Global Tiger Day!

Global Tiger Day!

Maha Media, 29 July 29

The world is observing Global Tiger Day! Established in 2010 at Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit, July 29th is dedicated to worldwide awareness and support for tiger conservation. Less than a century ago, 100,000 tigers roamed the forests of Asia, but today’s reality is that there are only 4000 tigers are surviving in their natural environment. India is currently home to nearly 3000 tigers marking a 33% jump in their number from the last census four years ago. 

According to the fourth round of tiger census, there are currently 2967 tigers in India in 2018 as against 2226 in 2014. This means an increase of 741 tigers in the last four years because of the conservation initiatives taken by the Centre and state governments. Compared to 2006 when the scientific method of tiger counting began, the numbers doubled – from 1411 in 2006.

Since 2006, India has been conducting the all India tiger estimation once every four years. Three cycles of the estimation have already been completed in 2006, 2010 and 2014. In the previous census, Karnataka (406) housed the maximum number of big cats followed by Uttarakhand (340) and Madhya Pradesh (308).

Though India launched Project Tiger in 1973, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was set up only in 2006. It came as a response to the drastic fall in tiger numbers as highlighted by the local extinction of tigers in Sariska and Panna Tiger reserves. With the primary issues of poaching, habitat destruction and man-animal conflict, the future of India’s iconic Big Cat remains a matter of great concern.

Apart from tackling the serious issue of poaching and trade in tiger parts, one of the main issue that require immediate attention in regard to tiger conservation is the fragmentation, degradation and shrinking of  habitat. A rise in the encroachments into protected areas, deforestation and conversion of buffer zones into farmland are dangerous for tiger’s life. It resulted in shrinking of sizes of tiger reserves. 

Despite Maharashtra not having the highest tiger population in the country, the state has recorded the maximum tiger deaths plus body parts seizures this year so far. Today India has almost twice the number of tigers than it did a decade ago; however, the threats to India’s big cats remain as potent as ever. India’s reported tiger deaths related to poaching peaked in 2016, according to World Wildlife Fund-India. There were 50 poaching-related deaths in 2016, according to the Wildlife Protection Society of India, the highest in 15 years.

Those who study English literature must be knowing British poet William Blake’s famous poem on tiger ----

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 
In the Forests of the Night; 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Poet, painter and visionary William Blake worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men. Blake wrote this poem in 1774, there were around 100 thousand tigers roaming this planet in the Nature. In the second line, the poet writes about, ‘Forest of the Night’ which is the home of the tiger. There were hardly one billion people on the planet and there was no Global Tiger Day celebration then.

Today Madhya Pradesh was declared to be number one state having number of tigers leaving behind Karnataka. Congratulations to Forest and Wildlife department of Madhya Pradesh and also to the PCCF (wildlife) Dr. U Prakasham and his team.