Should Human Beings Save the Tiger?
Next week China will usher in the year of the Tiger. Many in India claim that China is one of the primary reasons why tiger poaching is very prevalent in tiger preserves all across the country. The body parts are smuggled from India to China through Nepal and used in China for medicinal properties. Some Chinese also use it as an aphrodisiac.
Recent Indian government reports have indicated that the tiger population in India has dropped to 1400. This has created a stir all over the country. The World Wild Life Fund (WWF) has recruited the captain of the Indian cricket team Mahendra Singh Dhoni and many celebrities to apply pressure on the government to do more towards conservation. Tiger is India’s national animal and an icon and is even worshipped by certain sections of society.
I support the efforts to save the tiger. Human beings are just beginning to learn to control nature and preventing a species from becoming extinct is a challenge to say the least. Even if these efforts fail it will be a very good learning experience for greater challenges that lie ahead including questions about the survival of our own species.
The effort to save the tiger was started by the government of India in the seventies with the help of organizations like the WWF. All these efforts have failed (this is in stark contrast to the American bald eagle which was placed on the endangered list in the late sixties and was taken off the list in 2007).
Some experts have argued that the tiger populations in Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand and the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh are the only two regions where the tiger population is “genetically viable”. The rest of the tiger population in India might already be “functionally extinct”.
The question that I ask myself whenever we talk about extinctions is why should human beings try to prevent species that are close to extinction? Are we playing god with nature and deciding who or what should survive and what should not? We care about the tiger but not about the many trees and food grains that are going extinct every year (there are less varieties of rice today than there was a year ago!). Do we care about the tiger because it is a mammal just like us although the extinction of rice verities directly threatens our very own existence?
China is one of the largest producers of rice in the world. A report by the Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences last year has shown that 84% of the wild rice species in the island of Hainan is close to extinction. This is really bad news. Similar trends like these have been observed in many other crops and grains that human beings depend on for survival.
An Italian trust called Global Crop Diversity Trust is a leading force behind creating a seed vault in Norway called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This vault has begun the process of backing up copies of almost three million different crop varieties. This vault is built into a mountain so that it can withstand catastrophic events like an asteroid hitting the earth.
A vault like this might give us pointers on how we can save the tiger. Instead of spending most of the energy on preserving the tiger in the natural habitat we should also make sure that their DNA is properly sequenced and very good DNA samples, sperms and eggs are also stored that can be used later to recreate them by using surrogate mothers (there was a project to bring back the Tasmanian tiger that failed but many believe that better technology will allow it to happen in the future).
Species extinction happens all the time and it is not always a bad thing. Mammals clearly dominate the earth today. The success of human beings (the king of all mammals) can be attributed to a massive extinction event about 65 million years ago. The most popular theory is that a large asteroid hit the earth which resulted in the extinction of millions of species including the most dominant species called the Dinosaurs (Dinosaurs are actually reptiles).
This allowed other species like the mammals that survived the event to gain control over vast areas of land and ocean that they did not have access to earlier. So by trying to save the tiger we are in fact preventing other species that are in competition with the tiger to succeed.
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Category: News & Government
One more add on to this one BT Cotton has wiped out natural cotton production in the country.
Now what can I say, I have too raised this point albeit not mentioning food varieties, but the point you raise is correct. We are losing many things why shouldn’t we focus on the ecology on a whole and not the one. Few days ago last speaker of Bo language and the last member of a 65000 years old tribe died at Andaman. Extinction is a part of nature, but controlling is the only thing which is in our hands.
@ Tarun
I heard about the Bo language too. I hope they have at least made audio recordings of the language.
Stricter laws need to be made.. Thats the only way ahead. ITs shud be same as killing a man .. THe law needs to be taken out, not dragged for 20 odd years. The thing is every one knows Heck I know , If i kill a animal in a jungle in india, I jsut need a wad of notes and its done..
Nothing to blame China on, people who say its because of china are hypocrates, we have this fascination to hide Truth blame someone else, simple logic… The sould reason is Indian govt. is a weakling and it cant do anything. Moreover animals come much later in the list. because our DEAR DARLING NETA’s are too busy feeding the Animal inside them in there stomach.. Thats what the problem is …
One person hanged on killing of a animal, all this poaching will reduce instantly .. Sometimes we have to take a STRONG step which our govt. is missing and will miss always and everytime..
@ Bikram
You are correct. China is not the real reason but the Indian government is. Periodically we give lip service to protecting the tiger and then we go back to our own ways. Poaching is a criminal activity and it must be stopped.
Tiger is arguably the most exciting animal in the world and we are very fortunate that India is home to the most number of tigers. Other than the fact that it is such a joy to just watch them in their natural habitat, there is also great financial benefit in saving them, in terms of generating tourism and promoting a positive image of India. Having said that, I don’t think India or China are going to do much, we just need to re-create the “Jurassic Park”.
@ Santosh
I think India should collect DNA, sperms and eggs. In addition I also think that they should consider transferring these tigers to some other countries that can do a better job of protecting them.
Hmmm… Nice illustration..! But, I find a touch of a hint towards Darwin’s theory of ‘Survival of the Fittest’ in your contention, here, Hari..! Well, it would hold water only if it was out of a natural phenomenon, my friend!
Here, in most cases (including the Tiger, Dolphin etc.); as Tarun has also pointed out in his comment about the demise of ‘Boa Sr’, the last surviving speaker of the ‘Bo’ language in my domicile, Port Blair last week; the hapless extinctions have occured largely due to gluttonous human encroachments into their habitats. So, how can we, ethically, pass the buck…?
Hence, I vehemently reckon that the onus is on us humans to try and rectify the imbalance, thereby doing justice to our very own survival, at length.
IT’S TIME TO BE A ‘MAN’…!!!
Plz, care to check this out for more on this…
A TRIBE & LANGUAGE GO EXTINCT IN ANDAMAN
@ Vashishtha
Human “encroachment” is part of human nature. Encroachment began the instant human beings learned to walk. I can argue that the Boa Sr people themselves “encroached” on the island habitat.
My article clearly states that I support the conservation process but at the same time I want to point out other related issues which is my prerogative whether I am a man or not :)
Candidly speaking, I’m amused as well as astounded, dear Hari, by your response… :) It seems, you’re yet to come off the recent encounter with some rowdy cynics at your blog because you’ve not understood the idea behind my comment in the right spirit, at all.
No.1: [Human “encroachment” is part of human nature.] This contention doesn’t substantiate man’s transgression vis-à-vis the fellow species/ beings.
No.2: I’m sure you haven’t written this post barely for the sake of argument. Hence, being perennially confrontational doesn’t do any good for your image, my friend, as it would end up repelling your readers from your very blog instead of easing out your disquiet about winning more readers/ traffic for your blog.
No.3: You couldn’t decipher the simple connotation in my statement – “IT’S TIME TO BE A ‘MAN’…!!!”, whereby I meant a ‘sensitive human being’ and not a ‘male’.
No.4: Indians morally follow the fundamental etiquette of addressing someone decent either by his first name or with the prefix ‘Mr.’ before the surname, invariably. Hence, it’s advisable to desist from committing such a gaffe as you have ended up doing by addressing me as – “@ Vashishtha”.
MORAL: Running a blog open for public is not a cakewalk without being prepared for constructive criticism as you’re in for mixed reactions to your expressions. Hence, always be composed and magnanimus!
Good luck to you! Cheers!!! :)
Thank you for your advice. Actually this has nothing to do about my audience or how I treat them. I read your initial statement, understood it clearly and responded to the statement very politely.
Human beings have been encroaching or migrating as I would like to put it for thousands of years (we would not be in India if our forefathers did not migrate from Africa). This includes the Boa Sr people who migrated to the Andaman and Nicobar islands. I am sure this threatened or created the extinction of species in the islands just as migration of humans now are causing the extinction of their language. This is not a complicated statement.
Good luck to you too and I hope you will visit again.
Shrinath’s feedback is very Interesting .. “IT’S TIME TO BE A MAN” means “sensitive human being” . maybe it did before women’s liberation. I am left to wonder what would it mean when someone says “IT’S TIME TO BE A WOMAN”?
How come this definition of MAN applies to your comment but then mean something different when Hari uses the term? One should not be making moral judgment of others when we ourselves are making sexist remarks.
@ Hari
Your article on this issue is very thought provoking.
Welcome Neetu. I just wanted to point out some different view points on conservation and extinction.
Your premise for this blog is misleading. I agree it is not up to us to save tigers , or any other species from extinction. But it is up to us to save them from poaching.
Valid point Ram. For the sake of argument what would a person or a community that is living on the edge of society do for a living if we are not allowing them to go to the forest and live off the resources available in the forest? What is more important human survival or a tiger? The word poaching does not tell the whole truth.