Photos: As India Marks 50 Years Of Project Tiger, See the Beast in All Its Glory
Tigers are terminal consumers in the ecological food chain & their conservation conserves the whole ecosystem.
Aggression comes naturally to tigers as they always must assert territorial supremacy.
When I started photography, I was confused what genre I should try to excel in. An unplanned visit to the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh nailed my genre – wildlife photography. Seeing a tiger in the wild is fascinating and photographing it is a different experience altogether. Each one I have sighted so far – from Noor, Fateh, and Arrowhead in Ranthambhore to Maya and Matkasur in Tadoba to Spotty and Dotty in Bandhavgarh – has remained etched in memory.
There has been a surge in wildlife tourism in India primarily due to tigers. This is evident from the fact that tourism slots for the prime tiger reserves get filled within a few minutes of the opening of the online booking window. Through my travels, I was thrilled to find parents bringing their kids to see a tiger in the wild rather than in a zoo.
It is common knowledge that India’s national animal is the prime protector of our forests – tigers are terminal consumers in the ecological food chain and their conservation ultimately conserves the whole ecosystem.
The tiger population in India, which was on the brink of extinction when Project Tiger was launched in 1973, now stands at around 3,000, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global wild tiger population.
All is not perfect though – 122 tigers died in 2016 alone and there has been a grave depletion in their habitat.
Illegal human encroachment in our forests has increased and there is a strong disconnect between policy-makers and people at the frontline manning our tiger reserves. Although poaching has decreased comparatively, it remains the biggest threat to our tigers.
Most tiger reserves are understaffed while there has been a distinct lethargy in handling man-wild conflicts leading to lack of sensitisation.
To sustain, male tigers need an area of 60 sq km on an average while females need 30 sq km – depending on prey concentration. Increasing tiger population, however, becomes a strong reality due to the adaptive nature of these wild cats. A good thing about this magnificent animal is that it is not finicky about restricting itself to a particular diet, habitat, or ecosystem like many other animals.
Tiger tracks have been found in Bhutan above 13,000 feet, an altitude overlapping the habitat of the snow leopard, while tigers in the saltwater mangrove swamps of the Sunderbans are powerful swimmers and have learned to supplement their diets with marine life.
As a citizen, we too can contribute in the efforts to increase the tiger population and these might help – greater knowledge about tigers in the wild, becoming the eyes and ears of the tiger reserve management, so that we can help them on issues like poaching, encroachment, and habitat destruction, promoting responsible tourism, and strongly protesting ill-planned development projects in the forest areas is also a form of contribution.
(Mritunjay Tiwary gave up city life to work for blind people and the girl child in rural Bihar but retained his passion for wildlife and landscape photography. This story was originally published on 29 July 2017. It has been republished from The Quint's archives as India marks 50 years of Project Tiger. The project was launched in 1973 under the Indira Gandhi government as a conservation programme for Bengal Tigers in their natural habitat.)
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