DEHRADUN: Machhli, a 19-year-old tigress who died on Thursday, may have become the face of India’s tiger conservation programme but wildlife experts say the practice of naming big cats should be discontinued.
For almost the entire last decade, Machhli stopped birthing cubs and was designated a “non-functional” tigress but Rajasthan’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve was forced to earmark a special territory and food because the 19-year-old animal was known throughout the world as the “Queen of Ranthambore”. But this decision was a serious breach of conservation practices in the wild as it amounted to interfering with the rules of nature, wildlife experts say.
“Artificial feeding and earmarking its territory is a serious slap to conservation. There was pressure to protect the tiger because it was named and most-sighted tiger,” said VB Mathur, director of the Wildlife Institute of India. Scientists and senior officials agree, saying naming tigers diminishes the existence and conservation of the entire fraternity of big cats.