Showing posts with label 1411. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1411. Show all posts

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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