The day I left Mumbai, India, I visited no fewer than a half a dozen souvenir shops, including one in the airport, looking for small tiger sculptures to bring home as gifts. Elephants adorned with tiny jewels, a symbol of good luck; painted wooden peacocks; brass leopards; not to mention pashminas and silk rugs and incense, all available en masse. But, no tigers. [teaserbreak]
This, sadly, mimicked the week I had in India, scouring the Pench Tiger Reserve looking for a wild tiger. 5am wildlife drive. Five hours. 3pm wildlife drive. Three hours. Wild dogs, three golden jackals, spotted and sambar deer, gaur, rhesus macaques, gibbons. But, no tigers.
For a decade, Born Free Foundation has supported the Satpuda Landscape Tiger Programme (SLTP), which seeks to integrate a holistic approach to tiger conservation in India: the species’ last stronghold. An estimated 3,200 tigers are thought to remain in the wild, with roughly half of them in India. This is down from a population estimate of 100,000 a century ago. We’ve let the tiger face the brink of extinction, knowing that demand—primarily in China—for tiger bones, blood, skins, claws, and internal organs was wiping out wild tigers. Poachers with wire snares and bullets know that their cheap and deadly investment could feed a pricey market for tiger parts and products made from them. When it’s easier to find tiger bone wine than tigers, we know that there’s a problem.
The key to the SLTP work is connection. 25,000 square kilometers of vital forest tiger habitat protected; more than half a dozen tiger reserves linked by important corridors; local villagers who live in and around the tigers’ habitat receiving health care through mobile clinics; support for community education in local schools; and innovative approaches to dealing with human/tiger conflict. This is the future of tiger conservation—and Panthera tigris has no time to lose.
The Asian elephant in India, also an endangered species, is a symbol of good luck and hope. Live painted elephants parade in elaborate celebrations. Painted elephant curios line shelf after shelf in every market you pass. But, where is the tiger? If the tiger is to survive, India is the key. The government needs support to fight the poachers. Communities need support to meet the challenges of an expanding human population and a desperately dwindling tiger population. (There’s only so much habitat available…) Tigers need support from the Chinese government to stop intensively breeding tigers to feed a market for their parts. This potentially huge Chinese demand drives the trade, and the trade drives poaching.
We have to connect a globally holistic approach if we are to save the tiger. There are more tigers in captivity in the U.S. than in all of the wild. There are more tigers in Chinese tiger farms than in all of the wild. I long for a day when I can take my daughter, Mia, on safari in India and see a tiger lying in the tall grass, peaceful and safe. And then, buy her a tiger sculpture in the local bazaar to remember her magical journey!
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Adam