brouhaha: tiger,tiger burning bright....

brouhaha n. the confused noise of many voices

tiger,tiger burning bright....

Published Wednesday, May 25, 2005 by anish | E-mail this post

Our PM is busy searching for tigers in Ranthambhore. He's the first one to visit a tiger reserve in 20 years. As it turns out, the tiger numbers have dwindled so much that the pre-visit by officials failed to spot any tigers at all. Alarmed the prospects the rangers worked overnight by luring a tigress(who had just given birth and was in no position to wander far) near a watering hole by spreading carcasses all around. Furthermore, our PM goes in a 16 car motorcade to the heart of one the most eco sensitive areas in our country to watch tiger. Bleak the future is.

We need to seriously rethink our methods for tiger conservation. The Nagarjuna Sagar reserve in Andhra Pradesh is the only that has succesfully increased the number of tigers out of 29 sanctuaries under Project Tiger. Why ? Because it is in a Naxalite controlled area, and they do not tolerate poachers. A lesson in here somewhere ? Considering that we have only two to three thousand tigers still alive out of a 40,000 strong population around 1947, I think watching Kaal is the closest we'll actually come to watching a tiger. And dont count on the Rajiv Gandhi zoo either, the tiger cage has been off bounds for nearly 6 months now. Sarsika is a prime example. Despite the stand by the park chief that there are 23 tigers still in Sariska, not one has been seen since October 2004.

P.S. The Kaziranga sanctuary is soon to be declared a tiger reserve. Just what we need, another place to lose tigers.