India's national animal has been in danger of extinction for decades. Despite several measures taken by the Centre and state governments for its conservation, tiger population seems to be in grave danger.
Imran Siddiqui, the founder of the Hyderabad-based Tiger Conservation Society, sat down for an exclusive interview with International Business Times, India to share a disheartening story of the majestic animal.
Taking stock of the number of tigers in this country, the first step towards active conservation is proving to be a huge challenge in India. According to Imran, "the methodology for doing All India Tiger Estimation is disputed and the double sampling methods are criticized." He added that the sheer size of the country also makes it a significant challenge.
Despite the government looking optimistic as the tiger population witnessed a 30 percent increase in 2018, Imran believes that it is far from the truth.
"Tigers are doing extremely well in some Protected Areas while terminated completely from some tiger reserves. The occupancy of tigers is rapidly going down and corridors are being smashed for mindless development," he said.
Imran claimed that India has currently around 2226 tigers, roughly the same from 2014, as opposed to the government's estimate of 2800.
Battling the poaching of the tiger is another huge step towards conservation, and it is a battle that India has been struggling with for a very long time. "Globally, wildlife trade is second only to narcotics in terms of its scale and extent, yet this activity is largely neglected in India."
Imran believes that The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), which was set up in 2007 under the Environment Ministry, is grossly underutilised and largely neglected.
In order to combat the crime against wildlife, WCCB only has 109 sanctioned posts across India. Imran estimates that it is around 40 to 50 percent short on manpower, apart from being forced to operate without a proper team, prosecutor and solid surveillance support.
Imran compared the forest department to the police department and said that unlike the latter, the former has no intelligence network, dedicated legal teams or rapid-action squads that can be deployed. As a result, poaching often goes undetected. However, even if the poachers are caught, the lack of legal teams and feeble prosecution system lets them get away easily.
"This half-hearted attempt to curb poaching or illegal wildlife trade continues to take a heavy toll on wildlife. We need to have WCCB presence in every state; the police should be involved in wildlife crime, and state forest departments must have senior officers heading the anti-poaching wing. Moreover, these bodies must work in tandem with other intelligence-based investigation teams.
To make matters worse, the number of poaching incidents have gone up sharply in areas that are less protected. Imran noted that there were 115 tiger deaths in 2017, out of which 55 were due to poaching.
The story of K4
K4, a tigress born in October 2015, is one of Imran's latest projects. K4's habitat was in the Corridors of Kawal and Tadoba in Kagaznagar national park. She was one of the four cubs born to Tigress Phalguna, and is known to be quite shy when it comes to appearing before the camera, claims Imran.
Around March 2017, she was caught in a snare -- a trap originally meant for a wild pig. Despite her efforts, K4 got entangled in the wire and it remained stuck to her abdomen. As time passed by, the wire got tighter and began piercing her body.
Imran's team were made aware of K4's situation around September 2017. Following the protocol, the team informed the forest department, who later set up a committee as prescribed by NTCA in November 2017. However, despite their best efforts, K4 was far too shy and eluded all attempts to be captured. The team, however, did not give up, and had continued its attempts to treat K4.
Imran's team set up 6-7 baits in various areas where K4 roams and hoped that she was caught so that officials could restrain her with chemicals and tranquillize her so that she could be treated.
He noted that even when the team successfully caught her, she had to be taken to Hyderabad Zoo or Nagpur Tiger Rescue Center for treatment. They fear that she may damage her internal organs and are hoping to capture her to diagnose her at the earliest. Once she is treated, she will be released back into the wild.
Everyone can contribute
Unlike popular belief, tiger conservation is not just the work of a few government officials and a few dedicated conservationists, it is something every citizen can be a part of. "The people in power, as well as common citizens, think that tiger conservation is not a necessity but a luxury," Imran said. The first and the most important step for everyone is to learn as much as possible about tigers and the importance of conservation.
Once that is done, the next step which is of spreading the message can be done. Citizens can use the power of social media to spread the message, and by pressurising the government through media campaigns and letters, he believes that we can get officials to wake up to the seriousness of the issue.
Imran believes it is high time that citizens step up and question the mindless development that has put our natural resources at risk. He wants people to push for sustainable growth by electing representatives who are willing to pressure the government to aid tiger conservation.
Saving tigers and their habitats have multiple advantages, such as fighting climate change and saving natural resources. Imran also requests people to contribute to conservation groups such as Wildlife Conservation Society and Hyticos.
He points out that there is a tremendous economic incentive for tiger conservation, highlighting a study by Dr Madhu Varma of Indian Institute of Forest Management. According to Dr Varma, saving one tiger can contribute around Rs 260 crore to the environmental ecosystem. Doing the math, Imran notes that India can benefit from around Rs. 5.7 lakh crore by saving its 2226 tigers.
Patriotism is not only supporting the people fighting on borders but also supporting the forest officers and people who are fighting to protect India's natural resources, on which our own survival depends. Global warming is more pronounced than ever before and coming years are going to be more disastrous with planet heating up causing perturbation in our natural systems causing huge economic losses. It is time that India wakes up for the challenge of conserving tigers and show lead the recovery of global tiger populations, said Madhu Verma.
To know more about tiger conservation, check out the following links-
