End of the roar?

Alarmed by the large number of tigers dying in the country, the environment and forest ministry has decided to look for reasons behind the deaths. Chetan Chauhan reports. Tiger deaths over the years

Updated on: Sep 25, 2009, 02:44:27 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Alarmed by the large number of tigers dying in the country, the environment and forest ministry has decided to look for reasons behind the deaths.

The non-government organisation, Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), has said the country has lost 150 tigers, including 72 this year, since 2006, when it had 1,411 big cats.

However, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the body under the ministry that will investigate the reasons for the dwindling tiger population, puts the deaths at 100 since 2006, including 54 in 2009.

To re-examine India’s tiger conservation strategy, the NTCA constituted six independent expert groups last week. They will look at all aspects of tiger conservation by visiting the reserves and find out whether central government funds are being utilised.

The WPSI says the causes of the tiger deaths are shrinking habitats for the animals, poaching, and man-animal conflicts.

The fact that the country has been losing its tigers in a major way came to light in January 2005. On the basis of this, the government formed a task force on tigers. The tiger is the country’s national animal.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said in July this year that seven tiger reserves including Panna (372 km north-east of Bhopal) and Indravati (486 km south of Raipur) were on the verge of losing all their tigers.

“Tiger mortality this year is high,” NTCA member-secretary Rajesh Gopal told HT. “Specific instructions have been issued to field directors to protect the endangered species.”

The instructions have not helped much. WPSI executive director Belinda Wright said, “Some states are not serious about implementing measures to protect the animal and the habitat where it lives.”

“To get an independent view we have ensured that none of the members (of the expert groups) is associated with any government department, state or central,” said an NTCA official on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Forests around tiger reserves have dwindled mostly because of human activity, making the job of poachers easier, says Ananda Banerjee, an environment conservationist. This concern is one of the critical terms of reference of the expert groups, which will submit their reports in six months.

“We will look at all aspects, including the concerns of local communities,” said KH Chaudhary, chairperson of the expert group for northeastern India.

In the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12), the government made the highest-ever allocation for tiger conservation — Rs 660 crore for relocating about 10,000 families living in the reserves and Rs 200 crore for tiger protection.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.