As
the time approaches for final extinction, for me as an
individual, and for the tiger as a race, I feel that I
should share my thoughts with my countrymen, many of
whom do care, for the demoralizing extinction of
processes of evolution of animate creations, by the
rapacity of the human race.
We
have ravaged habitat of underground dwellers by the
plunder of fossil fuels built up over the millennia
and by strip mining. We have razed great timber
stands, and unleashed floods and siltation for
short-term political motives. We continue to rob the
oceans of their sustainable wealth in international
bickering. We have upset the rhythm of life by the
unrestrained proliferation of the human race and
savage experimentation with other life forms, to
preserve our own species. We continue to grab the
habitats of vulnerable entities. We have transformed
the tolerance of religions, into religious bigotry to
serve political ends. The civilizing processes over
the ages has projected itself in the spurious claim of
the use of wildlife derivatives for medicinal
functions.
The
final extinction of the tiger, in all its eight
subspecies, has been widely and sympathetically
written about internationally, but sympathy alone
cannot stem the rot. Basic measures are required to
halt the lure of enormous profits of the skin and bone
trade. This effort must be an international one--to
obliterate the final destination of these derivatives,
and a Indo-Nepal one to abolish the incentives of the
internal trade.
There
have been failures on both counts: By the Pelly
Amendment, the USA could impose trade sanctions on
recalcitrant nations, yet its concern has become
farcical when it has imposed Sanctions on tiny Taiwan,
and granted Most Favored Nation Trade status to mighty
China. India continues to outline the causes of the
depletion of tigers, but no one has offered an
alternative solution as a means of replacing what is a
complete failure in administration.
Project
Tiger was initially a success while it was a
species-oriented project, but progressively registered
failure when the academics of preserving the ecosystem
replaced the symbolic value of the tiger. Even the
temporary increases in population were caused by
immigrations due to destruction and degradation of
habitat in Nepal, and not to the widely
acclaimed success in directional policy in India.
The
basic assumption that wildlife should be administered
by the Forest Department is absurd. The Department is
concerned with trees, and a "clean" forest
floor is the dream of a forester. It is the nightmare
of the wildlifer. Moreover States compounded their
failure to have a separate facility for the
administration of wildlife by a dichotomy which allows
a liberal transfer from wildlife to Forestry functions
in the interests of an integration into the Foresters'
monopoly.
Project
Tiger is now a complete failure. Originally the
Minister for Environment expressed great concern at
rampant poaching, but the Tiger Crisis Cell which he
formulated to meet once a month, does not meet, or is
presided over by a minor functionary. The Project
Steering Committee has not met in a year. Project
Tiger, though funded by the Central Government, is
administered by State Governments with their separate
political affiliations and pressures, and the Hindu
dominated Rajasthan Government are on record as
saying, that if they have to save an animal they will
do so for the cow (sic). Yet the Director of Project
Tiger in Delhi claims considerable increases in
populations.
The
point of no return is in sight, and if we are to save
the tiger, we can no longer pussyfoot with the Forest
Department. Protection of wildlife is enjoined in the
Indian Constitution, and concerned NGO affiliations
should go in Writ Petition to the Apex Court outlining
an administrative failure to protect wildlife. The
symbolic protection of our National Animal as a means
of saving the Ecosystem should be written into the
constitution: For without Godhead, religion is a
semantic exercise.
The
EMERGENCY with all its concomitant evils enabled Mrs
Gandhi, under the perusasion of Dr Salim Ali and
myself, to bring wildlife onto the Concurrent List,
and this fact may enable the Supreme Court to take
urgent action. Else all is lost.
NEXT:
Tiger Conservation - A New
Outlook by Billy
