An argument with a friend
sometime back kept me wondering “I don’t give a damn if there are 1400 tigers
or 10 or none in wild. What it has to do with humans? It’s just that our future
generations may not be able to see them, no big deal”. While I was deeply hurt
with this argument, it also raised a concern, is this how people think of
wildlife? Do they really don’t know its value. That the diversity of species
around us is result of millions of years of evolution with each species has a
role to play and that we can’t survive for long if we keep destroying them.
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| Tigress Maya at Tadoba National Park ( Pic courtesy: Anand Meduri (Friend) ) |
Tiger is the supreme
predator that sits at the top of the food chain, is a regulator of almost
everything below. Talking science, Tigers keep a check on population and
distribution of other species below the food chain, all the way till
autotrophs, the primary food producers. Inversely, it’s also dependent on them.
Not to forget the role played by each species also in the hierarchy. Thus
presence of tigers in a forest is indicator of a healthy ecosystem and each
effort to preserve them boils to preserving the entire pyramid of species that
lies below.
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| Pic courtesy : hindustantimes.com |
India with a billion plus
population has a huge strain towards its forests. And with our motives of
economical freedom and development we are exploiting behind our important
assets, our forests. Forests are natural lungs of our planet that sucks in all
our pollutants, regulate temperatures, regulate climate and other natural
processes. Historically India has a high tolerance towards wildlife and lived
in harmony with it for thousands of years. Urbanization has changed the
purview, our forests are depleting at drastic scales, but still we have some
sensitivity towards our national animal, the Tigers. The recent census has
shown a promising increase in their population in wild, from 1706 in 2010 to
2226 as per latest estimates is good news for each one of us. With our forests
shrinking to fewer pockets, conservation of tigers leaves a scope of protecting
our forests as well. Tigers predate in huge territories and hence an increasing
population implies we need to preserve (even increase) our green cover to sustain
them and also the entire food chain below. This means apart from green cover, with
tiger population we are retaining our biodiversity, some of which is found in
India and nowhere else in the world.
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| Pic courtesy : indianexpress.com |
With 8% bio-diversity of world
that is at times compared to that of entire Africa India has huge potential to
promote wildlife tourism. India house 50% of entire tiger population of world,
which in itself indicates this potential. And this could be recursive as
tourism can provide the revenue to sustain the preservation efforts, at the
same time lobbying for these ecosystems.
The bounce back of tiger
population would not have been possible, without the efforts within the
wildlife sanctuaries. One such example can be given of Bhadra wildlife
sanctuary in Karnataka where the forest guards shouldered this important task and
saved the forest from poaching, tackling human-animal conflicts and also
keeping a nerve of forest fires. A comprehensive relocation program, first one
in India, for people residing in 26 villages within the reserve has proved to
be one of the key factors for its success.
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| Pic courtesy : hindustantimes.com |
What lies ahead now is a
challenging path. Human-animal conflicts are inevitable in India due to ever
expanding settlements. The best way to tackle them is to educate and sensitize
the people towards environment and wildlife, and also how to live along with
it. While this looks just concerned with people living in vicinity of the
forests, it’s not. It is important we also live responsible lifestyle in urban
cities. Our energy needs, needs for other resources like food and water, and
where we drain our pollutants, all connects to the issues of rural India and our
forests. Indira Gandhi in Stockholm conference 1972 said “Poverty is the worst
form of pollution” which conveys why we also need to minimize the economic gaps
if we really want to succeed as a sustainable nation saving the habitat of our
pride national animal, the Tiger.
What is your effort at personal and community level for conservation of wildlife and biodiversity?
(Written by Gaganpreet Singh, a passionate adventurer and nature lover, working with Microsoft as a Software Engineer. He is also associated with a social initiative 'Joy of Reading' )
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