The magnificent striped tiger (Bengal Tiger or Panthera Tigris), the national animal of India is on the brink of extinction. According to the latest statistics, there are only 1,411 tigers left in India, including those scattered across the different wildlife sanctuaries in India.
The main causes of the disappearance of the population of these beautiful animals include:
Poaching for Skins, Teeth and Nails: Tiger skin fetches huge amounts of money on the international market. There are underworld mafias that trade in tiger skins. Tiger’s claw and tooth are used to make jewelry. Tribes also kill tigers to make traditional medicine from the various parts of the animal’s body. But no study has shown that these drugs have any healing power.
Unplanned and uncontrolled urbanization: Urbanization and encroachment into forest areas not only destroys the natural habitat of tigers, but also affects other smaller animals that are eaten by these predators. Although there are more than 40 tiger reserves in India, there are human encroachments on the outskirts of these reserves by people for agriculture etc. Ranchers organize themselves and set traps to kill these animals, saying that they attack their cattle.
Fear of life: People fear that a tiger may kill them for food. But in reality the tiger does not kill humans; they can do so only if they are old or hardened, hungry and unable to hunt. They are solitary creatures that protect their territory and get angry and try to defend it when there is interference in their territory.
wildlife protection
The government has launched numerous initiatives to protect these animals. Chief among these is Project Tiger, an initiative by the Indian government to protect the national animal from the brink of extinction. It started in 1972 and helped increase the population of these animals from 1,200 in the 1970s to 3,500 in the 1990s. But it seems that their efforts seem to be winding down; and the latest census in 2008 shows that the number of tigers in the whole of India is only 1411. Now, the Indian government has set up a tiger protection force to strictly control poachers and has allocated funds to relocate people far away. of wildlife, to reduce tiger-human interaction.
It is not only in India where these animals are in danger of extinction; also facing this threat in all other inhabiting countries like Bangladesh, China, Malaysia.