Tiger Debacle In India

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The Tiger Debacle in India Suhas Kumar Top carnivores are predestined by their perch at the apex of the web to be big in size and sparse in numbers. They live on such a small portion of life's available energy as to always skirt the edge of extinction and they are the first to suffer when the ecosystem around them starts to erode. Wilson, 2003 Some months ago in a high level meeting held in New Delhi, where the fate of tigers in India was discussed, several causes were enumerated by the managers and experts for the present tiger crisis - poaching, accidents and diseases, human- tiger conflict, territorial fights, old age and so on; the officials maintained that out of 52 tiger deaths in the country this year only 15 were confirmed cases of poaching and out of these 15 cases only 5 occurred within protected areas. But despite this knowledge nobody in the meeting talked about finding out the ecological reasons for extirpation of tigers, nobody spoke for protecting dispersal areas, potential habitats and corridors, nobody voiced concern for inculcating a sense of responsibility among officers who look after the territorial forest habitats outside protected areas(PAs) and are custodians of the corridors, and nobody talked about equipping the officers in-charge of non-PA forests (territorial forest divisions) adequately to combat wildlife crime and to enrich wildlife habitats in the forests under their charge. "Little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and this observation is amply reflected in the reports that we read in news papers and watch on TV screens - most reports and interviews sound ostentatious and little-informed on the issues of wildlife conservation in our country. Through this write-up, I wish to dispel the half-truths that surround the tiger crisis. In my view, the reason for

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