Sunday, May 27, 2012

Tiger Photos


Tiger Photographs By Tirath Singh at Bandhavgarh

Tiger Supari - India

The recent news in papers is alarming but nothing new, except that the tiger has achieved a near human status in India. Well of the negative kind. Killed, poached, hunted and displaced from his homelands for ever this animal species is a cynosure of all wildlife lovers and conservationists.  

In the resent times the animal has been victimized by a bizarre system of medicine, which has all but decimated the tiger population in China and elsewhere in the region. Hunting tiger is no longer a sport but poaching has taken over - for greed of money. The vast nexus of illegal traders of animal parts, local hunters and middle men is taking a toll of the species. 

The supari word is popular is the underworld. It is hiring a killer to kill an opponent or an innocent victim for money. Supari killing in India is rising alarmingly amongst the unemployed youth in India. The impunity with which the crime is executed is a frightening proposition. The loop holes and complexities in the law are the encouraging factors.

As far the tiger is considered there is no law, and hardly anyone is convicted of heinous wildlife crimes. Well tiger is not human enough, its charisma or importance does not appear to raise a hue and cry. A cry that will awaken the Nation. For the contract killers this would be a very easy and safe job. Keeping the demand of tiger bones in reckoning the deal would be lucrative, and by all means for some traditional communities of hunters turned poachers.      

The shoot at sight order in tiger reserves of Maharashtra is appreciable but not enough. More advance techniques in tiger protection, a supportive law and reign on local poachers is becoming more and more imperative. In spite of Wildlife Protection Act, poaching and intrusion in our reserved forests is quite common. This is what leads to graduation in hunting rare protected species in the most popular protected areas of the country. But who cares.       

The supari phenomenon as regards wildlife poaching will be a land mark measure as to how successful are conservation measures in India. Sophisticated criminals with capacity to exploit inherent corruption, advance killing mechanism and lure of the money will leave no stone unturned in achieving the heinous goals.