind, the 11th Five Year
Plan (2007-2012) has increased the money available
for tiger conservation to $151 million. The
government has recently notified eight new tiger
reserves and upped the budget for resettlement of
people within forest areas from $2,565 to $25,641
per family. Even the NTCA - which will possess
powers to oversee more effective management of
reserves - is included in the plan.
Indeed, if the Indian government is
serious about saving its tigers, it will have to
step up its conservation efforts and refocus on
migratory and resident tiger populations in
unprotected areas. To ensure the long-term
survival of tigers in India, it is imperative to
ensure the safety of current tiger populations and
improve forest management by working with the
local populace and providing them a direct stake
in conservation.
Until that transpires, to
tweak William Blake's famous poem, the Indian
tiger's future certainly won't be burning bright.
New Delhi-based independent journalist
Neeta Lal has had her work
published in over 70 publications across 20
countries .
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
