As the time
approaches for final extinction, for me as an
individual, and for the tiger as a race, I feel that I
should share my thoughts with my countrymen, many of
whom do care, for the demoralizing extinction of
processes of evolution of animate creations, by the
rapacity of the human race.
We have
ravaged habitat of underground dwellers by the plunder
of fossil fuels built up over the millennia and by
strip mining. We have razed great timber stands, and
unleashed floods and siltation for short-term
political motives. We continue to rob the oceans of
their sustainable wealth in international bickering.
We have upset the rhythm of life by the unrestrained
proliferation of the human race and savage
experimentation with other life forms, to preserve our
own species. We continue to grab the habitats of
vulnerable entities. We have transformed the tolerance
of religions, into religious bigotry to serve
political ends. The civilizing processes over the ages
has projected itself in the spurious claim of the use
of wildlife derivatives for medicinal functions.
The final
extinction of the tiger, in all its eight subspecies,
has been widely and sympathetically written about
internationally, but sympathy alone cannot stem the
rot. Basic measures are required to halt the lure of
enormous profits of the skin and bone trade. This
effort must be an international one--to obliterate the
final destination of these derivatives, and a
Indo-Nepal one to abolish the incentives of the
internal trade.
There have
been failures on both counts: By the Pelly Amendment,
the USA could impose trade sanctions on recalcitrant
nations, yet its concern has become farcical when it
has imposed Sanctions on tiny Taiwan, and granted Most
Favored Nation Trade status to mighty China. India
continues to outline the causes of the depletion of
tigers, but no one has offered an alternative solution
as a means of replacing what is a complete failure in
administration.
Project
Tiger was initially a success while it was a
species-oriented project, but progressively registered
failure when the academics of preserving the ecosystem
replaced the symbolic value of the tiger. Even the
temporary increases in population were caused by
immigrations due to destruction and degradation of
habitat in Nepal, and not to the widely
acclaimed success in directional policy in India.
The basic
assumption that wildlife should be administered by the
Forest Department is absurd. The Department is
concerned with trees, and a "clean" forest floor is
the dream of a forester. It is the nightmare of the
wildlifer. Moreover States compounded their failure to
have a separate facility for the administration of
wildlife by a dichotomy which allows a liberal
transfer from wildlife to Forestry functions in the
interests of an integration into the Foresters'
monopoly.
Project
Tiger is now a complete failure. Originally the
Minister for Environment expressed great concern at
rampant poaching, but the Tiger Crisis Cell which he
formulated to meet once a month, does not meet, or is
presided over by a minor functionary. The Project
Steering Committee has not met in a year. Project
Tiger, though funded by the Central Government, is
administered by State Governments with their separate
political affiliations and pressures, and the Hindu
dominated Rajasthan Government are on record as
saying, that if they have to save an animal they will
do so for the cow (sic). Yet the Director of Project
Tiger in Delhi claims considerable increases in
populations.
The point of
no return is in sight, and if we are to save the
tiger, we can no longer pussyfoot with the Forest
Department. Protection of wildlife is enjoined in the
Indian Constitution, and concerned NGO affiliations
should go in Writ Petition to the Apex Court outlining
an administrative failure to protect wildlife. The
symbolic protection of our National Animal as a means
of saving the Ecosystem should be written into the
constitution: For without Godhead, religion is a
semantic exercise.
The
EMERGENCY with all its concomitant evils enabled Mrs
Gandhi, under the persuasion of Dr Salim Ali and
myself, to bring wildlife onto the Concurrent List,
and this fact may enable the Supreme Court to take
urgent action. Else all is lost.
