We all know that our National Animal, the Royal Bengal Tiger has come perilously close to extinction and that very small numbers now survive in the world, especially in the wild. In spite of the best efforts of conservationists and voluntary organisations as well as government agencies, these beautiful animals are still unsafe in their natural habitat and illegal poaching activities continue surreptitiously. While there is some very distressing news about tiger conservation in India, there is some heartening news as well:
India’s tiger poaching crisis
Image source
It is fairly well known that there were about 100,000 tigers at the turn of the 20th century and today there are just about 3000 surviving. Poachers such as Sansar Chand, also known as the Veerappan of the North who was involved in poaching for 4 decades and acknowledged selling 470 tiger skins is known to have seriously depleted our tiger population and practically wiped out the entire tiger population of Sariska. Though there are laws in place to prevent poaching and punish poachers, the conviction rate in tiger poaching cases is abysmal – just about 4%.
Apart from the law being an inadequate deterrent, poaching of tigers continues also, because of the phenomenal prices that tiger skin, meat, bones and organs, fetch in international markets; particularly China. Electrocution, steel traps, poison and guns are used to poach these magnificent animals. According to reports, there have already been more tigers poached this year in 2016 than in 2015. Till April of this year, 28 tigers had already been poached, more than all of last year and serious questions do indeed have to be asked about our conservation efforts, efforts to nab poachers and our seriousness about plugging any possible avenues for poachers.
There is also the fact that tigers die from natural causes such as sickness or old age so in all about 73 tigers died in all this year – about ten a month. When the total population is just over 2000 this is a very worrying number.
But there is good news as well
Image source
According to a report by the WWF and the Global Tiger Forum, the total world tiger population in the wild has increased for the first time in more than a century to an estimated 3,890. The Minister for Environment, Anil Madhav also had heartening news to share in the Rajya Sabha recently. According to the minister there has been about a 30% increase in the tiger population nationwide.
Since this is a nationwide number, it could be that tiger populations are increasing in those parts of the country were poaching is contained effectively, where tigers are multiplying naturally or where conservationists may have been able to put effective breeding programs in place to increase numbers. This is perhaps reason to cheer for the tiger in India. Cautiously.
Author – Reena Daruwalla
