Reflections on International Tiger Day
Bengaluru: In our country, which has enough habitat to support at least 10,000 tigers, Government is now ‘celebrating’ the increase of tiger numbers from 2000 in 1970 to 3000, after 50 years of expensive efforts. Worse still, it now believes only we can only have 3500 tigers. If this is all we can do what is there to celebrate? Why are we spending so much money with such fanfare? As to the all-India tiger survey report released yesterday, these figures are just a rehash of the same scientifically discredited figures released some months ago. Only difference is, the weak signals are now drowned in even more noise in the form of glossy pictures and needless jargon.
The country needs a new vision to find a way out of this quagmire: the role of the forest bureaucracy should be restricted to law enforcement. NTCA should be wound up and its mandates merged with other central schemes for wildlife. The vast talent and energy of the rest of Indian society should be drawn into all other domains of tiger conservation by proactively involving private enterprises, local communities, non-governmental sector and scientific institutions. Tiger Conservation needs a total reboot, if history is to judge us kindly.
More details on ‘Reflections on International Tiger Day’, in the following link :
Submitted by : Dr. K. Ullas Karanth, Founder and Managing Trustee-Centre for Wildlife Studies
Photo by: Julie Larsen