Tiger and India at 75 Years of Independence

Date: 5 December 2021

Author: Dr. Monalisa Paul

TIGER, the national pride of India is the most recognizable wild animal across the globe. It has mesmerized us since centuries. Its latinized scientific name Panthera tigris has derived its etymology from the river Tigris. It is the central character of different folklores and mythology whether oriental or occidental. Civilizations like Indian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Chinese celebrated this animal like a diva. In fact, Rudyard Kipling’s famous children’s bedtime story “The Jungle Book” had tiger as the prominent antagonist “Sher Khan”. Sadly, being the top most predator in the jungle food chain, it has been always portrayed as cruel, selfish unkind animal and had been hunted with pride and honor since ages. This turmoil continued in India even after independence till 1972 when it was declared as the national animal of the country. Before this declaration, lion was our national animal. The reason for such a shift was the presence of tiger in 16 states of India whereas lion is found only in one state naturally. In 1972, under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), tiger had been placed under schedule 1 under which poaching, smuggling and illegal trade of listed animals, is a punishable offence. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) consider it under the endangered species list.  Tiger (the largest cat) is a keystone species of the food chain as its elimination will affect the whole ecosystem. To save a tiger, a forest needs to be saved and in the process a river will be saved too. Keeping this priority in mind, 51 tiger reserves across 16 states of India have been set up till 2021.The tiger reserves of India were set up in 1973 and are governed by Project Tiger, which is administrated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority. Madhya Pradesh has the highest (6) number of tiger reserves whereas Mizoram, Jharkhand and Bihar have one each of them.

The essential goals of these reserves are to increase the population of the tigers in wild, to resolve human -forest encroachment conflict as overlapping of territories by both the species result into an unlikely friction and to provide a fair chance to the tiger generation to thrive in the wild through conservation. These reserves have been the major eco tourist spots since their declaration. These have unique scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values. Tiger reserves are the national heritage which are there to, protect another national heritage…. the tigers.

Edited By: Dr. Anchal Garg