The lesser siblings (of Tigers) : Facing the wrath of negligence........ some insights into wildlife conservation issues in India

Leopards have for long, in India, faced the negligence of the authorities responsible for wildlife conservation. With, their more illustrious cousins, tigers getting the major chunk of the spotlight. It's not to say that the conservation of leopards has been neglected due to the focus on tiger conservation, but the message that I am trying to convey here is that, the entire wildlife conservation policy in India has, in a sense, been very myopic in both its conception and functioning.

First, our protected areas (namely national parks and wildlife sanctuaries) today, have turned into small islands, as roads, railways, & infrastructure projects separate them from each other, further and further.

Second, The buffer zones in these protected areas are getting eccroached into, with every passing day.

Third, the relocation of villages that are located within our national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, has been moving at a snail's pace, if at all.

Fourth, the illegal mining inside some of our prime reserves is going on unabated.

Fifth, since the time the wildlife tourism industry has started to boom, the forest department's focus, seems to have shifted from the core conservation issues to the management of tourists.

Sixth. our patrolling on the ground remains weak, at best, with the forest guards still not being competent enough, both in terms of skillsets, as well as in terms of the resources that are made available to them.




Seventh, and most importantly, when talking of leopard conservation, one glaring reality is that leopards live mostly in the buffer zones of protected areas and largely in areas which are not protected by law. This brings to them, a great deal of threat from the poaching mafia and from fatal conflicts with vellagers.

Coming to some facts and figures about leopard conservation in India. 235 leopards were killed in the year 2008; 291 were killed in 2009; and already in 2010 over 70 cats have been slaughtered. No way can the species survive such a war on it.

Leopards are dying across the country, specially in the northern hill states of uttarakhand, himachal pradesh, and in u.p., at an alarming rate. The beautiful panthera pardus is being killed by organised poaching mafias; is being hunted down by angry villagers who share their neighbourhood with it; being killed in road and rail accidents; and is being driven out of forest areas due to habitat loss.

India's leopards are being butchered due to various reasons, all of which can be dealt with, but only if we wake up in time. The leopard is calling out to us, its caretakers, to help it survive, for it too, is just another species like us, which is trying to earn its daily living....

Tigers: Fighting for Survival in the year dedicated to them (there can be no greater irony!)

The year 2010, is the year of the Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac. How ironic is it, that the year which is dedicated to the reverence of these great cats, itself poses the greatest threat to their survival....

The world economy is coming out of its recent traumatic phase and the demand for goods in the consumer markets is growing. But along with it, is growing, the demand for tiger skin and parts in the Chinese and Tibetan black market. With the additional threat, of this being, the year of the Tiger (in China), Tigers across Asia are in grave danger. Possibly, at the greatest danger, are the Tigers of India, because of it being China's next door neighbour and as almost half of the world's wild Tigers are found here.

Keeping this eminent threat in mind, it is imperative that, the government of India, the Ministry of Environment & Forests, the state Forest departments, the NGO's, the corporate sector, the media, the local communities, and the civil society, all join hands to ward off this foreign threat to our nation's pride.
Our future as a nation is linked to the survival of our Tigers; through their habitat, the rivers that flow through Tiger reserves, and through the role the Tiger's forests perform in acting as giant carbon storehouses. India can mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, through the restoration of vast forest lands and forest areas falling under the traditional Tiger habitats, wherever feasible. Protecting the vast forest landscapes of our country, can be the only long term solution for tackling Climate Change.

The protection of the Tiger and its forests, directly has a bearing on the health and wellbeing of not only our nation, but of the entire world. As tiger populations, defacto, tell us about the health of our ecosystems and hence the quality of the air we breathe or the water we drink.

Hence, we as a nation we should not fall in the trap of making policies for deforestation and conversion of forest land into agricultural and industrial land, in pursuit of short sighted petty monetary gains. Rather, we should make our environment and development policies, such, that they serve the needs of our nation for centuries to come. Because with our forests, rests the future of not only our Tigers, but ours own as well.