Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Can we save tigers just by saving them?
You might be confused by reading the heading, but it has some meaning. Recently tiger census was carried out in India and we came to know that only 1411 wild tigers are left in India. Then everybody started to think about tiger conservation. Many NGOs and some other organisation started to create awareness among people. Can we conserve tiger by just increasing their numbers? Each wild tiger requires about 100 sq. km of dense forest cover for its survival. India has just little more forest cover(suitable for tiger) than what is required for 1411 tigers. So the number 1411 is justifiable as even if more than 1 tiger is born and exists in a 100 sq.km area eventually only one will survive. So our first preference should be to conserve and increase forest cover suitable for tiger habitat and not just increasing tiger population. We should also think of conservation of other species which serve as food for tiger. Government is trying to do this by announcing many forest areas as "tiger reserves" but it should be done more intensively. I hope now you understood the relevance of the confusing heading.
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Well said. I don't see as much awareness towards conserving forests as towards saving tigers (esp after the famous aircel ad about 1411 tigers :) ). We should try to conserve the greenery first. Here in bangalore, which already lacks trees, they're felling trees with various alibis like metro construction, road repair, etc. ( It is sad that only valuable trees are cut and sold, while useless trees at the same site are still standing!)
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