Sariska: Symptom of a long malaise

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Sariska: Symptom of a long malaise

New Delhi: The tiger remains under severe threat. More than a year after the disappearance of tigers from Sariska became public, the lord of the jungle, a study shows, has vanished from 50% of its historical habitats in Bihar and Rajasthan and from 30% of its hunting grounds in central India.

Confirmation of the tiger tragedy has been provided by a report prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India for the National Tiger Conservation Authority which has surveyed the presence of the top predator to the taluklevel in areas of its habitat. The grim findings reveal tiger being under stress even in the Shivaliks where it has vanished from 30% of its areas.

While WII is going to release a partial tiger census report-estimates for tigers for six states on May 23-the report it has prepared for the NTCA already outlines the extent of the crisis. "We have done extensive taluk-level study to present a real picture and this will be complemented by a estimate that will be shared as results come in," said Rajesh Gopal, member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

Some wildlife experts had been arguing that the threat to tiger arises from both poaching as well as loss of habitat and prey species. The current report seems to be proving them right.

In Bihar and Rajasthan, the tiger has gone "locally" extinct in more than 50%areas, the report says in what the first ad mission of sorts by government ahead of NTCA getting down to executing its brief. While the Jim Corbett National Park might remain safe and rebounding with tiger numbers, elsewhere the situation looks dismal. Apart from 30% districts in Shivalik not having any recorded tiger presence, only 20.34% forests of the area remain potential tiger habitats.

Put together, Bihar and Jharkhand present the worst picture. Bihar has lost the tiger in 75% districts and Jharkhand in 52%. Uttar Pradesh, not unexpectedly, has lost the big cat in 53% of its historical habitat.

The study has for the first time put together data on tiger landscapes at a taluka level. The report compares presence of tiger today to that historically recorded. While the current crisis in Sariska had been a rude awakening, the report makes it clear that losses have been inflicted over long periods and Sariska was just a symptom of a long infesting malaise.

The report when read in tandem with recent research conducted by the Forest Survey of India for NTCA shows up how India's national animal has been painted into small corners of forest land - isolated islands facing hostile encroachment. Forest cover in the outer surround (within 10 km from periphery of a tiger reserve) has decreased in the case of 21 Tiger Reserves out of 28.

The outer surrounds of tiger reserves have lost 124 sq km of forest area between 1997-2002. Within the protected tiger reserves, too, there's been loss of forests. Overall 94 sq km of tiger habitat within protected areas has been lost between 1997-2002. Though there has been some gain in dense forests within parks, overall 251 sq km of moderately dense forest was lost in the 28 parks. While only 33 sq km turned into thicker forests, the rest either lost the green canopy to turn into an open forest (with jungle cover below 10% of the total area) or was left completely bare. While losses in the more vulnerable tiger reserves of in N-E might have been anticipated, even protected parks have lost some dense forest.

Tigers head list of most-traded

New Delhi: The tiger is a species most endangered by illegal international trade, a new report has said. Ahead of next month's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, World Wide Fund for Nature has released its list of the world's 10 most in-demand species being bought, sold, smuggled, killed or captured for trade purposes.

The list comes even as a Chinese delegation is in India to lobby support for its plans to lift a 14-year-old ban on domestic trade in tiger and its derivatives. Tiger farms in China, collectively, house around 5,000 live tigers and the plan is to take that number to 100,000 so that body parts of the big cats can be harvested for commercial use in traditional Chinese medicine.

But conservationists, who have formed a coalition of 35 organisations to protest the move, are not buying China's ''sell the tiger to save it'' argument. "Reopening of tiger trade in China's booming economy will rekindle an enormous demand. The potential size of that market is very worrying,'' said WWF CEO Ravi Singh. Estimates put the current size of the tiger-trade market at $500 million while profits from the global trade in wildlife parts range from $35 billion to $60 billion a year.