Poachers turn Conservationists in SUNDERBANS

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080229-ecotourism-video-ap.html
(copy this link in your browser)

This video cites the example of couple of poachers, in west bengal, Kolkata, who have given up the unethical and risky business of poaching wild animals in Sunderbans tiger reserve and have chosen to live an ethical and a satisfying livelihood as naturalists instead.

The Tiger reserve and the tourists benefit from the detailed knowledge of these poacher turned naturalists, resulting in a win-win situation for the wildlife, reserve and tourists.

As of now, these are one-off cases where the impoverished individuals have had a change of heart and have resorted to a legal occupation instead of illegal ways to earn money through tiger trade. But these select few good samaritans also serve as an excellent role model, an opportunity for the Govt., where they can identify poachers and urge them to give up poaching, by promising them a sustainable and a civil life as a park guide or naturalist in the same reserve/ forest.

The poachers' expertise in animal trapping and their knowledge of the topography can also be utilized in conservation exercises.

They don't say it for nothing...Where there is a will, there is a way.

India to spend $13 million to protect tigers...Govt. wakes up FINALLY!!!

The Indian government plans to spend more than $13 million establishing a special ranger force to protect the country's endangered tigers, following pressure from international conservationists to save the Great Indian Tiger from extinction.

The funding proposed on Friday during the union budget session by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram follows the announcement just weeks ago of a $153 million program to create new tiger reserves, underscoring renewed efforts by India's government to protect the big cats.

New estimates suggest India's wild tiger population has dropped from nearly 3,600 five years ago to about 1,411, the government-run Tiger Project said last month.

"The number 1,411 should ring the alarm bells ... The tiger is under grave threat," Chidambaram told Parliament during his budget presentation for 2008-2009.

Chidambaram said the National Tiger Conservation Authority would be granted about $13.15 million to "raise, arm and deploy" a Tiger Protection Force. While the budget is just a proposal at this stage, Parliament is widely expected to pass it without opposition later this month.

Protection from poachers
Conservationists welcomed the government's proposal, saying a new force would need to be specially trained and armed to protect tigers from poachers.

"They are finally addressing a very important problem — poaching," Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said Saturday. "I would imagine that much of the existing system would be improved by the injection of the funds."

The Tiger Project plans to create eight new reserves to protect the tigers, covering an area of more than 11,900 square miles at a cost about $153 million. Private groups will contribute extra funding.

Some 250 villages, or an estimated 200,000 people, will be relocated under the plan. The government has promised each relocated family about $25,600.

The population of tigers in Asia is estimated at around 3,500 today compared to nearly 5,000 in 1997, according to Wright.

Unless the government drastically improves enforcement steps against poachers and illegal wildlife traders, the number of tigers will continue to dwindle, Wright said.

STATUS OF TIGERS - 2008, PART 1

The National Tiger Conservation Authority, Ministry of Environment & Forests and the Wildlife Institute of India have made public the 2008 report on "STATUS OF TIGERS, CO-PREDATORS AND PREY IN INDIA".

This report is the culmination of a tiger census that is done every 4 years in the country's 28 established tiger reserves.

Apart from stating the SHOCKINGLY ALARMING FACT that the total number of tigers in India is only 1411 (excluding sunderbans), the report also throws light on some extremely critical information regarding tiger's habitat and survival.

Starting with this post, I will keep highlighting the key learnings from this 151 page report, as I sink myself into it .

For the inclined and patient, here is the link for the entire TIGER CENSUS REPORT 2008 -

http://www.wii.gov.in/publications/statusof_tigers2008.pdf

KEY FINDINGS FROM THE 2008 TIGER CENSUS REPORT: (excerpts from the report in Italics)

HOW DID THEY COUNT THE TIGERS?

• The monitoring program uses remote sensing, geographic information system, and global positioning system technology in combination with high resolution spatial data and field data, based on sign surveys, camera trapping, and distance sampling, to effectively monitor tiger and prey populations. The Project Tiger Directorate (currently the National Tiger Conservation Authority) synergized this mammoth task by liaisoning with the State Forest Departments to generate the required field data in appropriate formats and the Wildlife Institute of India to impart training in field data collection, and for estimating tiger and prey densities for the Nation wide monitoring program.
  
• Tiger occupied forests in India have been classified into 6 landscape complexes; namely (a) Shivalik-Gangetic Plains, (b) Central Indian Landscape Complex (c) Eastern Ghats, (d) Western Ghats, (e) North-Eastern Hills and Bhramaputra Plains, and (f) Sunderbans. Tiger populations within these landscape complexes are likely to share a common gene pool, since tiger habitats within these landscape complexes were contiguous(neighboring) during the recent past.

HOW MANY TIGERS DOES EACH OF THE SIX LANDSCAPE COMPLEX HAVE?

• The most important tiger population within the SHIVALIK-GANGETIC plain landscape complex is Corbett having tiger presence in 1,524 km2 with an estimated population of 164 (151-178). The landscape is characterized by having the ability of sustaining high density tiger populations e.g. Corbett 19.6 tigers per 100 km2
  
• Within the forest area of the Central Indian Landscape tiger presence is currently reported from 47,122 km2 (11.6 % of forests) with an estimated tiger population of 451 (347 to 564) distributed in 17 populations. The Eastern Ghat landscape complex currently has about 15,000 km2 of potential tiger habitat. Tigers occupy 7,772 km2 of forested habitats with an estimated population size of 53 (49 to 57)
• Currently tigers occupy 21,435 km2 of forests within the Western Ghat Landscape comprising 21% of the forested area. The population estimate for this landscape was 366 ( 297-434) tigers. Among the 3 landscape units in Western Ghats lies the 3rd and the mosty important tiger forest - the Periyar-Kalakad landscape unit of about 10,000 km2 area. The single largest population of tigers in India is within this landscape comprising the landscape of Nagarhole-Madumalai-Bandipur-Waynad encompassing the states of Karnataka, Tamil-Nadu and Kerala having a tiger occupancy in 10,800 km2 and an estimated tiger population of about 280 tigers. This population serves as a fine example of managing inter-state tiger reserves for establishing populations that have a good chance of long term persistence as well as provides a source to repopulate neighboring forests.
• North-Eastern hills and Bhramaputra plains currently reported tiger occupancy in 4230 km2 of forests.The single most important tiger population in this landscape was that of Kaziranga that formed a part of a forest patch of 136,000 km2 , tiger occupancy of Kaziranga was only 766 km2.

WHAT THEY LEARNT FROM THE CENSUS:

• The above assessment has shown that though the tiger has lost much ground due to direct poaching, loss of quality habitat, and loss of its prey there is still hope.
• Individual tiger populations that have high probability of long term persistence by themselves are only a few: Nagarhole-Madumalai-Bandipur-Waynad population, Corbett population, Kanha population, and possibly Sunderban and Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong populations.
• To ensure the long term survival of tigers in India it is imperative to offer strict protection to established source populations and manage areas with restorative inputs by involving local communities in buffer and corridor areas by providing them with a direct stake in conservation.

WHY ARE WE GETTING SO PANICKY ABOUT THE DWINDLING NUMBERS OF ONLY TIGERS IN OUR FORESTS, aren't there other species of animals that exist too? WHY SO MUCH EFFORT ON CONSERVING ONLY THE "TIGER"???

• Tiger is not only a flag bearer of conservation but also an umbrella species for majority of eco-regions in the Indian subcontinent. Its role as a top predator is vital in regulating and perpetuating ecological processes and systems.

On that note, friends, I request you to please spread the word around, am borrowing text from my previous post, because my request is still the same!

"Its a sincere request to one and all, take this issue up...in drawing rooms, in boardrooms, throught the week, on weekends, at work or at leisure, because if we dont spread awareness now, it will be too late. Only an informed state can pressurize its state govt. to take some action against the rampant poaching in the tiger reserves, only the willing citizens of the state can urge the forest department and the ministry to install latest technology to keep poachers at bay and safeguard the tigers. Its our turn to decide what we want to see in our forests 10 years from now, its our turn to save the National animal of India, its out turn to wake up and ask the authorities for reasons, its our turn to become a little bit selfless and think of the helpless animal who is being killed to make a few people richer in this material world. Please spread the word, please!"

LONG LIVE THE INDIAN TIGER!

THE TIGERS ARE FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL, can't you hear them cry!

This beautiful sight will soon be a thing of the past...because...
TIGERS ARE FAST BECOMING EXTINCT FROM INDIA. ONLY 1,411 TIGERS LEFT IN THE WILD.
Thats right, this is the alarming truth, tigers are fast becoming extinct in the indian sub-continent, in a habitat which is known to have atleast 50% of the worldwide population of the biggest cat in the wild.
The numbers of Royal Bengal Tigers, the species endemic to India, is dwindling so fast that, if appropraite conservation efforts aren't taken, this royal animal may very well be....a thing of the past.

12th of February 2008, news channels across India flashed in bold big letters...
BREAKING NEWS...TIGERS IN DANGER...TIGER POPULATION DROPS BY 60%.....everyone was crying fowl over the fact that the tigers in India had dissappeared drastically.

The Wildlife institute of India carries out a Tiger Census, the results of which were made public recently and the findings are alarming.

A look at the figures from 2002 and 2006 tell the story: (sourced from www.ibnlive.com)

• In Madhya Pradesh, the number of tigers has more than halfed from 710 in 2002 to 300 tigers in 2006.
• In Orissa, the tiger population has gone down from 173 to just 45 tigers.
• The figures are just as dismal in Maharashtra, form 238 in 2002 to 103 tigers in 2006.

Which basically means that 30 years after the ambitious "Project Tiger" started off with the hope of increasing tiger poulation from a dismal 1200, we are back to square one.

Here are some of the links which will help you understand why is the situation for indian tigers so panicky right now.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5izFPIU5oVjnnWgLhKC35ueSU0NIg

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=190583


Its a sincere request to one and all, take this issue up...in drawing rooms, in boardrooms, throught the week, on weekends, at work or at leisure, because if we dont spread awareness now, it will be too late.

Only an informed state can pressurize its state govt. to take some action against the rampant poaching in the tiger reserves, only the willing citizens of the state can urge the forest department and the ministry to install latest technology to keep poachers at bay and safeguard the tigers.

Its our turn to decide what we want to see in our forests 10 years from now, its our turn to save the National animal of India, its out turn to wake up and ask the authorities for reasons, its our turn to become a little bit selfless and think of the helpless animal who is being killed to make a few people richer in this material world.

Please spread the word, please!