Tigers in Ancient History Thousands of years ago, primitive humans scurried around in the underbrush of the Asian forests, digging for roots, picking up berries and snaring smaller animals. A giant predator, five times their size, stalked them. Armed with fearsome teeth and claws, moving silently like a shadow through the darkness of the night, the beast inspired both fear and admiration in our primitive ancestors. Its great muscular form, lithe grace, spectacular coloration and symmetry of form, all added to its mystique. Thus, the fascination for tigers is deeply rooted within us. This awe of the tiger persisted in the human psyche even after early agriculturists managed to tame the tiger’s jungles through fire, and inventions such as the axe and the plow. Since historic times, the tiger has been revered as a deity in legends and myths of Asia. The animal’s name was synonymous with valor and power, and its presence ubiquitous in Hindu,

Buddhist, and Islamic iconography. Tigers proliferated in art and folklore. As a result, tragically for the tiger, the animal’s body parts came to be perceived as cure-all remedies among the medicine men of the orient.

Changing Views of Tigers The earliest record of the tigers in Europe is of an animal brought to Athens by the Greek general Seloucus Nictor I, of the army of Alexander the Great. Thereafter, gladiators fought with captive tigers in Roman arenas. In the twelfth century King Henry I exhibited what may have been the first tiger in England, at his exclusive private menagerie at Oxford. Global traveler Marco Polo, who visited central Asia in 1300, recounted the prowess of the Mongol warriors who hunted ‘striped lions’ from horse-back. The cultural fascination with the tiger continued even after humans mastered technology, trade and



Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? commerce and dominated the tiger’s domain through hunting, agriculture and industry. After firearms were invented, European rulers, native kings, landlords, planters, foresters, officials and other assorted adventurers swarmed the Asian forests, eager to slaughter tigers to prove that they were brave, rich or virile. Because members of these elite classes usually disliked the physical drudgery and danger involved in going after the elusive beast, vast numbers of recruits from the poorer social classes—tribesman, trackers, and mahouts (elephant drivers)—were conscripted into the tiger-hunting enterprise. These humble men were mere cannon fodder: they erected shooting platforms, rode elephants, worked as beaters and even tracked dangerous, wounded tigers when their masters’ shots went awry. For a while, in the 1950s and 1960s, inspired by African examples, even commercial safari hunting of tigers came into vogue. The observation and beliefs of the native forest people, woven together with the literary skills of their upper-class masters, produced vast quantities of tiger lore during the last three centuries. As biologist George Schaller commented later, ‘Although the literature on the tiger is voluminous, most of it is devoted to a discussion of how to shoot the animal,



to arguments concerning its size and power to scent, and interminable anecdotes about dangerous encounters with it.’ Such views of the tiger, obtained along the barrel of a gun, provide us with a second set of portraits of the predator. In these colonial-era portraits, the tiger lost its earlier supernatural, semi-divine aura, and acquired traits considered desirable in an upper-class man of the day. In this genre of writing, the tiger is commonly portrayed as a ‘gentleman’—conjuring up for us visions of the big cat clad in khaki shorts, sipping Scotch on the veranda of a bungalow! In other contemporaneous accounts, like the one by nineteenth-century British hunter Charles Inglis, the tiger becomes ‘an embodiment of devilish cruelty, of hate and savagery incarnate.’ Similar thoughts echo in Rudyard Kipling’s tale about the evil tiger Sher Khan. These portrayals, too, bear little resemblance to the true character of the big cat in the woods.

tiger’s fate. Consequently, even as late as the early 1960s , the ecology and behavior of wild tigers were scientifically undocumented. In 1964, George Schaller, a biologist from the New York Zoological Society, arrived at the remote Kanha reserve in central India to study tigers. The tools Schaller used to study tigers were rather rudimentary, and readily accessible to his Indian contemporaries: field notebooks, binoculars, cameras, and eight buffalo calves he bought from local villagers. However, Schaller brought to his task something additional that they lacked: a scientific framework of ecological inquiry. Although Schaller spent barely 18 months in Kanha, his methodical, rigorous probing into the tiger’s secret life hit a rich lade of information. Schaller’s book The Deer and The Tiger generated more hard information on tiger ecology and behavior than all the previous tiger stories entombed in hundreds of hunters’ tales, which in turn aroused widespread concern for the plight of wild tigers.

The Tiger Through the Eyes of Science Although modern wildlife biology developed rapidly in the twentieth century, it did not make much headway among the hunters, naturalists and foresters in Asia, who played a dominant role in determining the



In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire in thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?

Threats Expanding Farms, Receding Forests

farmland has also grown sharply. Tiger forests have been cut down extensively and replaced with crops like rice, wheat, millet, sorghum, and cassava to feed more and more people. In the era of primitive ‘slash-and-burn’ agriculture, forest clearance was followed by a long fallow period when the forest could grow back again. Tigers may even have benefited from such early human modifications of the landscape, particularly in tropical evergreen rainforests; the use of axe, fire and the plow created a temporary mosaic of secondary forest with an abundance of bamboo and palatable shrubs, on which the tiger’s prey thrived. As settled and intensive farming became the predominant form of agriculture, areas once lost by tigers to human settlement were gone forever. Farms pushed back forests everywhere, spontaneously driven by land hunger of an increasing rural population.

We know that the tiger has evolved over millennia, by hunting large ungulates through stealth and ambuscade. We also know that an average tiger needs to kill 50 such prey animals a year just to survive, and a tigress raising cubs needs as many as 70. All these biological traits of tigers place humans and their livestock right in the middle of the tiger’s menu. This fact set the stage for eternal human-tiger conflict. The human population of Asia has increased dramatically over the last few hundred years. Most Asian people are farmers or herders. Throughout history, perhaps as many as 80 to 90 percent of Asians have lived off the land in some manner. Even now, despite increasing industrialization and the growth of mega cities, the vast majority of people in tiger ranges are rural folk. As a consequence of the dramatic rise of these rural populations, the need for



Relatively slow growth of the industrial and service sectors of the national economies has meant greater human reliance on land-based occupations and greater pressure on tiger habitats. On the political front, failure of social schemes to redistribute existing farmland more equitably among landless people resulted in further advancing of the agricultural frontier. Planned agricultural expansion projects to geographically redistribute human populations, such as the ‘Transmigration’ projects in Indonesia that moved thousands of people from Java to Sumatra, opened up new agricultural frontiers where none existed before. The advancement of modern medicine, leading to the eradication of the persistent endemic diseases like malaria, opened up hitherto inhospitable tiger habitats, such as those in the Himalayan foothills and the Western Ghats of India, to intensive agricultural colonization. Increasing demand for timber and commercial crops like coffee, tea, rubber, oil palm and spices attracted powerful corporations to the forestry and agriculture sector in Asia, to join the small-scale homesteaders—to be another potent force in pushing the agricultural frontier deeper and deeper into what was once the tiger’s exclusive domain.

There is no doubt that cumulatively, more than any other factor, agricultural expansion has been the strongest force in shrinking down their present miniscule proportion of the Asian landscape.

Impact of Forest Fires Arson is a conservation problem peculiar to tiger habitats in some dry forests of Asia. Local people

1997 Census Tiger Population Country

Minimum

Maximum

2500

3000-3508

Bangladesh

300

460

Nepal

150

250

Bhutan

80

240

China

30

35

India

Mynamar Total



3060

Not Known 2985-4493

And what shoulder, and what art? Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand, and what dread feet?

deliberately burn forests for a variety of reasons: to promote growth of grass for their cattle; to facilitatethe search for and collection of non-timber forest products; to clear undergrowth for safety from wild elephants. While a patchy forest burn once in several years probably does not damage tiger habitats, regular, deliberate arson has caused serious degradation in many areas. V.G. Heptner has recorded how deliberate arson virtually eliminated tiger habitats in parts of western and central Asia.

remote regions. Giant projects for mining, irrigation and power generation have erupted like rashes over relatively intact tiger landscapes. River valley and mining projects in particular have torn out large chunks of productive tiger habitats. Opencast mines also cause severe soil erosion and siltation in rivers downstream from them. Industrial plants may discharge toxic chemicals into their surroundings. All these impacts have serious long-term consequences for the health and stability of the ecosystems of which tiger habitats are a part. Although the area lost to such developmental projects is relatively small in comparison to the area of tiger habitats lost by conversion to cropland, in absolute terms it is substantial. However, a far more serious consequence of such developmental projects has been the fragmentation and disruption of tiger habitats. Although tigers can move through almost any kind of cover, large breaks in forest continuity caused by densely populated human settlements sever the connectivity between tiger populations. Development projects, particularly roads, allow the influx of immigrants and new technologies into remote tiger habitats. Roads and railways also allow rapid transportation of forest and wildlife products

Developmental Projects Until about 50 years ago, all the 13 countries that now harbor wild tigers were under colonial or feudal rulers. There was no impetus for rapid industrial growth and economic development. Things have changed rapidly when national liberation movements and the democratization of society picked up pace. During the last 50 years, as these countries have become self-governing, all of them have set rapid economic development as a central social goal. Projects for developing national agriculture, or economy, or for addressing pressing social problems, have burgeoned as a result. Networks of roads, railways and waterways have intruded into formerly inaccessible tiger habitats in



outwards. In general, opening up a inaccessible area because of a new development project usually has all the broadly negative consequences of advancing the human settlements into tiger habitats.

concealed pit, falls in, and impales itself. The Bagmari, a professional tribe of tiger hunters in north India, deploy booby traps with bows and arrows to kill tigers attracted to animal carcasses. Korean and Russian hunters rode horse-back and killed tigers by spearing or archery. Often dogs are used to track and corner tigers, while the hunters move in for the kill. It is important to realize that a wild tiger only has to be injured seriously, not necessarily killed outright, as a result of being hunted. Gangrene, infections and starvation are often the ultimate agents that kill a tiger that escapes from hunters. There is no doubt that thousands of tigers perished in such native contraptions before the Asian hunters learnt to use steel and gunpowder imported for the west. There is also no doubt that many brave men perished while hunting tigers using the archaic techniques described above. Tiger hunting was clearly recognized as a dangerous activity, and a man who vanquished a tiger was considered a hero in almost all Asian cultures. However despite widespread persecution, the tiger’s adaptability and high fecundity ensured its survival. It was arrival of guns that decisively tilted the balance against the tiger in this war of attrition. Until

Hunting and Poaching of Tigers People have hunted tigers for a variety of reasons: most commonly to protect livestock, and less often for protection human lives. Much of the bounty hunting of tigers in the past two centuries was for the above reasons. Tigers also have been hunted for ‘sport’ in all cultures, to collect their skin, teeth or claws as trophies, and for commercial reasons to supply the large and profitable market for their body parts created by the practice of traditional medicine in oriental cultures. Aboriginal and rural people in Asia have hunted tigers with great ingenuity, devising methods for killing tigers well before the advent of the gun. Cooperative hunting is one such technique. For example, the Uppaliga, a rural community in the south Indian state of Karnataka, have a brave tradition of driving tigers into nets and spearing them at close quarters. Several kinds of pit traps, in which sharp stakes are buried, are deployed to kill tigers. Attracted by a baited prey, the tiger walks across the cleverly



then only the very brave or the very crafty among the natives could hunt tigers. With a gun in hand, almost anybody could kill a tiger—and did. Tiger shooting became a popular pastime among kings and commoners, both native and colonial. In combination with shooting, older methods of cornering wild tigers, such as the pit traps, jaw traps, beats, netting, hunting dogs and booby traps, all became even more effective. Once a tiger was trapped or cornered in some manner, shooting it was a relatively simple matter.

is a tonic, tiger tail can cure skin disease and eating the cat’s eyeballs can get rid of cataracts. After international tiger conservation efforts were launched in the early 1970s, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) based in Geneva, to which most nations are signatories, gradually tightened up the rules against international (but not domestic) trade in tiger parts, culminating in a total international trade ban in 1987. However, in the early 1990s national authorities and non-governmental organizations monitoring wildlife trade, such as TRAFFIC, noted a surge in seizures of illegally killed wilder tigers in India, Russia and parts of Asia. Tiger poaching appeared to have increased, as park protection declined because of social factors.For example, following a sting operation in 1993, a single seizure in India yielded 1100 lb of tiger bones. It was clear that the bulk of the supplies, originating from tiger habitats in India, Russia and other countries, were being traded illegally. An analysis of incomplete trade records by Judy Mills and her colleagues in TRAFFIC showed that, between 1970 and 1993, bones form about 500 to 1000 tigers were traded legally. These dead tigers had apparently come from Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and China before the trade ban was applied.

Trade in Tiger Body Parts In whatever manner tigers are killed, their body parts are considered to be of great value for a variety of cultural reasons. Tiger skins, claws, and teeth have been valued as trophies and talismans for centuries all over the world. Eating tiger meat is considered healthy even in India, where they worship the animal as a deity. However, a major threat to wild tigers from the consumption of their body parts is an integral part of the traditional system of medicine practiced in oriental cultures of China, Taiwan, Japan, Tibet, Singapore and Korea. From centuries of tradition, roughly a quarter of humanity truly believes that consuming tiger bones can cure arthritis and strengthen muscles, tiger blood



The Bengal Tiger The Bengal Tiger, Panthera Tigris Tigris, is distributed though the humid forests and grasslands of India, southern Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and western Myanmar (Burma). At the turn of the twentieth century, there were about 40,000 tigers spread all over the country. During the Second World War, its habitat came under considerable pressure due to extensive logging operations and army training in guerrilla warfare in the forests. After the country’s independence in 1947, the forests and their denizens became public property and indiscriminate destruction of habitat and wildlife became widespread, with guns freely available. By 1971, the population had come down to only about 1800 tigers. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took a personal interest and, with support of many non-government organizations such as the World Wide Fund For Nature, Project Tiger was launched focusing on strict conservation measures. There was a

steady improvement in population till the 1980s, and numbers increased to nearer 4500 individuals. Then the poaching pressure began and there was a sudden fall in numbers. In the last official census in 1997, the number was estimated to be 2508. The Bengal tiger accounts for about sixty percent of the five subspecies that survive today. The population is distributed over six countries: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Mynamar. Nearly eighty percent of the Bengal tiger population is concentrated in India. The species has had more chance of survival here for a longer period than in any other country because of greater vigilance, a stronger conservation movement and global attention focused on the plight of the Bengal tiger. There was a rapid decrease in its population from 1947 to 1970, because of heavy destruction of tiger habitat to facilitate large development projects



What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? such as hydroelectric dams, mining, agriculture and human resettlement. The first official census in 1972 recorded the population of tiger to be about 1800 in the wild—down from about 4000 in 1947. This fall caused a worldwide concern about the future of this magnificent animal and with the assistance of the World Wide Fund for Nature; Project Tiger was launched in 1973. The initial nine sites for the Project have since been extended to cover 23 sites, spread over 14 States and covering an area of about 11,400 sq miles. On account of the total protection provided to the tiger and its habitat, and because of improved protected area management, the population was said to have increased to 4334 by the year 1989. Even if the official figure was contested, there was little doubt that the tiger population had significantly increased after the launch of Project Tiger. However, by the late 1980s, the decreased visibility of tigers became noticeable. Indeed it became alarming. In the Ranthambhore Park alone, where in 1985–1986 it was not very unusual to see four to nine tigers on a single outing, even one sighting became an event. There were widespread rumors about large scale poaching by organized mafia. Largely due to the efforts of non government organizations,

such as TRAFFIC and individuals like Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, tiger poaching for gain was exposed. Many of the poachers and traders were arrested and a large quantity of tiger bones, skin and body parts was confiscated. The penalty for tiger poaching in India is a fine of $330 and jail sentence of one to six years. Unfortunately the laws are not rigorously enforced and the cases drag on for months. In the meantime the culprits are released on bail and sometimes continue with their nefarious activities. Indeed, over the years, only very few people have been convicted for tiger poaching in India. Tiger poaching has decreased in the primary tiger areas of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. However the poachers seem to have shifted their activities to new areas that have so far been considered immune from poaching, such as Corbett National Park. It has been reported recently that five tigers have fallen victim to poachers in less than a month in the Corbett Park. The rise of militancy in Assam and Andhra Pradesh has added another dimension to the problem, as these elements sometimes take refuge in wildlife parks and raise funds by resorting to poaching. Bittu Sahgal, a member of the Indian Wildlife Board and editor of the well known magazine, Sanctuary Asia,

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estimates that one tiger is being lost in India per day and that the tiger population may reach a figure lower than required for long term survival within a decade if measures are not taken immediately to secure the safety of the tigers left in the wild.

The Tiger Reserves In 1969, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) held its international congress in New Delhi and Sankhala drew the attention of the delegates to the appallingly low tiger population in India, which had fallen to less than 300 animals. With the support of Guy Mountfort, an international conservationist, the tiger was included in the IUCN Red Book of Endangered Species, on which all nations focus their conservation programs. In 1970, Mountfort, at the joint meeting of IUCN and World Wildlife Fund for Nature in Switzerland, made a strong plea for international support to save the Bengal tiger. His proposal for “Operation Tiger” was accepted and a million dollars was offered to the Indian Government to assist in inaugurating a project to save the tiger. In 1970, under the initiative of the late Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, legislation was enacted banning tiger hunting and the export of tiger skins.

In 1972, the Indian Government carried out a tiger census and, to its shock, found that the tiger population had declined to only 1,827. A “Tiger Task Force” to set up Project Tiger, was constituted in the same year, with Sankhala as a member. The broad concept of “Project Tiger” was to identify selected areas in representative ecosystems as “Tiger Reserves,” where total environmental protection was to be provided to the tiger. The “Task Force” prepared “Management plans,” and “Project Tiger” was launched at the Corbett National Park on April 1, 1973, which became one of the first nine tiger reserves. With more resources being made available, more tiger reserves have been declared from time to time and by 2002 there were 27.

Corbett National Park and Tiger Reserve About 190 miles northeast of Delhi, at the foothills of the Himalayas, lies the Corbett National Park (pictured above), a park of remarkable scenic beauty. This is the region made famous by the legendary huntercome-author, Jim Corbett, in his book Man-Eaters OF Kumoan. It was once very popular with British hunters, including many a distinguished viceroy and other dignitaries, for shooting tigers. So many were

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India Project Tiger Reserves shot there that by the thirties the situation had become alarming. On the initiative of E.A. Smythies of the Forest Service, an area of 100 sq miles was demarcated in 1936 as the first national park in India under the United Provinces National Park Act. It was originally named Hailey National Park after Sir Malcolm Hailey, the then Governor of the Province. After independence, it was first renamed the Ramganga National Park in 1954–55, then later changed to Corbett National Park in 1955–56 in memory of Jim Corbett. Over 50 species of mammals, 580 species of birds and 25 reptiles are found in the park. With the abundance of prey species, the tiger density here is perhaps the highest of all tiger reserves in the country. Until recently, the Corbett National Park was free from organized poaching, which seemed to be concentrated only in Ranthambhore and a few other parks in peninsular India. The gangs, however, now seem to be shifting their activities to the Himalayan foothills. A number of elephants have been killed for ivory and deaths of a few tigers have also been

reported. There has been national concern and the authorities, with the assistance of non-government organizations, are trying their best to apprehend the criminals involved.

Sariska National Park and Tiger Reserve The forests of Sariska were once the private hunting ground of the rulers of princely state of Alwar. Apart from wildlife, Sariska has a sense of history about it going back to the Gupta period. The ruins of Hindu and Jain temples abound in the archaeological

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1 Corbett 2 Dudhwa 3 Sariska 4 Valmiki 5 Ranthambhore 6 Panna 7 Bandhavgarh 8 Palamau 9 Similipal 10 Sundarbans 11 Bori-Satpura 12 Pench 13 Melghat 14 Kanha 15 Tadoba-Andhari 16 Indrawati 17 Nagarjunasagar 18 Bhadra 19 Bandipur 20 Periyar 21 Kalakad-Mundanthurai

complex of Garh-Rajore, belonging to a period between the 8th and 10th century. Sariska forests were always good tiger country, with an excellent prey base. Unlike the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, the tiger here, due to human disturbance, is largely nocturnal. Once live baiting was carried out to attract tigers for the benefit of visitors, a practice abandoned after Sariska became a tiger reserve. There are many serious problems with this reserve. The water supply is very limited, although the management has tried to provide a number of artificial water holes fed by underground pipes and anicuts. These are the best places to watch the wildlife, especially during the summer. Pilgrims visiting the Pandupol temple cause much disturbance to the wildlife. A couple of state highways cross the Reserve, and the traffic has claimed many chital, and even a tiger and three leopards in the past. Sariska faces the

3

1 2 4

5 6 7 11 13 12 14 15 16

8 9

10

17

18 19 20 21

most serious mining problems of all the tiger reserves. A survey in 1989 showed that over 200 mines fall in the protected area and over 40 in the partly protected area. Mining interests are a powerful lobby and sometimes have political support, causing problems for the management. The late Mr. S. Deb Roy, who was a Member of the Steering Committee of Project Tiger once stated, “There is probably no denying the fact that this magnificent and rugged area has recently seen serious set backs for the tiger as a result of man’s greed for extracting natural resources. It is interesting to note that some local people (NGOs) have approached the Supreme Court in an attempt to stop this rampage. But it should have been the endeavor and constitutional duty of the Government to ensure safe custody of the rich national heritage here.”

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When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb, make thee?

Tiger Sub-Species The tiger’s territory once stretched from Eastern Turkey to Siberia, Korea, China, Indochina, and Indonesia up to India. Once a species gets so widely dispersed and isolated in remote niches, different communities of the same species evolve slight differences over a long period of time, while adjusting to the regions, biological resources and local environmental conditions. When populations of the same species are consistently different from each other, taxonomically they are called subspecies. Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who established the modern binomial system for classifying species, initially gave the name Felis Tigris to the species in 1758, which was later changed to Panthera Tigris (P.t.). Over time, Panthera Tigris developed into eight subspecies. Aside from the Bengal Tiger, the status of each is described here.

The Siberian or Amur Tiger The Siberian or Amur tiger, P.t. Altaica, is found throughout the coniferous, scrub, oak, forests and grasslands of the Central Asian regions of Russia, Northeastern China and North Korea. This is the largest of all the other subspecies and there are records of a few specimens reaching a length of up to 13 feet with a maximum weight exceeding 800 lb. In the 19th Century, during the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Siberian tiger was deliberately eradicated. In recent years, after the break up of the Soviet Union, it has come under considerable poaching pressure and the number has come down. In 1991, one third of the Siberian tiger population was said to have been killed to meet the demand for their bones and organs in China, Taiwan and Korea. It was estimated that in 1987, only about 200 tigers were left in the wild. With the

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tighter conservation measures taken since then, the population could now be nearer 300. There are now more Siberian tigers in zoos than in the wild. The estimate of Siberian tiger in the wild varies from 150–430 in number, fragmented over a vast area. There are three protected areas for tigers in Russia—the Sikhote-Alm, Lazovsky, and Kedrovaya Pad. Chinese newspapers have reported sighting of tigers in Changbaishan, near the Chinese border with Korea. The Cat Specialist Group suggests that there are fewer than fifty Siberian tigers in China, and the number is too small for long-term survival. The Siberian tiger has had legal protection since 1992, but enforcement is faltering. Poaching for tiger bones and other parts

required for traditional medicines, and factors like the worsening economic situation, lessening prey species, loss of habitat, and the opening of borders to China and Korea, have meant disaster for the Siberian tiger. The situation is unlikely to improve unless the current socio-economic situation stabilizes to an extent that the federal program for tiger conservation can be fully implemented. Relaxation of border controls and easy access to the wildlife markets of the South and Southeast has dramatically increased the poaching of Siberian tigers. “Right now we are facing a situation when the main threat to the tiger population survival is in lack of unified approach to the strategy of its conservation…The issue of sustainable forest and

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Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

game management is a very crucial one,” says Evgeny Stomatyui of the Russian Department of Natural Resource (RDNR).

The South China (Amoy) Tiger The South China or Amoy tiger, P.t. Amoyensis, is distributed throughout the forests and grasslands of Central and Eastern China. In the early 1950s, the number of Amoy tiger, including the South Chinese population, was estimated to be about 4000. Since then, however, there has been a drastic reduction due to poaching, and the tiger having been declared a pest and its killing encouraged. At present its number is estimated to be at best between 30 to 50 individuals—far below that required for genetic survival, so the chances of survival are remote.

The Caspian Tiger The Caspian tiger, P.t. Virgata, has become extinct in the past 50 years. It was once found in the forests and grasslands of Afghanistan, Eastern Turkey and the Central Asian regions of Russia.

The Indochinese Tiger The Indochinese tiger, P.t. Corbetti, is distributed in the forests, grasslands and mountain areas of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, eastern Mayanmar and peninsular Malaysia. The population of the Corbetti subspecies is estimated to be close to 1000.

The Sumatran Tiger The Sumatran tiger, P.t. Sumatrae is found on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. Its population is estimated to be about 400 to 500, all located within the five national parks in the island.

The Javan Tigers The Javan tigers, P.t. Sondica lived in the Indonesian Island of Java but has now become extinct. This was in spite of the tiger being given full legal protection in an especially reserved national park. The last Javan tiger was seen in 1972.

The Balinese Tiger The Balinese tiger, P.t. Balica, once roamed in the Indonesian Island of Bali. The last Bali tiger was killed in 1937 and the subspecies in now extinct.

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A Grim Future Just 10 decades ago there were around 100,000 tigers freely roaming the vast forests of central, northern and southeastern Asia. But today the population has dwindled to approximately 6000. This drastic reduction has not been because of any natural calamity or epidemic, but due to deliberate acts of Man. Of the eight subspecies of tiger, three—Caspian, Javan and Bali subspecies—are already extinct. The fourth— South Chinese—might also have disappeared by now. The threats to the survival of the tiger are well known, researched and identified—fragmentation, degradation and loss of habitat, and prey base depletion, leading to man-tiger conflict. Added to this is the greatest threat of all—poaching by organized gangs for tiger bone and organs to feed the phenomenal demand for traditional Chinese medicines throughout the world. Though legal provisions for protecting the tiger have been in place

for quite some time in all the tiger countries, their enforcement has been weak. Consequently the tiger has been driven to confined habitats and genetic threat to the species is very real. It has been estimated that nearly 15 percent of the earth’s species may be extinct by the year 2020—all victims of man’s short sightedness, cruelty and greed. Let us hope that the tiger, the magnificent and the most powerful species the world has ever seen, and the main instrument of Nature for maintaining balance in the forest ecosystem, will not get reduced to a mere item in the statistics of extinct species.

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Text: The Way of the Tiger by K. Ullasa Karanta The Vanishing Tiger by Vivek R. Sinha The Tyger by William Blake Photographs: The Vanishing Tiger by Vivek R. Sinha Illustrations and layout: Jacob Chalkley

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