EVERY TIGER, NATION’S CONSCIENCE

The principle cog in the food and ecological cycle, with every tiger gone, the entire country's survival is at stake. Beware India. Protect the big cat in the wild. Hardnews joins the campaign to protect the most majestic and magnificent creature in the animal kingdom
Akash Bisht Delhi

February 14 this year marked the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Tiger. Ironically, the majestic species faces serious threats of extinction owing to a speculated increase in the obsessive and irrational Chinese demand for tiger parts in its namesake year.

Conservationists believe that the year poses direct, sinister and organised threat to tiger populations across the globe. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), during its investigation on the sale of tiger parts in China, confirmed with traders that the demand for tiger parts is bound to see an unprecedented surge.

Fuelled by robust economic growth and capitalism in fast-forward mode, conservationists fear China's insatiable demand for tiger parts could dangerously hamper India's tiger conservation plans. Predictably, the massive demand would accompany a wash of filthy money on offer to lure poachers and emulate what happened in Sariska and Panna where tigers went locally extinct.

Samir Sinha, who heads Traffic India, views the debate as a platform for creating awareness about the tiger and to intensify international pressure on China to wipe out tiger parts trade from the country. Sinha says, "The positive aspect of this debate has been the awareness that has been created about the tiger and the need for its survival."

Indian authorities played down the Year of the Tiger issue as a simple case of perception but agreed to the use of tiger parts in Chinese medicines as the primary reason for tiger's disappearance in India. "A recent investigation by Debbie Banks of EIA revealed that tigerparts were openly sold in China, so the perception isn't a false one. China never came out openly as to what they do with tiger parts, but there is a common belief among the Chinese that certain tiger parts possess medicinal values," explains SP Yadav, DIG, National Tiger Conservation Authority.

Yadav added that the Chinese breed tigers but the belief that a wild tiger possesses more medicinal powers has led to the rapidly dwindling numbers in India. There are only 20 wild tigers in the whole of China.

India has the largest population of  wild tigers in the world, but these numbers witnessed steep decline since the turn of the 20th century when an estimated 40,000 of these magnificent cats roamed about in the Indian forests. Latest official numbers suggest that the tiger population stands at a dismal1,411, at the last count, but many conservationists believe that the number is not more than 1,000.

Despite these abysmally low numbers, tigers are still being poached while increasing human intervention is destroying tiger habitat which will lead to early extinction of this species. Increased pressure by the mining lobby also threatens tiger survival as central and state politicians consider tiger as a hindrance in their attempt to clear large areas of forests for mining which would benefit multinationals and big business houses. Says filmmaker Krishnendu Bose, who made The Death Chronicles, "The main problem is that authorities are too interested in short-term development benefits and a mindless quest for profit, which is destroying tiger habitats through deforestation and mining."

The Death Chronicles confirms that a total of 95,002.86 hectares of land has been diverted to mining. Half of it is in the tiger reserves of mineral-rich Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. India also lost 26,245 sq km of its dense forest cover for severalmega projects.