The Royal Bengal Tiger - Are we doing enough?
"When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity."
George Bernard Shaw
The 'Royal Bengal Tiger', the name itself has a majestic dimension to it with pride and charisma oozing out of it. The Bengal tiger, inherent to the Indian subcontinent, in particular India, stands out as a symbol of our national pride. Tigers have been venerated as symbols of majesty, nobility and ferocity since ancient times. The greatest of literary works and epics have mentioned the big cats in the most pompous way. Apparently an animal which shares such an exalted status in our country deserves better treatment than what is being meted out to it today. The tiger population is plummeting and what we require is an effort on a warlike footing to stop this menacing fall but 'are we really doing enough?'
The pitiful and appalling state of the big cats can be easily judged, going by the statistics. The statistics present a horrifying and shocking image of the shameless greed and neglect of mankind resulting in a grave ecological predicament. About a century ago we could boast of having a tiger population of nearly forty thousand but hundred years henceforth, we stand nowhere even near to that figure. The latest tiger count of 2007-2008 puts the tiger population of the country at an embarrassing fourteen hundred and eleven tigers and has already raised a question mark over the 2002 tiger census figures which had put the count to be in the bracket of thirty-two and thirty-five hundred. In February,2015 it was revealed that 'Sariska Tiger Reserve' no longer had any tigers, all it's tigers were dead. Besides these figures, a very vital concern has come to the forefront as regards the latest census; we no longer have any living tigers in the wild, all our remaining tigers are in our national parks. All these figures provide a very clear picture of the grim scenario that awaits our country endangering our ecological balance.
The Royal Bengal Tiger is disappearing but why is this happening? The government agencies boast of hundreds of measures being undertaken to protect these big cats but why is the tiger population dipping at such an alarming rate? The disastrous impact of poaching and the destruction of their natural habitats has taken a toll on the big cats.
Poaching continues interminably in a blatant and rampant manner in our forests and national parks. Experts say these animals are highly prized in China and other parts of east Asia for their pelts and body parts which fetch even upto whopping levels of thirty-five hundred pounds. All this encourages poachers to carry out their activities in the most blatant and merciless manner. The laxity and poor wherewithal of the forest guard only adds to the audacity of the poachers. The tiger has also suffered from a loss of habitat as a result of large-scale mining and hydel power dam projects. The loss of habitat and prey has forced these carnivores to get lured into attacking domestic livestock attracting the wrath of farmers. The most lamenting fact about this whole matter is, while the killing of big cats continues incessantly, the government machinery to contain them has always seemed paralysed with several bottlenecks.
One cannot deny the fact that the government has always tried to launch schemes and take measures in order to save the Bengal Tiger from extinction but the implementation of these ventures have always tasted embarrassing glitches on their way. The government deserved a pat on the back after the 2002 tiger census of the country which recorded an increase of nearly fifteen hundred in the tiger population of the country compared to the count in 1973, the year when 'Project Tiger' was launched; but the latest census clearly questions the credibility of the 2002 census with its more scientific and convincing approach. The country has twenty-seven tiger reserves but the distribution of tigers in these reserves is absolutely uneven with embarrassing contrasts in their tiger population.
The government needs to pull up its socks and act with urgency in order to save the big cats. Mere schemes are not going to help, what we need is a proper implementation of these schemes at every level, right to the grassroots. The forest staff needs to be provided with the necessary resources to tackle and combat poaching. Forest guards need to provided with better training so that they can do their work more efficiently. Projects of national importance such as dams and mining projects should be implemented in such a way so that they do not disturb the natural habitat of animals in any way. Tiger counts should be carried out in the most scientific and corrupt-free manner to bring out a clear picture of the situation to the forefront so that policies and measures can be implemented in the most planned and impeccable way. The preservation of the Royal Bengal Tiger should be dealt with the same degree of urgency as any national venture of prime importance. The Royal Bengal Tiger deserves a royal treatment; it is a symbol of our national pride, which we have accorded the status of being our national animal. Campaigns should be launched at the grassroots level to educate and enlighten the masses and infuse in them a sense of respect for this animal so that each and every citizen of the country begins to prize the life of these big cats.
We have had some encouraging initiatives on the part of government to protect the tiger from extinction, the budgetary allocation for tiger conservation projects in the new budget being the latest in the line of such initiatives. Now we need to understand that the government and its forest department cannot succeed if the people do not support it in the most full-fledged manner. The protection of the national animal is a duty and responsibility of every common citizen of the country. It is high time we act in the most sincere manner with the most enterprising attitude towards protecting our national pride otherwise if the tigers disappear from our country it is going to jeopardise our nation's dignity and respect to an irreversible extent.
-ANIMESH CHOUDHURY
