Hopes raised for survival of tiger

Press, 19 August 1978, Page 14

Hopes raised for survival of tiger

By

PAT BURNS

Five years after Project Tiger was set up by the Indian Government the former king of the jungle in India has regained his crown. Experts believe the number of tigers is increasing each year by between 6 and 8 per cent.

This result goes a long way to relieving gloom among those in charge of the Swiss-based World Wildlife Fund’s international “Operation Tiger.” It has meant creating the biggest conservation project in Asia, at a cost of same 40 million rupees ($5 million), and substantial social upheaval to halt the decline in India’s tiger population which was estimated to have slumped from a post-war level of 40.000 to 2000 by 1972. Ironically, all the effort and money has been channelled towards a policy of “doing nothing and allowing nobody else to do anything.” Such a description of India’s Project Tiger policy, however, does little justice to the reality. In effect, “doing nothing” has meant establishing nine reserves (a difficult task in over-popu-lated India) and relocating numerous villages situated in the reserve areas. For instance in the case of Kanha reserve (in Madhya Pradesh) 10 villages were moved and in the state of Rajasthan 12 villages had to be resited when Ranthambore reserve was established. But while wild life conservation projects. are

encouraging a mini-boom in a part of Rajasthan state where desert offered little hope to the inhabitants, locals have not welcomed the return of the tiger quite so readily in every reserve. In Karnataka state, south India, villagers took to poisoning cattle carcases in vengeance against tigers who killed their cattle. In some instances state author® ities are willing to compensate a villager for loss of his cattle because of tiger attack, but the cause of wild life preservation has by na means won the hearts of all villagers and carcase poisoning is not uncommon. Nevertheless Project Tiger has the full backing of public authorities. Posters, pamphlets, radio and television programmes, film shows, encouragement to visit zoos and even a wild life week every October, have all helped make the tiger’s future a little more secure in India. Zoologists say that even a small increase in the tiger population makes a significant improvement in the genepool which, in turn, makes each proceeding generation af tigers more healthy and resilient.

But if Project Tiger is producing success stories, the over-all picture in the World Wildlife Fund’s international Operation Tiger is not so encouraging.

An appeal has just been issued to the Indonesian Government to take

eleventh-hour measures to save the Javan tiger from extinction. There are thought to be no more than five surviving on the world’s most densely-peopled island. The World Wilflife Fund president, Mr John H. Loudon, has appealed for reconsideration of a proposed highway route through the Meru Betiri reserve in eastern Java where the surviving Javan tigers live. But it seems likely that the sheer weight of human population will make the Javan tiger only the latest animal to lose the competition with man for space.

. Elsewhere in Indonesia the Bali tiger is already considered extinct and the Sumatran race is thought to number fewer than a thousand. Sumatra is relatively underpopulated at the moment, but tiger hunting takes place openly, says the World Wildlife Fund, in violation of Indonesian conservation laws. Without action the Sumatran tiger may face extinction too.

For continental South East Asia the tiger population is estimated at no more than 2000. And, though no official figures are released, Chinese authorities have recently admitted that the numbers of the three races of tigers there are greatly reduced. However, they say protection schemes are under way and field studies are being carried out.

Of the mighty Siberian tiger no more than 150 re main in existence in reserves north of Vladivostok in the Soviet Union, and it

is thought a handful might remain in North Korea and China. The Caspian tiger, once found in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey and the U.S.S.R., is believed to be extinct. Several skins of Caspian tigers which came on to the market in Turkey in recent years led, ironical-

ly, to hopes that there may be afew survivors of the race but, if there were, it seems that hunters have taken their profit and doomed the animal to the history books. Import bans in the United States and Europe have doubtless helped kill the trade in tiger skins, but con-

traband stocks of animal skins, including those of tigers, do still turn up from time to time. The World Wildlife Fund has asserted that diplomatic Immunity has been, and is still being used, to smuggle out wildlife products from some countries. — Copyright: World Feature Services Ltd, 1978.