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Why Save Tigers?

Tiger is symbol of wilderness and well-being of the ecosystem. By conserving and

saving tigers the entire wilderness ecosystem is conserved. In nature, barring

human beings and their domesticates, rest of the ecosystem is wild. Hence

conserving wilderness is important and crucial to maintain the life support system.

So saving tiger amounts to saving the ecosystem which is crucial for man's own

survival.

"Do not cut down the forest withits tigers and do not banish thetigers from the forest.The tiger perishes without theforest, and the forest perisheswithout its tigers.Therefore the tiger should standguard over the forest and theforest should protect all its tigers".

Kailash Sankhala ,Tiger man of India;

Founder of Project Tiger, 1973

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Reasons for the Endangered Status

The Tiger is endangered because it is poached for its body parts to cater to an illegalmarket. Another reason is habitat loss due to depletion of forest cover interference ofhumans and encroachment of forest land by people causing fragmentation. At theturn of the century, there were almost reportedly 40,000 tigers in India, but nowonly around 4,000 remain in the wild.

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Despite all the efforts topreserve the Tigers, it isbelieved that around 60 to70 tigers were shot deadduring the late years of the90s. Such a number maylook small to the reader, butin fact represents close tofifteen percent of the

total Sumatrantiger population.

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Today, the populations of Tigers stand at around 4,500. In the1970s, the numbers were much smaller, but projects have helpedthe population to re-grow. Today, deforestation and urbanization havea major impact on the Bengal Tiger population. Tigers are forced tomove out from their natural habitats and as a result can no longereasily hunt food. 5

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Bengal Tigers form the

largest subspecies of tigers

in the world. Most

commonly found in India

and Bangladesh, they are

the national animal of boththese countries. Living in

grasslands and in

rainforests, they can weight

up to 220kg. The Bengal

Tiger population is very

fragile today: they havenearly been driven to

extinction and numerous

projects are now in place to

preserve the population.

Although they do not typically hunt humans, theymay do so in cases of extreme hunger.6

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Several projects have been set-up by government agencies to helpconserve the Bengal Tiger population, the largest one being ProjectTiger.

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These lovely tigers werelarger in number only a fewdecades ago, and weresometimes called northChina tigers as they couldalso be found in northChina, in addition toMongolia and Korea. Thenthey started getting fewer tothe extent where one could

no longer find them insouth Korea, and theirpopulation has become veryrare in China (a coupledozen) and Mongolia.8

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They kept decreasing insize until reaching only afewer dozens (less than 50)in the mid 20th century. Itwas then that efforts weretaken in order to save themfrom extinction. They are now

heavily protected and mostlykept in zoos where a close eyecan kept on them. Luckily,over five hundred tigers canbe accounted for nowadays,but still, this is considered avery low number (close to theSumatran tiger population). 9

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Tigers are sometimes hunted for their fur or their body parts, which can beused in traditional Chinese medicine. Although there are strict rulesagainst hunting tigers, many animal preservation agencies say thattigers are still being hunted throughout India and Bangladesh, even insidenational parks themselves.

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While they no doubt have played a major part in the fairlysuccessful conservation project, they are also subject to criticism byseveral activists, who claim that the projects have not beenefficiently organized and that tiger numbers may have beeninflated by the agencies in order to protect jobs. 11

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One particularly controversial incident was the complete loss ofthe Bengal Tiger population in the Sariska Tiger Reserve as a resultof hunting.

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The Bengal Tiger plays amajor role in the heritageof India and Bangladesh.Sadly, these beautifulanimals have been drivento near extinction as aconsequence of

urbanization andhunting. It is importantthat the public is madeaware of the efforts thatare taking place in orderto save these amazingand important animals.It is only then that theyhave a chance to survive.13

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Siberian tigers are one of the most critically endangered tiger speciesin the world. They can mainly be found in the east-most regions ofthe Siberia region of Russia, which explains their name origins.

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Experts estimate that the south China tiger population does not exceedtwo to three dozens only! This has earned it a ranking between theworlds top 10 animals that are on the verge of extinction prettysad.What has mainly contributed to the reduction of the South Chinesetiger population is the amount of illegal hunting that has taken placein these southern forests, in addition to the reduction in the number ofprey it can hunt (again, mostly due to humans).

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Unethical BreedingDue to their larger size andthe unique white colour zoos,circuses and private ownershave turned the breeding andrearing of white tigers intobig business. In thewild white tigers are

extremely rare due to thescarcity and low probabilityof a tiger inheriting bothrecessive genes (chances are 1in 10,000) but in captivitybreeders are taking whitetigers and breeding themwith each other. Father withdaughter, brother with sisteretc. 16

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Why do they keep inbreeding ?The answer of course is related to money. White tigers are a part of the everexpanding exotic animals trade which has grown to become a multi million dollarbusiness and is second only to the illegal drug trade business.Zoos, circuses and private owners openly admit that the white tiger serves as agreat attraction for visitors increasing visitors and of course revenues. A white tigercan sell for as much as $100,000 so if you already own a couple why not breed themcreate some cubs and sell them off for some extra profit.

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Establishments and individuals who claim theirtrying to save or keep the species alive are simplymanipulating the truth to keep their unethicalactivities alive. Breeding of white tigers is nothingshort of evil and benefits the tiger species in no waywhat so ever.

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Albinism is very rare. When it occurs in the wild the animals have avery low survival rate. In captivity the rate of survival is good, butyou will rarely sight an albino. Such is the rarity of albino animalsthat they, and their slightly less rare white cousins, are often held tobe sacred. This applies to white elephants in Thailand and white cattlein India.

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