Plea in Supreme Court to protect tigers, conserve habitat

Chennai: A petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking to direct the Central Government and authorities to protect tigers from poaching, poisoning and hunting across the country. 

The petitioners, Chennai based entrepreneur Vivek Dilip and Supreme Court advocate Anupam Tripathi, sought directions to create a conducive eco-system in forests and parks to increase the tiger population and preparation of an effective tiger conservation plan. They stated that tigers were indiscriminately and barbarically killed, either by poaching or by poisoning by locals and others. They also died due to accidents, old age, habit-at destruction and habitat fragmentation.

Tiger killing had escalated after independence in 1947. Over 4,000 tigers were spotted in 1984. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had launched Project Tiger in 1973 to protect their population and banned the export of products obtained from the tiger. The model was notified as an example for other countries in wildlife conservation. 

In August 1993 in Delhi, 2,200 pounds of tiger bones (relating to about 80 tigers) were seized; over 337 tigers lost their lives in and outside various reserves between 2002 and 2012. The highest number of 58 tigers was found dead in 2009, 71 in 2011, 88 in 2012, 80 in 2013 and 81 in 2014. A total of 74 tigers died in Ranthambore national park, Rajasthan, alone till August 2015 and 74 tiger deaths were reported in the first half of 2016. 

Poaching, the primary cause for the decline of tiger population, followed an illegal international demand for tiger parts and products, its bones for soup and its skin for jackets. The major threat to the wild animal also comes in the form of traditional medicine practised in China, Taiwan, Japan, Tibet, Singapore and Korea, where its body parts are sought for therapeutic purposes.

The aim of the Union Ministry for Environment and forest Wildlife Institute of India, National Board for Wildlife is to save wild animals including the tiger, and assist in their growth and breeding. However, the authorities themselves are responsible for the killing of animals including the tiger. They are grossly negligent towards forest animals and tigers, in particular. 

The petitioners noted that the killing of tigers is illegal, cruel and barbaric and against the provisions of sections 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 428 and 429 of IPC and ultra virus to provisions of articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. The special task force and Project Tiger have become defunct in preventing atrocities and mass killings of tigers and cruelty to animals. 

The world looks to India for the preservation of the tiger as India as the country with the largest number of big cats. Hence it is the responsibility of the government and authorities to take necessary steps to preserve and save the national animal from being hunted, poached or killed.

The petitioners sought more efficient enforcement mechanism for the task and prayed for setting up special cells to protect tigers and special tiger boards in the states. They also sought to protect and improve the eco-system including the enhancement of green cover in forests, lakes and rivers. The matter is coming up for hearing before the Supreme Court on October 22.

Stats from plea

• Citing various reports, the petitioners stated that between 1850 and 1950, over 30,000 local people, including tribals, were killed by tigers and nearly 1 lakh tigers were killed by people.
• During the last decade, more than 1,000 tigers were killed by poachers, villagers and forest guards appointed solely to protect tigers. The Tiger Task Force predicted that tigers could be extinct by the end of the twentieth century, they claimed.
• From late 1980, the number of tigers began to decrease rapidly the petitioners alleged.