Kolkata rallies to save the tiger

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Express news service

Posted online: Saturday , April 26, 2008 at 01:50:16
Updated: Saturday , April 26, 2008 at 01:50:16

kolkata, April 25 The total number of tigers in India was 3,600 in 2002. Six years down the line, their number has reduced to an appalling 1,411. In a bid to create awareness about the dwindling number of tigers in India, various environmentalists, tiger conservationists and schoolchildren carried out a rally in Kolkata on Friday.

The ‘Save the Tiger’ rally started at Sahid Minar and ended at Eliot Park. “We believe that the children should be made aware so that they grow up to become responsible adults,” said Uma Rao, a schoolteacher.

“The root problem is that the authorities are not ready to acknowledge the facts. They are not ready to accept that the number of tigers is going down drastically,” said Fateh Singh Rathod, the first field director of the Ranthambore National Park. Noting that the method of counting the animal is inaccurate, he said, “The pug mark identifying method is outdated now. We need to use the camera trap method, which identifies tigers by its stripes.”

Environmentalists in Kolkata feel that the situation is worse in the Sunderbans. The 1999 census registered 360 tigers in the state, of which the Sunderban Tiger Reserve had 254, the South 24 Parganas forest division had 30 and Buxa and Jaldapara reserve forests had 33 and 12 tigers respectively. The tiger count of the 2006 census is not yet available as the survey conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India(WII) could not be completed in the Sunderbans.

“ Sunderbans is a difficult terrain. The camera trap method fails in high tide and pug marks are not clear in muddy areas,” said Col Banerjee, a tiger conservationist.

Disagreeing with the WII figures, the state forest department officials said that WII had clubbed North Bengal with Northeast hills and Brahmaputra flood plains.

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