India's tigers need miracle to survive

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's dwindling tiger population will never recover and it will take a miracle to save those left from habitat destruction and poaching, a renowned expert said on Wednesday.

Failure by authorities to understand the needs of tigers and provide protection has led to numbers falling to 1,300 now from around 3,700 in 2001/02, Valmik Thapar told Reuters ahead of the Reuters Environment Summit next week.

"I believe that the government of the day failed the tigers of India and we cannot recover this population ever again," said Thapar, who has spent the past three decades documenting the behavior of tigers and crusading for their survival.

"A miracle is required to save the Indian tiger. But I don't believe in miracles, as the commitment to save tigers is non-existent."

India has half the world's surviving tigers, but their populations have suffered, driven by a demand for tiger skins and bones in China for traditional medicines.

Thapar, 55, has written 15 books about tigers and presented around 20 documentaries for broadcasters and channels such as the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery and Animal Planet.

His close relationship over six or seven years with a tigress called "Macchli" -- meaning fish in Hindi due to a fish-like marking on her cheek -- is widely documented in his films.

Thapar, also known as India's "Tiger man", was also the first to document how male tigers behave in a family unit.

"What is happening now is a great tragedy," he said. "No one understands the needs of tigers. Committees set up to look after tigers are filled with people who know nothing about the tiger."

CO-EXISTENCE?

The bushy-bearded conservationist said government initiatives like the setting up of a Tiger Conservation Authority and a Wildlife Crime Bureau were just "lip service" and "rhetoric".

He said the tiger's survival was dependent on rapid action, reform and strong protection of the animals and their habitat.

But instead, Thapar said, the government was placing the animals under greater risk with a new law giving people rights over forest resources and advocating the co-existence of tigers and man.

"Lions don't co-exist with people in Africa, jaguars don't co-exist with people in South America and tigers and leopards have never co-existed with people in India," he said.

"It's a myth. It's an illusion. It's the biggest disaster that the present government has started to believe."  Continued...