(IN): Tiger in Trouble

[Guest guest]

Link: http://www.assamtribune.com/horizon.html

 

*Tiger in Trouble*

 

THE ANIMAL PLANET, an American cable TV channel, conducted a contest during

2004 and asked viewers to nominate species of their choice with the

objective of determining the world's most popular animal. For the viewers

from 73 countries Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) was the numero

uno. Unfortunately, according to a recent global assessment it was revealed

that tiger, the most admired animal is categorized as 'endangered' in the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

Though this majestic beast originated from Manchuria, its range stretched

out some 6,000 miles across Asia, from eastern Turkey to China Sea,

gradually extending to hotter climates throughout the Indian subcontinent.

From the Siberian region, tiger migrated towards south and adapted into

different habitats that resulted a wide range of speciation to eight

different subspecies. However, three of them — the Balinese tiger (Panthera

tigris babes), Caspian tiger (Panthera tigris virgita), and Java tiger

(Panthera tigris sotidaica) have become extinct in the 1970s. The remaining

surviving species — the Indo-Chinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti),

Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris

allaica), South Chinese tiger (Panthera tigris amoyenis) and Royal Bengal

tiger (Patithera tigris tigris) are around, but perilously dwindling in

numbers and facing extinction threshold.

 

In the 19th century, about 100,000 tigers roamed in the jungles of India. It

was for the first time in 1963 that EP Gee, a tea planter from Assam and

eminent naturalist of India, provided guess estimation that in 1900 there

were perhaps 40,000 tigers in India. This figure has since generally been

accepted as reasonable working hypothesis. Surprisingly, in 1970, EP Gee (by

then a member of the Indian Board for Wildlife) approximated that in India

not more than 4,000 tigers were surviving which raised the eyebrows of the

entire conservationists.

 

During colonial rule much damage has been made to the Indian tiger. In 1902,

when tigers were numerous throughout India, government statistics showed

that 1,046 people out of population of some 250 million had been killed by

tigers. The policy of exterminating tigers was basically to extend

agriculture and for the safety of the human life and livestock. The dark

days for this charismatic animal reached crescendo with the invention of

large bore rifle in 1840. Wild animal hunting became a pastime for the VIPs,

army officers, maharajas, nawabs and princes in India.

 

The stories of tiger hunting during British Raj were simply unbelievable.

Some acts of bravery or cruelty to kill the tiger: one George Udney Yule of

the Bengal Civil Service killed more than 400 tigers in a span of 25 years,

Col Nightingale shot dead 300 tigers, Col Rice killed 95 tigers in four

years, Gordon Cumming shot 74 tigers in two years, Montague Gerard shot 230

tigers, Duke of Windsor shot 17 tigers in one week in 1921, Captain Caulfied

killed 93 tigers by poisoning, a British sportsman killed 227 tigers in

Central India and Hyderabad up to 1903, Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner shot

104 tigers that include a record of 17 tigers in 10 days in March 1920.

 

Once considered as an act of bravery and now a remorse, the list of other

centurions of tiger killing are Montague Gerard (227), Maharaja of Udaipur

(100), Maharaja of Scindia (700), Raja of Gouripur (500), Maharaja Nripendra

Narayan of Cooch Behar (370), Maharaja of Rewa (616), Maharaja of Mysore

(100). Moreover, 1055 tigers were killed by villagers in Maharastra during

1821-28.

 

It was only in 1970, when a ban was imposed on tiger killing by the

Government of India. In February 1971, Delhi High Court passed an order

banning tiger killing which meant a loss of Rs 30 million annually earned

from the tourists. To save this magnificent, charismatic, flagship species,

the Government of India launched the much cherished (and also controversial)

Project Tiger in April 1973. As a result, this species specific project

witnessed significant rise in numbers of tiger reaching to around 3,500

within a decade and it became one of the world's greatest conservation

success stories and great reprieve for the tigers. The success of the

project was so encouraging that the then director of Project Tiger, BR

Koppikar in 1980 had presumably reported to The New York Times that there

was no danger of extinction of tiger in India.

 

But alas! One fine day the whole world was shocked with the news that tigers

have been wiped out by poachers in Sariska National Park, once boasting of

35 tigers in 1985. The kingpin of the Sariska debacle, Sancher Chand was

arrested by Delhi Police on June 30, 2005. He revealed some astonishing

facts on tiger poaching in India. He confessed that he sold tiger parts to

China routed through Nepal. These included 470 tiger skins, 2,130 leopard

skins, 6,000 fox skins, 4,000 cat skins, 550 otter skins besides other

animal parts like bones, teeth, etc. With these figures, anyone can imagine

the magnitude of the illegal trade in wildlife parts. The recent

interception of a truck in Tibet with skins of 31 tigers, 581 leopards and

778 otters, all wrapped in Indian newspapers, proves as to what extent the

illegal wildlife trade has gone. Obviously, the skins came from India and

were on route to Tibet's capital Lhasa, a major hub for the trade.

 

Poaching is not the only threat to tigers. In Assam, the major strategy for

killing tiger is poisoning. While working in Manas National Park I witnessed

three tigers being poisoned within a week. The nearby villagers poisoned the

tigers' kills that happened to be their cattle. These people are abysmally

ignorant of the importance of tiger in our ecosystem and obviously, this has

led to the killing of this precious animal as a retaliatory measure. World

Wildlife Fund's tiger conservation programme is also paying special

attention to reducing conflicts between people living in and around tiger

reserves.

 

In Manas, I often confronted tigers in rainy season during May-August on

Bansbari-Mathanguri sand-gravel road. During this time of the year, usually

the tigers wander on the roads because entire grass becomes tall and thick

obstructing stalking of prey species for the animal. They show reluctance to

leave the road since most of the grassland remain submerged in water

infested with horseflies. The tiger is a crushing predator and they stalk

the prey from ambush-cover. Probably this is the reason why cattle lifting

and occasional man killing incidents occur in the grassland-dominated

protected areas.

 

I was involved in tiger estimation conducted in Manas National Park during

1990 where a total of 92 individual tigers could be found, an increase of

six tigers over the earlier estimation of 1984. Those were the heydays of

the successful conservation saga in Manas. In the first tiger estimation in

Manas conducted during 1974, ten tigers could be traced which increased to

30 individuals during 1975.

 

The Wildlife Protection Act (1972), a strong piece of legislation, has been

amended further to ensure the protection of wildlife and its habitat. Under

this Act, an offence committed inside the core area of a tiger reserve

carries a mandatory prison term of three years, extendable to seven years

and a fine of Rs 50,000 extendable to Rs 2 lakh. In case of a subsequent

conviction, there is an imprisonment of at least seven years and fine of Rs

5 lakh which may extend to Rs 50 lakh. Despite these penalties, the laws are

difficult to enforce and to date, in spite of hundreds of cases, only 16

people have been convicted of killing a tiger so far.

 

The government is taking keen interest to curb this menace and is planning

to post pickets of three border forces — the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the

Sashastra Seema Bal and the Border Security Force — along with Customs

officers on China and Nepal borders to detect cross-border smuggling of

wildlife articles. Now, for the greater interest to safeguard this

charismatic mega fauna, the need of the hour is to renew the Indo-China

protocol signed in 1995 under which both the countries can work together for

conservation of tiger sharing all necessary information.

 

*Ranjit Konwar*

 

 

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