Saving the sink precursor to the survival of the tigers in India

The Contingency & The PA Concept   

I remember my first visit to Kanha National Park in the early seventies. The Wildlife Protection Act was promulgated and thankfully the slaughter of our precious wildlife was brought to a much-needed end.  Although Kanha had received some form of protection right from the 18th Century onwards whence the British ruled India, the initiatives were limited and infallible. Nevertheless, Halon and Banjar Valley still supported sensitive wild species like the hard-ground swamp deer and the tiger at the commencement of the Project Tiger Program. This was the saving grace for future conservation initiatives, and the results have been spectacular.   

The year of my visit was perhaps 1972, and the tiger population in India had plummeted to below the 1400 mark perhaps from over 40,000 at the turn of the century. There seemed no recourse for the doomed species till the Project Tiger Program was initiated. After initial hiccups, the program is right back on the track with a population of the endangered carnivore over the 3000 mark.     

The Protected Areas have two components the inner inhabitable and inviolate core, and the outer buffer or the sink area as some conservationists refer to it. The PA and the reserves have delivered a yeomen's service with the active participation of wildlife managers and the sentinels. In a human-dominated conservation landscape, the exploitative nature of our species would have proved disastrous in the absence of the PAs and the WPA Act. 

*Note the human presence in the core is limited to the forest guards and their hutments a crucial protection feature. Regulated tourism subject to terms and conditions is allowed in 20% of the core area for the common people.   

Us & Them

Sensitive wild species need inviolate areas to breed and survive in an intact ecosystem small or big. Humans are notorious for destroying habitats that support wild species under one excuse or other, and even with judicial intervention albeit rarely. We have nearly lost all grasslands and wetlands in the country that are the first target of agrarian settlers and commercial exploiters.  The forests survived, however, limited in extent due to the immense spread and not due to our sagacity. 

We have come to own the Earth with no consideration for other life forms, and the environment as whole. The destruction of wetlands, forests, and savannahs,  the chaos as regards marine conservation, and the pollution ensuing from unchecked use of fossil fuels all are precursors to species extinction and the global warming that is wreaking havoc in the contemporary era. If this continues human extinction could be imminent. This is not a speculation, an equilibrium the Earth's environment maintains is crucial for our survival and it is unfortunately extremely fragile.   

Early Years

A dilapidated and pockmarked single metal road in the interiors led to the park from Chiraidongri township in Mandla District. All around the roads were dark smokey hamlets with tiled or thatched roofs far removed from the modern amenities that were developing in urban India, the people were poverty-stricken, isolated, and living in the absolute past. I still recall the solitude and the smell of fire woods and the staid humble faces (mostly tribal) that stared at us in absolute consternation. Wilderness was to them a natural phenomenon there was nothing exotic about it like it was to us who were at the turn of the century far removed from the inheritance. This critical inheritance is not only the prerogative of the local forest-dwelling communities it belongs to all Indians.    

In that era I was armed with little knowledge of how the ecosystem and its components worked, the wilderness was a frightening prospect of an encounter with the ferocious big cats of unimaginable proportions. These misconceptions were thankfully erased from any reckoning as I grew up and tourism was the major interpreter.  Despite having many detractors, ecotourism creates awareness and respect for our inheritance and a large human population is better endowed with the knowledge of the precious wilderness nowadays.  

Tiger visibility has increased considerably as compared to the seventies a conservation succes yardstick.

Wildlife Protection Act 1972 & Formation of the Protected Areas 

An alert Prime Minister passionate about the country's inheritance was at the forefront of nature conservation, a much-needed reprieve after the years of slaughter by the elites and the poachers.  Hon. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi invited those at the helm of forestry and conservation like Mr. Kailash Sankhala and the Wildlife Protection Act was formulated that made the hunting of scheduled wild animals an offense and invites punitive measures. The WPA 1972 formed the bulwark against wildlife offenses besides supporting the legal framework as an aid to the dedicated wildlife managers and the staff at the helm.   

Project Tiger 

There were initial failures as it took time to comprehend how the international poaching and illegal trade network worked with the local complicit in India.  An inaccurate consensus also led to fatal complacency. Despite the launch of the program, the numbers had not increased during the period post-initiation, and then the mass slaughter of the tigers at Panna and Sariska Reserves was a shocking disclosure of the ineptitude of the whole exercise. The country's legal system sometimes is lax on criminals due to the age-old framework. It provided loopholes to established and well-known unlawful wildlife parts traders like Sansar Chand who was most likely instrumental in these horrendous poaching incidences and the illegal wildlife trade. In the loop were some staff from the forest department and the local poachers. 

The stories made headlines globally, and a shocked department began to reshuffle the protection mechanism and subsequent best practices were inducted keeping in mind the vulnerability of poverty-stricken communities besides the habitual criminals. Due to constant vigilance, evolving conservation strategies, and initiatives the populations in the core of the tiger reserves have increased.  

Sink

Tigers are highly territorial predators with an established hierarchical order that is little understood. Being at the top of the food chain they are crucial indicator species that indicate the health of the country's remaining ecosystems designated as tiger reserves. 

Although the conservation initiatives in the seventies with subsequent reforms envisaged the coexistence of the wild species with humans this laid down principal at the present juncture is at best chimerical but with strong conservation ethos shaped during the Vedic Era rubbishing this phenomenon in its entirety would be foolhardy. The creation and designation of the core will remain inviolate and well preserved for eternity, and any dilution would be disastrous for not only the tiger but the whole ecosystem.   

But due to burgeoning human factors, the buffer or the outer area has been filtered out of stringent conservation measures and humans have some leeway here. Although recent amendments have been merciful on the extent of indulgence, and commercial activities at industrial levels have been prohibited subject to a distance from the core, the buffer zone encapsulates a larger area. As a matter of fact, it expands outside the limits of the buffer areas as designated.  

Tigers are limited by an inhabitable area a certain population dynamics prevails among them and this is universal.  Transient populations of young males, and the aging tigers unable to face competition move towards the periphery wherever substantial crown cover prevails. To this, we must add an intermediate population of the big cats which have naturally adopted the outer region by birth or due to population pressure. A swelling population of big cats expands the area of inhabitation, and this is limited only by the availability of habitable grounds.  

The Challenges 

Though tigers are often conditioned to the humans in the core to some extent the situation that prevails in the buffer is overwhelming. In absence of the right conservation initiatives and the protection mechanism, the survival of the big cat population will entirely be limited to a well-managed core.  

But is this enough? 

Managing the buffer or the sink area with sagacity and expeditiously is imperative. Frequent incidences of man-animal conflicts indicate a lack of well-planned strategies due to the bureaucratic lethargy and overwhelming complexities associated with that particular sink. The biggest culprit is the country's electoral system which has become populistic in nature.  The political interference in conservation and environmental protection is very much there.  The Forests Rights Act empowers the gram Sabahs to be active participants in conservation or the members at least have a say. Let's wait for the impact although people's participation is a welcoming initiative will this work in a heavily politicized environment?  

Most often it is the overwhelming complexities of a human-dominated environment that impacts conservation initiatives and the protection mechanism at work in the sink. 

Though the legal framework prohibits intense commercial activities some distance from the core, this will not be enough in the future whence the populations increase further. Extensive tiger landscape management has to be in place with equal emphasis before all is lost.  Framing and regulating land-use patterns and restrictions on activities is a management headache for the authorities with volatile public resentment in place with instances easily fomented by vote-hungry politicians. 

Although the protection mechanism is present in virtually all the tiger landscapes, the exigencies are not that evident, and frequent incidence of poaching, electrocution, wood logging, and unlawful expansion of agricultural fields besides the expansion of habitable areas prevails. These are the real challenges that forest management faces in the sink area.   

Infrastructure projects especially the liner development initiatives are cleared in the country without much consideration of immediate and long-term consequences. There is a fervent zeal to be counted among the advanced Nations. Although very little can be done regarding these interventions in the natural lands at least viability should be measured with greater emphasis. Alternatives like simple underpasses or over bridges have been favorable for animal migration without accidents. Similar alternatives should be in consideration as regards projects that will eventually be executed.      

Functional connectivity between forest patches in the buffer is of immediate concern since the expansion of urbanity in these areas is at a rapid pace.  The local communities have benefitted immensely from ecotourism in the reserve and that has resulted in higher income figures than in the past. With greater affluence, structural expansion is becoming evident as modern amenities creep in. Unfortunately, this is happening in most of the buffer zones due to rising income.  Shopping centers, restaurants, and service providers all are expanding their deliveries overtaking a larger area. This is leading to encroachment of the few viable habitats in the buffer. The tigers and the prey base will be forced to saturate the core leading to unnatural conflicts between the big cats and the prey base. 

Nature controls stressful existence with the reduction in population in the wild. Thus, sooner than later the domino effect will result in plummeting of the tiger population once again this time due to a faulty system in place.

Tigers need large habitable forests and grasslands to survive small inviolate cores will not be functional as populations rise. This is the challenge wildlife managers and policymakers will have to deal with in near future.  

The next big challenge being faced is that of corridor creation and management. Corridors are not just conduits for animal migration they could hold a stable population of wild animals as well hence land-use patterns and conflict management is very much applicable to these vital passages. 

Read More: Tiger Poaching is not Man Animal Conflict

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Uday has worked as a naturalist for a number of years at Kanha National Park in Central India. He is fond of writing on conservation issues for the common man. 

Uday works as SEO for Digital Marketing and Content Writer. He also teaches digital marketing in Jabalpur. He is closely connected to nature as a naturalist.    

He can be contacted at:

Mob/Wattsapp: 09755089323

pateluday90@hotmail.com

Status Report 2018: Increasing Tiger Population in India

Count - 2018 Year--- 2967 Tigers

After a grind of many years, India finally experiences a meaningful increase in its tiger population. This is heartening after a dismal status that could have been well below fourteen hundred at the start of the Project Tiger Program in the seventies. The report is credible since a more scientific approach has been resorted to using diverse techniques including the camera traps.

A larger area has been brought under the scanner unearthing small unheard populations of the carnivore. The major benefit of this exercise of counting tigers is the unfolding of challenges in various or diverse landscapes. People's conservation efforts which come naturally due to traditional beliefs, myths, and ethos come to light thus a converging pool of conservation practices along with emerging scientific management principles. This ends up enhancing conservation logic and creating a consensus that helps put it into practice to save the tiger more effectively.  

Another factor that lends credibility to the report is the lack of fudging that went on in the past with some FDs exiting the management with a figure that was higher than before. This was farcical, and the population of the big cat in India was zooming well beyond its carrying capacity. This also showed the prerogative of the higher-ups and how easy was it to fudge.

Like the balloon that bursts whence a small pinprick, the truth came tumbling down after the debacle at Sariska and Panna National Parks two of the most prestigious tiger conservation units in India. 

From thirty-plus tigers within a short period, there were no tigers at all...all had been poached with extreme ease and comfort, and that too with the connivance of some forest officials as the newspapers reported. To counter the blame.. committees and inquiry commission all were set up more to whitewash the shameful than to find the truth. In our country, all horrific events eventually die down to be forgotten or to be sunk in ever delaying legal procedures and hordes of paper.  

Thankfully these events did not die down completely for it was the survival of one of the most charismatic species at stake, and India was at the forefront. But the most empowering factor was that India's prestige was at stake..the National Pride. The whole World looks at us as to what we are doing with our tigers.  

A comprehensive conservation model, ever-evolving was needed in the country, and thanks to concern and dedication we have been successful to a great extent in the cause. 

The debacle that happened at Sariska and Panna made it evident that India at that stage was ill-prepared to save the vanishing species ...the critically endangered tiger. 

The initiation of Project Tiger following the Wildlife Protection Act and the creation of Protected Areas with inviolate core lulled the management with complacency bolstered beyond reasoning by yearly fudging thus falsely increasing tiger numbers albeit only on paper year by year. 

Let us be honest fudging did not take place everywhere, the bloated figures were also due to the age-old methodology of counting the big cats. Many tiger reserves were in a nascent stage at that time and the conservation efforts then were lacking perhaps due to inexperience or lack of funds.        

Lets us say that tiger conservation in those days was in its infancy which was very true for the predator needed macro solutions and not many biological insights for its survival but the answers or solutions were not there at that time and if they did unfold the process was painstakingly slow. 

In the midst of the conservation efforts were some of our finest wildlife managers, and the dedicated staff in the reserves. International assistance also aided the conservation efforts. Institutes like WWF for Nature, WWI Dehradun, and a plethora of National and local conservation bodies now play an immense role in saving this beleaguered species.    

Space is a constraining factor with the human population bursting beyond the seam and dire economic challenge, an increasing tiger population is not an assurance of the animal's survival a Damocles Sword will always hang on the predator's head. 

Numbers though comforting and the increase much needed, survival of the tiger would always depend upon many factors and those constantly emerging...political will and conservation efforts being of utmost importance. 

Population dynamics in relation to the environment, humans, and our attitudes and policies will always be in a state of flux with population increase. The changing landscape and the encompassing environment will throw many new challenges and problems for saving the big cat. Are we prepared and well-focused?  Are we proactive enough?     

All that we do as a Nation, as a society, and even as individuals will have an impact on the survival quotient of the tiger.      

Tiger Status Report 2018

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Uday works as a naturalist in India and writes on tigers and their conservation.
Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com
9755089323

Tiger Conservation : Space Constraint

Tiger - Uday Patel

Recently whence it was opinionated in a conservation meeting that the tiger population in India would be contained within a limit this was no fanciful or extreme critical conjecture. The speaker Dr. Rajesh Gopal is an eminent tiger conservationist and erstwhile field director of Kanha and Bandhavgarh tiger reserves. He now heads as Director of Project Tiger under NTCA.  While a lot many aspects of tiger conservation are in the know, little attention is paid to the spacing mechanism of this critically endangered species.   

Complacency has crept in with the creation of protected areas and we are subject to myopia that all will be well now. Though the creation of protected areas known as the tiger reserves has proven a boon for the conservation of this species and the biodiversity as a whole, it has also placed us in complacency and restricted our vision beyond the core of these realms.

The upcoming census figures yet to be released may provide us with an elated announcement but the axe on species is nowhere off. Due to better census methodologies and logistics and of course, stringent conservation practices in the core of many tigers reserves the population is estimated to go up and perhaps touch a figure of three thousand adults. In 1910 the figure stood at a dismal 1400 plus and in the year 1914, it was above two thousand two hundred. But in spite of this success, many questions remain unanswered.  

It is difficult to state whence and at what level population the tiger would come out of being endangered since the survival factors are far more complex than we realize, and the big cat population will always be subjected to the attitude of contemporary Governments, and their policies vis a vis environment and conservation. 

The crux of the statement was that tiger population growth in India would be constrained severely due to limited space. The availability of space is a crucial factor in the spread of the species with an individual need of several square kilometers. The space constraint also limits the transmigration of the species as it is wont to do by nature. The space factor is also bound consequently with the availability of a healthy prey base.   

In short, the space constraint would prove a severe impediment to tiger conservation in India. This is ironic since we have plenty of forests out of the purview of the tiger reserve where the animal can move in but they are in a dismal state.

The reserve forests as they are classified lack an adequate prey base as well as good forest cover. They do not comprise an ecosystem in a perfect state of preservation and are subject to misuse. They are subject to wood logging, cattle grazing to the extreme, and poaching. Well in many places wildlife has already been hunted down by people. The overflow of wild animals from the protected area does not receive much protection since some locals are wont to hunt. This has been seen even in the buffer regions of the tiger reserves where wild animals are subjected to electrocution, snaring, and hunting. The biotic pressures are not welcoming by any means either.    

In this dispensation or rather a consequent one little attention was and is paid to the endangered species whence the development imperative arises. Strips of forests, a wide range of habitats, and crucial water bodies are subject to pressure without a second thought. Hence from where and how will the accrual of space take place? 

Until more forests are subject to intense regeneration and protection the very idea of a large population of big cats surviving in the country seems chimerical. The tiger requires a specialized habitat with a perfect ecosystem in place.

Thankfully such spaces already present have been and are being brought under protection in this country and that is the saving grace. But the buck should not stop here. A more proactive and concerned approach is required to fetch the National animal out of the quandary it presently is in. This should start right from the doorsteps of the ruling dispensation along with the involvement of the administration and the bureaucracy and yes the civil society meaning us.     

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Uday Works as a Naturalist at Kanha National Park.

Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com

Future of Tigers in India

Some ten thousand years back tiger crossed into India from the cold climes of Siberia. It possibly migrated via IndoChina and entered the country to spread around many dense forest and grassland habitats.  It faced a little challenge since the prime predator preceding its arrival was the Asiatic Lion which incidentally had a different habitat preference. The leopard and other predators were no match for this magnificent beast.     

Tiger in Forest - Uday Patel

The predator spread far and wide in the subcontinent perhaps leaving a few States that did not contain the requisite habitat. The spread was gradual till the population came to more than a hundred thousand animals. The big cat flourished as a tertiary carnivore and settled down in the prevailing ecosystems well. That it could breed and multiply with ease confirmed that it had a strong survival instinct.     

For thousands of years, all went well but not in recent times of history. It faced a greater challenge from humans as they multiplied and spread. But the conflict was not daunting as there was plenty of space for all the species then. 

Tiger Reserve - Teerath Singh

It was the unchecked human populations...ever-expanding for more space and utilization of resources that put wildlife and their habitats under pressure including the tiger. Since the carnivore is an apex predator the impact was worse in its case.

As human settlements increased and resource utilization became unmanageable the negative impact increased tremendously as well. The big cat began to lose its habitat, and the ecosystems were gradually destroyed one by one. In dire need of space, humans began to invade habitats at a fast pace. 

Eventually, the grasslands began to recede and so did the forests. In the period of contemporary history, human populations in India grew at a rapid pace resulting in the unplanned acquisition of lands that were crucial for the tiger’s survival. Agriculture too expanded rapidly in recent times sounding a death knell for the homes of the big cats. Large areas of forests and a wide span of grasslands were taken over for human settlement and agriculture. Many species were lost and many are on the verge of extinction as a result.

After suffering decimation due to organized culling campaigns during the British Raj the remaining tiger populations were further being reduced drastically by modern-day hunters with guns. But the conversion of habitats into agriculture had a major impact on the tiger populations in India, especially during the post-independence period.    

Modern Day Challenges 

The human population in the country continues to grow and continues to acquire land for agriculture or other purposes, especially urbanization. The new threat is from development as perceived by the planners. Much under pressure to create a robust World beating economy the fast-expanding industrialization is threatening the very existence of remaining big cat habitats and other species in the country.  Mining, encroachment, and denudation of forests are slowly but surely suffocating the breath out of the big cats.     

It all depends upon what policies are shaped and executed. A lip service paid to conservation would be disastrous with habitats already decimated and surviving species on the verge of extinction. Conservation should be on the agenda of the governing bodies as well as the planners and executioners such that it evades the threat of rabid industrialization that can take place. We should also reckon that public participation is the need of the hour.

Climate change is being augured by the use of fossil fuels as well as the decimation of natural lands. This poses a certain threat to humans but it threatens the species' survival as well.  Our rivers the only source of drinking water, fresh air, and edible elements all are under severe threat.

Consumerism is posing a big threat to the environment. The frustrating plastic menace has come to note. The use of toxic chemicals like pesticides and toiletries is threatening the health of our environment and increasing the extinction risk of many life forms.    

Poaching is a threat that exists in various quarters where the big cats survive. Local poaching is very much there in some places while organized poaching has completely decimated populations in Panna and Sariska Tiger Reserves.

Demand for tiger parts in the Chinese system of medicine is proving to be an existential threat. This is correlated with the taste of exotic wild species in the cuisine of many countries. Pet keeping as a hobby is an unethical practice that is tolerated by many countries.  Activities like these encourage and help flourish the illegal wildlife trade. 

A large population in the country still considers wild species as inimical to human safety and interest. It is organized awareness campaigns and tourism that will perhaps mitigate these horrendous beliefs. If only the big cat could create equity for itself which it does to some extent due to tourism. But is this enough? Many erudite conservationists regret that the tiger cannot vote. Seriously!  

The Future

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It would be unjustified to say that the ruling dispensation does not care for the wilderness. It does and so did the past Governments. What is questioned is the degree of commitment overriding political expediences and hasty development practices.   

Conservation cannot be considered just as a deemed policy matter and ethical or moral obligation. Concrete and sincere efforts have to be made from all quarters to preserve and populate other life forms including the tiger.

The creation of the Project Tiger Program was a shot in the arm for the beleaguered specie. The numbers were precariously low whence this effort was launched. In spite of all the initial hurdles and organized poaching racket the tiger in recent times has gained ground.       

The creation of tiger reserves or inviolate protected areas (critical tiger habitats) accorded much-wanted breathing and breeding space for the other life forms including the big cats. But the preservation of the protected area is subject to many challenges ironically whence there is a dire need to accord greater space and protection to the tigers in India. The biotic pressure on our natural lands threatens the coexistence of other life forms hence the inviolate spaces should be zealously guarded.  

As per the 2014 Census using a new methodology, the figure arrived at was 2226 a rise over the earlier estimates. The 2018 census is going to result in indicating the survival of more tigers in India. But is this enough? 

We have a long way to go...   

2014 Tiger Census

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Uday works as a senior naturalist at Kanha National Park in India
He loves blogs on conservation and related issues
Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com
9755089323

Tiger Conservation - A Number Game

Tigers are elusive animals and amazingly apt at being unseen even whence in the vicinity. Their habitat preference aids in camouflage, an art that they have mastered anyway, and a structure along with enchanting color patterns makes the big cats practically invisible wherever they live.

The predator can sit or stay still for an amazingly long period, crouch low in small tufts of grass and walk silently unheard, even whence in proximity. It has an amazing ability to freeze and stay that way for an exasperating time span. The animal can virtually vanish at will from the human reckoning.   

I believe many tigers complete their life cycle and die without being seen or being recorded by the tiger counting mechanism or the field personnel. This also assures that the predators occupy a wider tiger landscape than we assume. The ghost of the darkness is an apt way to describe the magnificent beast for it is a nocturnal animal made so by necessity and to some extent by massive human intrusion everywhere they survive.        

In democracies, life forms that vote are the privileged ones, and hence others are always endangered or facing extinction eternally. The situation is not good in countries that are governed by autocratic or dogmatic beliefs as well. In fact, the tertiary predator is nowhere safe.      

Counting The Cat 

Earlier the cats in India and Russia were counted using only the pug mark method. This resulted in greatly exaggerated figures leading to a chancy complacency that was disastrous for conservation. With the advent of more scientific methods like camera trapping and DNA analysis, we are coming to more accurate figures plus and minus a few. This development has also led to the discovery of tigers elsewhere outside the protected areas in previously undocumented tiger landscapes. But do these exciting finds assure that the population in India is rising? 

Well Yes & No

The Tiger population is well managed in highly protected reserves it is rising there thanks to the efficiency of the staff, wildlife managers, and the political will prevalent generously to say so. On the other hand, there may be many habitats where the animal is still being persecuted leading to a reduction in numbers. Man-animal conflict, hunting, and poaching are still the factors instrumental in the critical status of the big cat. And yes, I have not forgotten the tremendous biotic and abiotic stress that modern man is imposing. 

Crown cover of most of the landscapes may be receding drastically hence habitat destruction is an ever going disaster in a heavily populated country like India. Dams, mines, and infrastructure projects are never going to see an end, hence the threat will prevail unchecked ever. 

With a virulent stress on development or rather unplanned rapid development that always takes place in haste to be repented at leisure.     

Tigress - Paul Diggins

A Nation hell-bent under prioritize, the beleaguered cat has no place on the list.        

Whence we count the big cats we have only one species in mind this is a gross miscalculation. There may be no more than fifty South China tigers in the wild as per reports. The Tigers have gone virtually extinct in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. We have lost the Bali tiger in Indonesia, the Caspian, and the Javan. 

Around three hundred Siberian tigers survive in a small pocket, precariously under severe threat from poachers. India is the country that is home to the Bengal tiger with the largest number standing at more than half the global population. This species also survives in Nepal, Burma, and Bangladesh. The last figures registered an appreciable growth of around thirty percent let's see if it stays that way. The country is doing all that is possible to protect the carnivore in its protected areas.           

The drastic reduction in the habitat is the primary reason for the sad numbers of animals almost everywhere,  and this threat does not seem to be mitigating. Of the roughly seven percent of the habitat left, the threat of denudation, wood logging, and human pressure looms large. The animal needs vast space to survive. Are we willing to accord that do we have a policy which would enable increase the inviolate space badly required?

The populist governance prevailing in the country is incapable of doing this, containment will linger. The hopeless case of tiger corridors is evident so very much. This is due to a lack of political courage. We have rapaciously taken over all the land for our cause without generously allocating some for other life forms. There seems to be no hope regarding this, and it seems to be wishful thinking and may seem ludicrous to some.       

The largest and single most threat that looms precariously is the use of tiger parts in Chinese systems of medicine and not to forget the culinary preferences. There seems to be no encouragement that the CITES convention would ever be followed there.      

Albeit the picture seems like a doomsday prediction there is hope for the tiger at least in India. All it needs is stringent protection, political will, and apt management. We must not forget laws that govern illegal practices regarding wildlife...these need a paradigm change if poachers and hunters have to be discouraged effectively.     

More Tigers Outside PA

I just came across the news of four tigers being found in Nandhor Valley in Uttarakhand State of India.This is heartening news as all discoveries of new tigers is going to be. 

Please read here: Tigers Outside Protected Areas

More on Nandhor Valley

Almost ten years back I had seen a mating pair in Kundwara R.F near Jabalpur. This pair was also seen by few villagers and an SDO who patrolled that area. Similarly there are unconfirmed reports of tigers in  Mandla Division on Jabalpur Mandla Highway, some good forest patch adjoining the Narmada River. This could be sightings of leopards but who knows? 

I believe there may be more tigers outside the PAs, but most of the Reserve Forests in the country are in pathetic state. The existence of the stray tiger population could be in precarious state. 

Bengal Tigers in India

News Article on Bengal Tigers

Status of Tigers in India in the National Geographic Magazine. The latest tiger census figure have been released by the Project Tiger Directorate in New Delhi.

The falling numbers of tiger population is alarming and if poaching, habitat and disease are not curbed immediately than the tiger has a bleak future. The latest statistics show the tiger numbers at 1411 which is half what it was few years back. At the turn of the 20th century there were 40,000 tigers in India. Poaching for bones and habitat destruction is the major reason for the fall in the population of Bengal tiger in India. The major demand for tiger parts and fur are from Nepal, Tibet and China. The mafia engaged in tiger poaching has to be dealt severely.