TIGERS
Save their Stripes (In defence of Tigers)
By H Abdul
A descendant
of the sabre tooth tiger; the tiger is the largest member of the cat family,
and a fierce, formidable enemy for any hunter who ventures, “Where eagles
dare”. The tiger is a feared and often hated mammal on this our planet earth.
By 2010, the World Wildlife Fund estimated
that the decline in the population of the tiger was as much as 95%. And that due to poaching and habitat
destruction, only 3,200 remain in the wild, with only a slight reversal in
later years, tiger numbers increased to 3,900.
The tiger is officially an endangered
species. The range of tiger habitats was
once as far wide as from the Caspian Sea to the island of Bali in
Indonesia. Only a small fraction of that
range currently exists.
The most famous species of tiger is of
course the Bengal tiger. With a bright reddish tan, they have near black
vertical stripes. Sometimes dubbed as a “river monster”, it has been known to
attack humans.
Yet for all its ferocity, and the seemingly
merciless way it attacks the lower animals and sometimes humans, the Tiger has
continued presence is paramount to maintaining a suitable balance in the animal
populations of the forests.
The main threats to tiger populations come
from habitat destruction due to commercial logging, and the poaching of tigers
for their value of their bones in medicine. For instance in 2005, intense
poaching in reserves such as Ranthambore had depleted tiger numbers. In China, trade in tiger parts has reopened.
The first call to save the tiger came in
1969, during the meetings of the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature and Natural Resources, when senior conservationists raised the alarm
over the disappearing numbers of tigers.
Over the last quarter century, the agreement among many conservationists
was that only by adopting programs on a number of fronts would lead to reduce
the decline in tiger populations. Firstly,
Conservation groups that are committed to saving the tiger needed effective
communication. Conservationists needed
to reach a consensus on the specific problems facing the decline in tiger
numbers. Furthermore, they needed to
initiate and finance projects to address those problems.
Efforts to bring public awareness of the
tiger’s plight have been made both in the past and in recent years. In 1994,
the Time magazine published a cover story about the tigers facing rapid decline
in numbers. Recently, the well-known
actor Leonardo DiCaprio has included tigers as a main objective in his conservation
efforts. To some people, this attention
given to tigers is excessive. However,
the international public at large need to be informed about the importance of
tigers to the environment, in order to collaborate in their conservation.
The poaching of tigers for their skins is
both cruel and unnecessary. The tigers
keep the numbers of other forest animals in check-lack of control of the animal
population will cause the eventual decimation of the forest ecosystems.
Contrary to public opinion, the tiger will
not attack humans unless first provoked. Furthermore, the tigers will
habitually live in seclusion away from human populations, within well-defined
areas.
Thus, hunting and poaching is both cruel and destructive. Only very few consumers will derive
satisfaction from the possession of tiger skins, and other than this the forest
ecosystems diminish in quantity and quality.
The other animal populations soon multiply and spiral out of control
causing damage and the decimation of the forests.
Tigers in fact add to human folklore, and
only in recent times have obtained notoriety because of being provoked by game
hunters. The relationship between tigers
and humans has always been one of friction.
However, it is counter-productive to systematically destroy their
habitats. The destruction of tiger habitats slowly leads to a decimation of the
forests, and thus eventually Man’s food supplies.
Man sows what he reaps. The greater the industrialisation, the
greater the urbanisation, and the more the perceived need for luxuries, the
greater the demand for consumption, and the consequent denigration of forests.
The more our thirst for consumer goods, the less the regard we have for the
forests and the animals in them.
The
tiger is but one small and essential component of the Natural Environment. The whole of the Environment can be thought
of as Nature’s equivalent of an Industrial complex, where everything is
interrelated.
Let’s save the Tiger populations. The effort to protect the
Tiger species is never too early, but can certainly be too late without a
serious commitment.
© “Save their stripes-Tiger Preservation” by Hasan Abdulla, 2017.
Sources:
“About
Tigers” WWF website, www.wwf.org
“Tiger”, Britannica Encyclopaedia, www.britannica.com
“Saving the tiger”,
John Seidensticker, wildlife society bulletin 1997, 25(1):6-17
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3783274
“The Fate of Wild
Tigers”, Eric Dinerstein et.al. Bioscience, June 2007, Vol.57, No.6
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1641/b570608