Making slow headway

On April 3, the Supreme Court ordered states to declare buffer zones around their tiger reserves. A buffer zone is an area which is adjacent to the core area of a tiger reserve and is aimed at promoting coexistence between humans and wildlife. The limits of these areas are determined using scientific criteria and are set in consultation with the gram sabha and an expert committee.

Letters - June 30, 2012

GM ignorance At its best

Leopards in my backyard

Recent research on leopard behaviour shows capturing the problem animals and releasing them elsewhere only shifts the locale of the people-animal conflict. At first glance Akole taluka in Ahmednagar district seems like any other taluka in western Maharashtra’s sugarcane belt. It has densely populated and chaotic settlements, virtually no forest cover and a landscape that is dominated by a mosaic of agricultural fields.

In the name of the tiger

The struggle to protect the rapidly vanishing tiger is getting murkier by the day. Up to 100,000 families are slated for displacement, ostensibly to secure India’s tiger habitats. Unfortunately, most of the relocation taking place violates the law and may end up creating more conflicts that cause the tiger’s decline.

Letters

The great telecom hoax I can’t understand why the telecom company, Aircel, has ventured into such a campaign and what it aims to achieve from this (‘1,411 tigers, and unanswered questions’, March 16-31, 2010). Initially, I had thought that the company is trying to lure customers by introducing schemes such as diverting part of the revenue earned from Aircel calls into saving tigers.

Two in bush is better

Looking at the youthful figure behind matted reeds along the shore, it is hard to believe Kishore Behera was earlier called the Veerappan of Chilika. Once a notorious bird poacher, his gaze is focussed on a purple moorhen nest. As a crow swoops down, he swings his oar with a loud cry and drives the crow away from the eggs.

1,411 tigers, and unanswered questions

1411 tigers left. So says the latest advertisement campaign of a new telecom company and the wwf. It is powerful. It plays to our emotions. But it does not tell us what is being done, or should be done. It does not tell us how we, the consuming classes, can be part of the solution to safeguard the tiger.