Every year on July 29, the world celebrates the glory of Tigers. This day is marked to spread awareness and promote initiatives to conserve and increase the Tiger population on Earth. India has been one of the natural habitats of this magnificent beast. In fact, Tiger is still India’s National animal.
And yet, India has not been very kind to this ferocious and handsome creature. So much so, Tiger conservation efforts by the government have been going on since 1973 in order to keep the Tigers from EXTINCTION.
Today, as the world observes World Tiger Day, India is celebrating the exceedingly positive All India Tiger Estimation Report of 2018. But behind this celebration and good news is a CONVENIENTLY HIDDEN disaster in the making.
The Good News
Releasing the results of All India Tiger Estimation. #InternationalTigerDay https://t.co/b73ADzson4
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 29, 2019
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, releasing the results of All India Tiger Estimation on 29th July, 2019.
Today, PM Modi released the All India Tiger Estimation Report 2018. The report brought with it great news for wildlife conservation enthusiasts in India. You will be happy and surprised to know that according to these reports, India has achieved its target for 2022 in 2018 itself. The tiger count has improved to a staggering number of 2,967 tigers. This is not just a number. It is the efforts of many wildlife activists, government officials, and tribal people who have worked in collaboration with each other. India’s goal to double the Tiger’s population from the year 2014 (1800 Tigers) has finally been achieved, and that too 4 years in advance.
Starting 2006, The National Tiger Conservation Authority started conducting All India Tiger Estimation in every 4 years. In the year 2006 the estimated number was 1411, which increased to 1706 in the year 2010, and it further increased to 2226 in the year 2014.
Image Credit: projecttiger.nic.in
Prime Minister Modi was quite obviously in a very good mood today during his speech and he said on a lighter note, “The story that started with Ek Tha Tiger and then continued with Tiger Zinda Hai, should not stop there. It should be baaghon mein bahaar hai.”
The Bad News
Image Credit: Pexels.com
While India might be successful at increasing its tiger numbers, the conflict between tigers and people who live alongside them has never been worse. Just last week, a group of villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit beat up an adult tigress and killed it. Before that, the tigress had attacked and injured nine villagers while they were working in an agriculture field in Deurea range of the Pilibhit tiger reserve. The forest department was criticized for inaction, and the villagers for inhumanity.
The Wildlife Trust of India’s conflict database for Uttar Pradesh recorded 63 cases of attacks on humans by tigers from 2014 to February 2019, an average of 10.8 cases per year.
The worse aspect of this situation is that the conflict is almost inevitable with the increasing population of both Tigers and Humans. Both the species are vying for available land and it looks like a never-ending fiasco. In another incident, we saw a tiger relaxing on a bed to escape the floods, which is a direct evidence of the desperation that this lack of space is causing.
The wildlife cannot be conserved at the cost of humans (the tribal population). The only way ahead is to work WITH the local populations and tribal people by integrating them in the conservation efforts.
