When I was growing up, there were far more tigers, even in Nashik district[1]. One of my most vivid memories from growing up is when we were driving to a near by place called Bhandardara. My father was in charge of constructing a tunnel to store water for a hydroelectric power plant and we took this trip many times. We were driving early morning and at around 6.30am, our driver stopped as he could see a tiger cub lying on the street. Our guess was a vehicle had hit it and it needed help. But we could not risk getting out of the car in case the mother shows up. This is before mobile telephones (circa 1994). All we could do was to turn back and reach nearest police station and call forest department for help. Sadly the cub never made it, it was run over and died long before we came across it. Often it is said that we dont always see change in environment as it happens slowly over generation, but drop in tiger population happened very fast. Even though there are no tigers left in my district, I am very glad the population is rising elsewhere in India.
A bit unrelated but this reminded me of my hike to mullayanagiri about 15 years ago. We were a group of 12 and our guide was leading the way and was a good 0.5km ahead of us. All of a sudden the guide was running back towards us like no tomorrow. We asked him what happened and he said he saw a tiger cub. We got so excited and wanted to see it. He said this is no joking matter and that if a cub is all alone, the mother is somewhere nearby and will rip us all apart in no time even if we are no threat. The tone in which he said it still makes me shiver and we ran for our lives :)
> Mr Modi said the results of this tiger census would make "every Indian happy".
This isn't an exaggeration: Tigers are interwoven in to the Indian (and Bangladeshi?) psyche [0] owing mostly to the overwhelming guilt of almost singlehandedly causing extinction of these beasts. As the article states, in the 20th Century over 80,000 Tigers were killed in undivided India-- They were mostly demonised in tales of yesteryears [1] and terrorised the populace due to their aggressive behaviour and man-eating tendencies.
There's 2,900 of them now, but a long way away from 80,000. May they burn bright forever [2].
There is a slight insinuation in your comment that it was ignorant villagers who killed off large number of tigers due to population pressures. Superstition and a reaction against man-eating tigers were not the cause of the near extinction. They were intentionally hunted down by the British and the local Maharajas for "sport". Tigers were hunted mostly during the British era.
Tigers unlike Lions are solitary animals, so these numbers are impressive +/- 10%. My home state has one of the largest numbers and I was fortunate to see a Tigress with fresh kill and couple of cubs. Truly majestic beasts these are.
Back when I saw them in Corbett national park with their kill, the thing that amazed me the most was their size. They looked bigger than a hatchback! (Ignorant me)
Jim Corbett's books have been recommended in this thread, and he talks about their behavior in the wild in great detail. Worth a read if you want to know more about them.
the really interesting story is around how the law enforcement works here . Indian Tigers (especially the Royal Bengal Tigers) are some of the world's largest predators and are prized in Chinese medicine. Its brilliant how poachers have been kept off.
For those interested, there is a brilliant web documentary series called "Ranger, Ranger" about India's forest rangers who work in the sanctuaries - http://mukha.co/ranger-ranger/
Good find. I was looking for this article on STR (Sariska). It's indeed unfortunate what had happened in Sariska, but I am glad corrective measures were taken.
This is such a welcome news and a great start to the week!
But with the recent news about a tigress beaten to death in India and after coming across some videos in the social media on the tiger encounters with humans, I hope the Indian govt. also works on bolstering education and awareness campaigns across the rural population on the man vs animal encounters and also works towards preserving the forests where these encounters are reported.
I don't know if any amount of "awareness" is going to stop the people who live near them from revenge killings of man-eaters. Hard to blame them honestly.
Tiger population growth means more people live next to them. And on the internet we'll argue that it's because there's too many people but they'll expand into whatever territory they're ceded and someone is always going to have to live near them.
I mean, i understand this is a serious issue, about conservation, rural education, the clash between individual families living next to dangerous animals and far away state administration but .. beating a tiger ?! With sticks?!
While this news is good, it should be taken into consideration that without increases in habitat area, this will lead to higher tiger-human and tiger-tiger conflict. There is rising cases of tiger-human conflicts already and I hope this doesn't lead to a backlash.
Notice how these wildlife advocates don't have lobbying offices in these areas. Their property is safe.
Elephants are not destroying their crops/orchards. Rhinos are not smashing their cars. Leopards are not eating their pets, livestock, neighbors or family members.
>But there has also been an increase in human-tiger conflict recently and one reason is that India has too many tigers and too few forests that can sustain them unless more protected reserves are added. //
So they've stopped people killing them, but haven't unfortunately, it seems, been able to address the issue that leads to people killing them.
Presumably at some point the forest area needs to increase, or people will start killing tigers to protect themselves?
I wonder too how much of the increase is improved technique in finding (and recording?)?
If conditions are good, the tigers will presumably increase in number to fill any additional forest area available to them, as well. So I expect the best-case scenario is to provide enough reserved land for the tiger population to be at a safe size, and maintain that population by culling if needed.
Amazing animals, great news! See also the recent (Jul 20, 2019) “Siberian tigers start summer training in Heilongjiang, China” short video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIilv8vyDYI – says that from eight tigers in the captive breeding program from 1986 there are now more than a thousand.
The article mentions tigers running out of room and coming more and more into human contact, in fact there was a story not long ago about a bunch of villagers killing a tiger.
Are there any plans to increase the size of the reserves, or creating new ones for the increasing tiger population?
Also, is it possible for tigers to mix sufficiently from one reserve to another, to avoid a lack of genetic diversity?
India added a billion people since 1950 to its population. Should it be called a successes of erstwhile Govts?
Healthy sustainable growth without putting any life in ecosystem under threat is desired. India can sustain a healthy happy human population of 330 million without degrading natural wealth of the nation.
If you are visiting Bangalore, the Karnataka state(of which Bangalore is the capital) has second largest number of tigers in the country, and there are multiple tiger reserves within 100-150 Mile radius of the city. I highly recommend visiting at least one of them, the forest staff are quite friendly and you can get first hand information on how they deal with poachers etc.
The best chance is possibly Ranthambore. It's close to Jaipur as well (which is on most tourist itineraries) and easier to access than other reserves. It's also a much smaller park so it's easier to catch tigers, especially during summers.
I might be going off on a tangent, but this govt has a history of cooking up numbers. Be it GDP, be it out-of-deficit spending or be it the output of the informal economy. Something that's coming from PMO, I'd be super skeptical. Pardon me for pointing out their carelessness in handling water crisis and climate change, but sure, they focussed on tiger population growth. Definitely believable.
This was exactly my thought as well. This government has gone to extraordinary lengths to open up forests to industries with very little protection for the environment. They have also denied the rights of indigenous tribals to the lands.
You're right that they lie all the time and we can't really trust them, but this has been a multi year effort started many many years ago. Also I dont think that they are gonna gain anything electorally from lying about this!
Stories about climate change are flagged off the front page because they are supposedly irrelevant but somehow this story remains. What gives? How is the tiger population more relevant than climate change, an existential threat to humanity and all living species?
Plenty of stories about climate change still get attention on the front page. There's usually at least one every day. But they're the ones that contain new information.
Stories get flagged off the front page when they're repetitive, and stories get front page traction when they contain interesting/useful new information.
The recovering tiger population is interesting new information.
It isn't about tiger population vs climate change.
The tiger population is important because they are at the peak of the food chain, and their conservation is important to ensure the well-being of the forest ecosystem.
[+] [-] iamsb|6 years ago|reply
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashik_district
[+] [-] gramakri|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ignoramous|6 years ago|reply
> Mr Modi said the results of this tiger census would make "every Indian happy".
This isn't an exaggeration: Tigers are interwoven in to the Indian (and Bangladeshi?) psyche [0] owing mostly to the overwhelming guilt of almost singlehandedly causing extinction of these beasts. As the article states, in the 20th Century over 80,000 Tigers were killed in undivided India-- They were mostly demonised in tales of yesteryears [1] and terrorised the populace due to their aggressive behaviour and man-eating tendencies.
There's 2,900 of them now, but a long way away from 80,000. May they burn bright forever [2].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machali_(tigress)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shere_Khan
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tyger#Poem
[+] [-] sn41|6 years ago|reply
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/03/10/a-concise-his...
[+] [-] hyperpallium|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xFFFE|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] luckystrike|6 years ago|reply
Back when I saw them in Corbett national park with their kill, the thing that amazed me the most was their size. They looked bigger than a hatchback! (Ignorant me)
Jim Corbett's books have been recommended in this thread, and he talks about their behavior in the wild in great detail. Worth a read if you want to know more about them.
[+] [-] joshlegs|6 years ago|reply
also fortunate you werent the 'fresh kill'!
serious, though, in what kind of context is it possible to see an adult tigress and not totally crap your pants?
[+] [-] ra7|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kaushikt|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sandGorgon|6 years ago|reply
For those interested, there is a brilliant web documentary series called "Ranger, Ranger" about India's forest rangers who work in the sanctuaries - http://mukha.co/ranger-ranger/
here's the one with the Tigers - http://mukha.co/ranger-ranger/project/resurrecting-paper-tig...
[+] [-] 0xFFFE|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] z3phyr|6 years ago|reply
There is only one subspecies of tigers in India, commonly called the Bengal Tiger. It is found in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
[+] [-] bozoUser|6 years ago|reply
But with the recent news about a tigress beaten to death in India and after coming across some videos in the social media on the tiger encounters with humans, I hope the Indian govt. also works on bolstering education and awareness campaigns across the rural population on the man vs animal encounters and also works towards preserving the forests where these encounters are reported.
[+] [-] sidibe|6 years ago|reply
Tiger population growth means more people live next to them. And on the internet we'll argue that it's because there's too many people but they'll expand into whatever territory they're ceded and someone is always going to have to live near them.
[+] [-] lifeisstillgood|6 years ago|reply
I mean, i understand this is a serious issue, about conservation, rural education, the clash between individual families living next to dangerous animals and far away state administration but .. beating a tiger ?! With sticks?!
[+] [-] distant_hat|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] provolone|6 years ago|reply
Elephants are not destroying their crops/orchards. Rhinos are not smashing their cars. Leopards are not eating their pets, livestock, neighbors or family members.
https://www.beefmagazine.com/pasture-range/wolves-economic-b... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/110923... https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/03/world/asia/nepal-leopard-deat... https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/one-dead-in-rhino-attack... https://www.earthtouchnews.com/conservation/human-impact/rhi...
[+] [-] barking|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pbhjpbhj|6 years ago|reply
So they've stopped people killing them, but haven't unfortunately, it seems, been able to address the issue that leads to people killing them.
Presumably at some point the forest area needs to increase, or people will start killing tigers to protect themselves?
I wonder too how much of the increase is improved technique in finding (and recording?)?
[+] [-] rebuilder|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] igravious|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nickserv|6 years ago|reply
Are there any plans to increase the size of the reserves, or creating new ones for the increasing tiger population?
Also, is it possible for tigers to mix sufficiently from one reserve to another, to avoid a lack of genetic diversity?
[+] [-] lota-putty|6 years ago|reply
Now should we poke into actual healthy tiger reserves? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_reserves_of_India#Goals https://www.letsstudytogether.co/complete-list-of-tiger-rese...
India added a billion people since 1950 to its population. Should it be called a successes of erstwhile Govts?
Healthy sustainable growth without putting any life in ecosystem under threat is desired. India can sustain a healthy happy human population of 330 million without degrading natural wealth of the nation.
[+] [-] latchkey|6 years ago|reply
https://www.nst.com.my/world/2019/07/507559/seven-dead-tiger...
[+] [-] rblion|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xFFFE|6 years ago|reply
If you are visiting Bangalore, the Karnataka state(of which Bangalore is the capital) has second largest number of tigers in the country, and there are multiple tiger reserves within 100-150 Mile radius of the city. I highly recommend visiting at least one of them, the forest staff are quite friendly and you can get first hand information on how they deal with poachers etc.
This is the Govt. website so please be gentle :)
https://aranya.gov.in/Static%20pages/TigerReserves.aspx
Bandipur, Nagarhole & BRT reserves are 3-4 hours drive from Bangalore.
PS: Avoid the weekends if possible.
[+] [-] puranjay|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gapo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] srikbs8095|6 years ago|reply
I might be going off on a tangent, but this govt has a history of cooking up numbers. Be it GDP, be it out-of-deficit spending or be it the output of the informal economy. Something that's coming from PMO, I'd be super skeptical. Pardon me for pointing out their carelessness in handling water crisis and climate change, but sure, they focussed on tiger population growth. Definitely believable.
[+] [-] pkphilip|6 years ago|reply
Source: https://theprint.in/opinion/environment-is-the-most-under-re...
How can the tiger population increase when forest cover has dropped drastically?
Fact is, the environment protection under Modi has been a disaster. Source: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/india/report-card-en...
[+] [-] techie128|6 years ago|reply
Do you think India and China are somehow cooking up green cover to fool NASA's satellites too? Give me a break.
[+] [-] sbmthakur|6 years ago|reply
A lot of water management happens at the state-level. And the worst water-crisis in recent memory happened at Chennai, which is not a BJP ruled state.
Also, considering the push towards renewable energy, I'm not sure how it's fine to blame the PMO for "carelessness against climate change."
[+] [-] vijaybritto|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iam_varunnair|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] edgefield0|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomhoward|6 years ago|reply
Stories get flagged off the front page when they're repetitive, and stories get front page traction when they contain interesting/useful new information.
The recovering tiger population is interesting new information.
[+] [-] sbmthakur|6 years ago|reply
The tiger population is important because they are at the peak of the food chain, and their conservation is important to ensure the well-being of the forest ecosystem.
[+] [-] edgefield0|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] flattone|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|6 years ago|reply
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https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html