Soon, tigers may be bred in special farms

With its tiger population dropping at an alarming rate, India plans to breed the big cats in special farms, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: May 29, 2007, 02:46:59 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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With its tiger population dropping at an alarming rate, India plans to breed the big cats in special farms. The idea is to replicate China’s successful model of tiger farms, which has seen the country go from less than 50 tigers in the wild to about 5,000 in these farms.

Environment and Forest secretary Dr Prodipto Ghosh told reporters on Monday that the government is considering allowing tiger farms in India.

“They can be in zoos or forest areas but not in tiger reserves,” he said. The proposal is in its initial stage.

The Central Zoo Authority has allowed breeding centres for several endangered species like vultures but no such attempt has been made for tigers.

But there are some sceptics. Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India says: “India will make a fool of itself if it promotes tiger farming. To raise a tiger in a farm costs $10,000 and to kill one in the wild only costs Rs 40. Instead, the government should work to provide food and protect tigers.”

The announcement comes days after the Wildlife Institute of India revealed the tiger count in central India had declined by about 60 per cent since 2002. As compared to 1,233 tigers in 2002, the institute estimates the number to be 490.

Ghosh said the that ministry accepted the institute’s findings as the new methodology was accurate.

“Earlier, tigers were identified only on the basis of pugmarks. The new methodology uses camera traps, sightings, pugmarks and genetic tests among others,” he said.

The secretary also raised the issue of Gujarat not allowing the rehabilitation of Gir Wildlife Sanctuary’s Asiatic lions at the Palampur Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. “The lion is the pride of India and not only of Gujarat,” he said.

China allows tiger farming by wildlife sanctuaries and private entrepreneurs. But a recent International Fund for Animal Welfare report stated that tiger body parts from these farms were being sold to wine distilleries and restaurants that serve tiger delicacies.

chetan@hindustantimes.com

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

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