Where are our Tigers?

We all quite clearly understand that tigers are our national animals. Even though our national emblem, the Asoka Chakra carries only Lions to display, our leaders have rather chosen to declare this animal as our national animal. Tigers are not actually as ferocious as we know. In fact, tigers are more of what we call as”Shy-type”.
But statistics says things that are on the contrary. In 2002, official reports indicate the presence of over 40,000 tigers worldwide. Now, a mere five years have passed since then. But the tiger population has dwindled to less than 3,000. But, India alone holds around a little more than 1,400 tigers. This news comes after the central government launched “Project Tiger”, a supposedly “co-ordinated effort” to bring up the tiger population to a more satisfactory level. But unfortunately, the project has had total failure in acheiving its indented goal. Except the state of Tamilnadu, no other state has been able to show any improvement in this regard.
Though there has been good central funding into this cause, it has failed to reach its destined target. The government claims that it has not been able to access tiger populated areas in the central and North-eastern parts of India, where most tigers live. The reason, it claims is, “Naxal Threat.” These Naxalites or insurgents enjoy un-interrupted control in the jungles of the areas. Hence, it is practically not possible for the poorly armed forest rangers to do anything about it. Moreover, there are unconfirmed reports that local poachers have entered into an "agreement" with the Naxalites to carry out their activities. The poachers seek permission to operate in these Naxal dominated areas under naxal protection and the naxals in turn would get a share of the profits, which they invariably use for procuring “offensive weapons”. There are even allegations that the naxal themselves would hunt Tigers and sell their skin in the international ‘Black Market.’ This of course may be in addition to the secret cocaine business they do in order to fund their activities.
But, down south, there are no such problems for the government to take shelter in, except of course, the lethargic behavior of our corrupt, inefficient bureaucracy. Forest rangers, as we know them, do not carry state-of the art equipments like their western counterparts. The Westerners are using radio frequency chips and global positioning sensors (GPS) to pinpoint these animals and even track their “distress (!)” Signals. They also have sophisticated sniper guns to keep the poachers at bay. But in India, we still depend on decades old techniques that have been made obsolete by the changing tides. When I happened to speak to a forest ranger early this year, he was commenting on the state of the rifle that he carried. He said that these single barrel rifles where used in the Second World War by the allies, nearly six decades ago! Moreover he told me that he carried only 7 cartridges or bullets with him, against the stipulated 50 cartridges per ranger mark set by the government. So, naturally the few rangers, who really want to stand up against poachers, couldn’t hold on to the ground for long.
In Tamilnadu of course, the tiger population has almost doubled. A few years back, it was numbering around 50, and now it’s around 85-95. The Central Government’s “Project Tiger” has achieved reasonable success only here. We must understand that Tigers do not come out of their natural habitats unless and until they are forced to do so. With more and more agricultural lands falling prey to real estate developers and special economic zones, farmers are pushed by hunger to move further and further into dense jungles to bring parts of it under cultivation. Plus, wildlife parks also do not provide a serene atmosphere for these once proud animals to live. Constant shouting and yelling by visitors, who even go to the extent of throwing stones at these poor creatures, are more than just a threat to these animals.
I believe that it’ll be better late than never, to start working on this issue. A belated awakening will at least prevent the issue from going from bad to worse. There is an urgent need to arm the rangers with sophisticated gadgets and weapons to combat poachers. The government should amend the existing laws that are clearly flawed in more ways than one. People arrested under these acts find little difficulty in getting bail and ofcourse continue their misdeeds . Our bureaucracy, which already shows little concern to humans who can speak out, will, I suppose show no concern to these animals which can’t express themselves nor protest. Though these animals can’t vote, use the right to information act, or even initiate protests against “aggressors”, it’s our solemn duty to reach out for these animals. We must understand that they also enjoy equal “ownership” rights over this land and all that it holds. We cannot continue to remain insensitive to these fellow animals.
I hope that each of you readers, would do your little bit in this regard, so that our children continue enjoying seeing these animals, not on paper or in the museums, but 'alive' in the forests. These animals cannot say a word of thanks to our deeds, but definitely, that’s not what we should look for!