"In the past six years, it is believed, tigers have been killed at a rate of nearly one a day."
Oct 16th, 2007, 04:21 AM
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"In the past six years, it is believed, tigers have been killed at a rate of nearly one a day."
This article, with the above quote, was in today's Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/yoac9p
(hope you don't need to be registered) With population pressures and a pro development government in New Delhi, it doesn't look good...
I am usually over in the Africa forum, but I thought I would post this here - it is heartbreaking that India's symbol is gradually approaching extinction.
(hope you don't need to be registered) With population pressures and a pro development government in New Delhi, it doesn't look good...
I am usually over in the Africa forum, but I thought I would post this here - it is heartbreaking that India's symbol is gradually approaching extinction.
Oct 16th, 2007, 10:28 PM
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Yes, it is indeed a very sad reality that the tigers are being killed in India, it's last major bastion, in Asia, on account of the trade in it's bones, for defunct chinese medicines, as also for it's pelt. Jim Corbett wrote in 1945 warning the world, " that a tiger is a large hearted gentleman, with boundless courage and that when he is exterminated, as exterminated he will be unless public opinion rallies to his support, India will be the poorer by having lost the finest of her fauna". He gave the poor animal just 15 years more to extinction!
Yet, we still have some invetrate souls fighting hard for it's survival & an optimist, that I am, the tiger shall survive. Some parks are better protected than the others. Corbett is just one such, where they are still in healthy numbers, though the sightings have comparatively declined over the years...and I have seen them at a few feet there & on one occasion he was just close enough, outside my jeep, to catch me by the scruff...sizing up the situation gave me a nasty look, fell back on his rear legs & disappeared into the bushes...only then the red jungle fowls (and I) realised how close they were to being gathered to their ancestors!
Unlike the Ranthambore & Bandhavgarh, the tigers in Corbett have not yet lost their fear of man & perhaps that is the reason one only gets a fleeting glimpse of his presence & also has remained in possession of his much sought after skin...and bones for those dubious chinese aphrodisiacs!!
Yet, we still have some invetrate souls fighting hard for it's survival & an optimist, that I am, the tiger shall survive. Some parks are better protected than the others. Corbett is just one such, where they are still in healthy numbers, though the sightings have comparatively declined over the years...and I have seen them at a few feet there & on one occasion he was just close enough, outside my jeep, to catch me by the scruff...sizing up the situation gave me a nasty look, fell back on his rear legs & disappeared into the bushes...only then the red jungle fowls (and I) realised how close they were to being gathered to their ancestors!
Unlike the Ranthambore & Bandhavgarh, the tigers in Corbett have not yet lost their fear of man & perhaps that is the reason one only gets a fleeting glimpse of his presence & also has remained in possession of his much sought after skin...and bones for those dubious chinese aphrodisiacs!!
Oct 17th, 2007, 04:36 AM
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I would think that they could be a tremendous tourist resource, like the wildlife in Africa, providing a paycheck for a lot of people, so I don't understand why they aren't protected, or why those protections aren't enforced. We are off to Botswana Winter holidays '08 and their policies over there in regards their ecological/wildlife heritage are wonderful - large parks and concessions without much (if any) poaching (from what little that I know). The concessions provide work for many people although some of the lodges and camps are foreign owned, or at least not owned by local folks. The pressure on the animals and ecosystems seems to be less than in India.
Oct 19th, 2007, 10:08 PM
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To my knowledge, the first steps at big game conservation were taken in India by efforts of Billy Arjan Singh & Guy Mountfort of the IUCN in 1969. Every one became tiger conscious & a lot of money was pumped in internationally. However, the man-animal conflict has intensified as every inch of the arable land has been put to plough. Tiger habitat has disappeared, entire eco-systems have altered & buffer zones decimated.
Wrong policies of the govt. & forestry officials persuaded by political pressures & incomplete knowledge, has compounded matters. If we have to save the tigers, the jungles must not be violated. Unfortunately, wild life is on the list of state subjects on which the central govt. can not legislate. The states are patently anti-wildlife as subjects suffer from depredations of wild animals; the guidelines of the centre are ignored in the supposed interest of the voting public!
The indiscriminate issue of crop-protection gun licenses has depleted our reserve forests of game on which the tiger preys. It forces him to leave the forests in search of prey & the next target is cattle or man. Though neither cattle nor man forms the natural prey of big cats but to assuage hunger these are killed. You have these sentimental ‘green’ people who would not allow live baiting to supplement the availability of prey. Surely, death in the jungle is not as heinous as in Indian slaughter houses, with primitive methods! All who are conversant with a tigers killing methods vouchsafe the silent clinical procedures adopted by the master predator.
Tribals are now allowed to harvest forest produce. This to me seems to be a retrogressive measure for when a dead tiger commands a price of INR 2 million, who will hunt for honey or herbs!
Wrong policies of the govt. & forestry officials persuaded by political pressures & incomplete knowledge, has compounded matters. If we have to save the tigers, the jungles must not be violated. Unfortunately, wild life is on the list of state subjects on which the central govt. can not legislate. The states are patently anti-wildlife as subjects suffer from depredations of wild animals; the guidelines of the centre are ignored in the supposed interest of the voting public!
The indiscriminate issue of crop-protection gun licenses has depleted our reserve forests of game on which the tiger preys. It forces him to leave the forests in search of prey & the next target is cattle or man. Though neither cattle nor man forms the natural prey of big cats but to assuage hunger these are killed. You have these sentimental ‘green’ people who would not allow live baiting to supplement the availability of prey. Surely, death in the jungle is not as heinous as in Indian slaughter houses, with primitive methods! All who are conversant with a tigers killing methods vouchsafe the silent clinical procedures adopted by the master predator.
Tribals are now allowed to harvest forest produce. This to me seems to be a retrogressive measure for when a dead tiger commands a price of INR 2 million, who will hunt for honey or herbs!
Oct 19th, 2007, 11:38 PM
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Over here in SE Asia, tigers are almost wiped out. They are hunted to extinction in Thailand, Java, Cambodia ... even large forest blanketed place like Borneo.
Only pockets of rainforest in peninsula Malaysia and Sumatra are still home to tigers.
The ecotourism scene has moved upmarket a long time ago in Africa - but not SE Asia. Hence, African wildlife is better appreciated and economic gain is well spreaded among countryside dwellers making them see the benefits of conservation. Sadly, this is not the case for SE Asia, or I suppose India.
Only pockets of rainforest in peninsula Malaysia and Sumatra are still home to tigers.
The ecotourism scene has moved upmarket a long time ago in Africa - but not SE Asia. Hence, African wildlife is better appreciated and economic gain is well spreaded among countryside dwellers making them see the benefits of conservation. Sadly, this is not the case for SE Asia, or I suppose India.
Oct 22nd, 2007, 06:51 PM
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that's really unfortunate, and very short sighted. And, interestingly enough, I posted about this same article on the Africa forum, and got a few replies, but not too many here.
I am in the very beginning stages of planning a trip to India, but may want to move it up, since I would really like to see some tigers. They are a huge part of India's heritage, or, I guess northern/central India - don't know too much about the regions yet.
I am in the very beginning stages of planning a trip to India, but may want to move it up, since I would really like to see some tigers. They are a huge part of India's heritage, or, I guess northern/central India - don't know too much about the regions yet.
Oct 28th, 2007, 06:35 AM
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The famous African hunter Robert Ruark paid the ultimate compliment to our tigers when he wrote, “…a live tiger is the most exciting thing I have ever seen in my life, and I have shot a lion. A tiger in a hurry is the fastest thing I have ever seen in my life, and I have shot a leopard. A wild tiger is the most frightening thing I have seen in my life, and I have shot a cape Buffalo…”. I have personally seen even the most seasoned forester’s voice getting hoarse, in the close proximity of a tiger & some confess that their legs refuse to support them, after a close encounter!
The best time to see a tiger in the wild, in north India is the month of March / early April, when the fire lines are cleared in the forest, improving visibility. Tigers are incessantly bothered by flies and a warm sun and they change positions often. After a big meal, they do stay around the kill, guarding against scavengers & the chances of encountering one, improve manifold, especially in the morning safari, on a pad elephant. Again one encounters them on forest tracks, keeping to well beaten paths, as they are soft padded & in the Corbett I have seen them, a number of times, around 3pm, right on the forest road, as they leave the dense patches of the jungle to drink water on the Ramganga river that flows, on the right of the main Dhikala road. March is also the mating season for these big cats & one often hears their caterwauling floating down & once I actually saw a pair of mating tigers in the dry water channels of the Ramganga, behind the FRH.
Corbett is the most picturesque park in north India & the best part of a visit is your stay inside the forest, surrounded as you are by the river on one side, grasslands on the second & dense forest on the remaining two. The deer come into the grasslands at sunset & the carnivore follows them. You can hear the calling all night, and it is great fun to differentiate a call of a cheetal deer from a peacock! To the uninitiated both sound similar!! No other park in India, to my knowledge, gives you such pleasure, for you stay outside of them.
All tigers in the Corbett have excellent winter coats & are comparatively larger compared to the biggest found in central or south India. One can make a personal effort like sitting over water holes, tree machans, driving along the forest roads to make a contact with the tiger. I guess three nights stay could be quite fruitful & one could also enrich one’s stay by a picnic lunch or angling for Mahaseer in the buffer area or visit some important, man-eater hunting landmarks, around this area. Fishing is great as you will see the Mahaseer over 50 pounds in this area.
The best time to see a tiger in the wild, in north India is the month of March / early April, when the fire lines are cleared in the forest, improving visibility. Tigers are incessantly bothered by flies and a warm sun and they change positions often. After a big meal, they do stay around the kill, guarding against scavengers & the chances of encountering one, improve manifold, especially in the morning safari, on a pad elephant. Again one encounters them on forest tracks, keeping to well beaten paths, as they are soft padded & in the Corbett I have seen them, a number of times, around 3pm, right on the forest road, as they leave the dense patches of the jungle to drink water on the Ramganga river that flows, on the right of the main Dhikala road. March is also the mating season for these big cats & one often hears their caterwauling floating down & once I actually saw a pair of mating tigers in the dry water channels of the Ramganga, behind the FRH.
Corbett is the most picturesque park in north India & the best part of a visit is your stay inside the forest, surrounded as you are by the river on one side, grasslands on the second & dense forest on the remaining two. The deer come into the grasslands at sunset & the carnivore follows them. You can hear the calling all night, and it is great fun to differentiate a call of a cheetal deer from a peacock! To the uninitiated both sound similar!! No other park in India, to my knowledge, gives you such pleasure, for you stay outside of them.
All tigers in the Corbett have excellent winter coats & are comparatively larger compared to the biggest found in central or south India. One can make a personal effort like sitting over water holes, tree machans, driving along the forest roads to make a contact with the tiger. I guess three nights stay could be quite fruitful & one could also enrich one’s stay by a picnic lunch or angling for Mahaseer in the buffer area or visit some important, man-eater hunting landmarks, around this area. Fishing is great as you will see the Mahaseer over 50 pounds in this area.
Oct 28th, 2007, 04:38 PM
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It is not only tigers but all large wild animals are at risk due to the tremendous population pressures in India. I recently read that nearly 10% of the extrememly rare Asiatic lion population, found only in India, have died this year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/...a_rare_lions_2
When I was in Delhi at the beginning of the month, one of the world's leading tiger experts predicted that tigers will soon become extinct in India due to the lack of enforcement by the Govt of the conservation rules that are already in place.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/...a_rare_lions_2
When I was in Delhi at the beginning of the month, one of the world's leading tiger experts predicted that tigers will soon become extinct in India due to the lack of enforcement by the Govt of the conservation rules that are already in place.
