Ara TimeSAVE THESE TIGERS :
THESE TIGERS ARE OUR NATION ANIMAL : SIGN OF NATIONALITY
3 December 2009 - Conservation skeptics often dismiss the importance of tiger conservation under the ruse that it gets too much media coverage. They also say that too much significance is attached to mammals at the cost of other endangered fauna. Nevertheless its significance cannot be undermined, for among other things, the Royal Bengal Tiger presides over territory meant for a vast faunal diversity. Mammals are the youngest in the evolution of species, thus there is a whole spectrum of faunal diversity below them, some of which are its prey base.
The sheer canvas of biodiversity and forests that these fauna are spread out on, commands for the tiger the vanguard position in terms of conservation value. The tiger is the sentinel of the Indian monsoons’ catchment area. This is also why the Sariska slaughter of 22 tigers in 2004–05 was a shock.
Machali the tigress with her cubs. Tigers breed frequently but their mortality is equally high, which calls for good management of an adult tiger's range. File pic: Rajasthan Forest Department.
The tiger's home range spreads from the tropical wet evergreen rainforests in the Western Ghats right across the Deccan Plateau to the lower Himalayas, shrub forests in the desert state of Rajasthan in India to the great wastes of Siberia apart from Indonesia, parts of Thailand and China. In this vast area the tiger presides over a diverse prey base that spans across mammals, birds, fishes and reptiles crustaceans, insects, butterflies, etc., all of which are endangered too.
The tiger demands conservation because it shields the habitat for its prey base. In the Periyar Tiger Reserve, there are nesting sites for the highly endangered but very few fresh water otters left in India. Periyar Tiger Reserve happens to be the only Protected Area for a breeding site for the otters. Fresh water otters have virtually disappeared from the North Indian wetlands courtesy poaching. They are found to be breeding in the dry deciduous forests of the Kaveri riparian ecosystem in and around Southern Karnataka and northwestern Tamilnadu but they do not enjoy much protection in these riparian ecosystems without the administration of PA networks. Thus Periyar TR is the only PA for the fresh water otter nests.
More than 67 types of butterflies throng the tiger terrain in India. Being extremely sensitive creatures, the slightest change in the environment affects them adversely. Pic: Malini Shankar.Nowhere else in the world can a shark thrive with the Royal Bengal Tiger and its prey base in the same habitat.
Apart from invertebrates like reef sharks and the Gangetic Dolphin, the tiger protects in its terrain everything from the Red Panda to the King Cobra, the Rock python to the Great Indian Hornbill, all 5 types of vultures to the Great Indian Desert Wolf, Nilgiri Tahr to the Black Panther, rhinoceros to a good 12 varieties of deer endemic to India, Wild Dog to jackals, The Great Indian Gaur to the Himalayan Yak, crocodiles - Gharial, mugger and estuarine crocodiles - a whole spectrum of apes and amphibians and a whole lot more.
Reverse the order and you can fathom the depth of loss of habitat that pyramid species like the tigers, leopards, lions, snow leopards, Panthers, king cobras, pythons, are suffering from. Otters, mongoose, Giant Malabar Squirrel, Bears, Gaur, deer, jungle cats like the Civet cats, are all endangered largely thanks to the habitat loss. 