Opinion - Editorials   

Hope for wild tigers

Just how many wild tigers there are in India has been a contentious issue; it polarises the debate on conservation strategies. The scepticism of the scientific community, which has not bought official claims of healthy tiger numbers, will be vindicated by a recent official report that says there may be only 1,300 to 1,500 left in India. This estimate, derived using better methodologies than in the past, contrasts with the figure of 3,642 tigers that Project Tiger believed existed five years ago. Yet this is not a time for gloom and mourning. Imperilled though they are, tigers can survive in India’s reserves and even grow rapidly if informed and intelligent conservation takes place. So viable are some of the reserves in India and elsewhere in the subcontinent that the population of the big cat can potentially reach healthy numbers. Scientists Jai Ranganathan, Kai M.A. Chan, K. Ullas Karanth, and James L. David Smith report in Biological Conservation that 21 reserves, some of them forests contiguous with Nepal and Bhutan, can hold most of the tigers. The subcontinental population of tigers can grow to anything between 3,500 and 6,500.

Such optimism is based on the resilience of some tiger reserves in India and its neighbourhood in the face of a hostile matrix of factors in the areas surrounding the reserves. Such evidence raises the hope that the majority of tigers can thrive in alluvial grassland, subtropical moist deciduous forest, tropical dry forest, and tropical moist deciduous forest. These rich natural sites are found primarily in the central Indian States, the terai region bordering Nepal, and in southern Bhutan. The primary conservation action required here and elsewhere is to preserve the prey base of the tiger; any changes proposed to land use in the surrounding region, such as exploitation for commerce and industry, must be given up without compromise. Poaching is a serious threat but prey depletion is at least an equal challenge to tiger survival and breeding opportunities in most reserves. Unlike tiger poaching, the hunting of prey such as deer, sambar, and wild pig remains mostly invisible and even tolerated; it contributes to a steady reduction in tiger numbers. George Schaller set the tone for evidence-based conservation in 1967 with his influential The Deer and the Tiger. A lot of research has been reported since, pointing to the need for habitat integrity and a healthy prey base for tigers to survive. The Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife Crime Bureau have their task cut out. With more encouragement from the Prime Minister, they can help the charismatic cat out of a wholly human-made crisis endangering its existence in the wild.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Hope for wild tigers
Fatah re-emerges in Gaza
Against unilateralism, for a consensus
On Iran, no news is good news for U.S.
Sachar Committee report and pending promises
Corrections and clarifications
Agrarian crisis
On challenges

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu