Tiger – the word reminds me of an image of an animal , loud sound.. scary teeth.. an animal hunting food.. running after a deer or some poor herbivore and it can even be a human being.. 😦 But then tiger is also symbolic of strength/bravery/courage .. remember the advertisement of Lipton tea??

When I thought about writing this blog post, I thought I would do research on numbers n then publish a scientific report bt later I thought, why not something different, some common sense and some thoughts which are beyond numbers..

We have suddenly.. nah .. from last few decades realized that we need to save our wildlife.. You know why we are so much concerned?? Yes one of the most obvious reasons is that animals are disappearing from our earth.. and we dont want them extinct. Let me tell you recent animals which went extinct recently .. yeah I am not talking about Dinosaurs here.. See the list:

Animals that have gone extinct in 21st Century

• Baiji Dolphin : Since 2006
• West African Black Rhino : May be 2006
• The Golden Toad : 2007
• Craugastor escoces : 2007
• Holdridge’s Toad : 2007
• Spix’s Macaw : 2004
• Po’o’uli (Black faced honey creeper) : 2004
• Kama’o : 2004
• Hawaiian Crow: 2004
• Pyrenean Ibex : 2000

I am not planning to list
those animals which diappeared earlier than 2000, bt I guess the list of animals we lost from wild in last 10 years is itself an eye opener.

Whats more let me give you some animals which may go extinct in next 10 years if not protected :

• Iberian lynx – Cat species
• Pongo abelii – Orangutan
• Lasiorhinus krefftii : Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat
• Camelus bactrianus : Wild Bactrian Camel
• Gazella dama : Antelope species
• Coleura seychellensis : Seychelles Sheath-Tailed Bat
• Alligator sinensis
• Diceros bicornis : Black Rhinoceros
• Saguinus bicolor : Bare faced Tamarin
• Dermochelys coriacea : Leatherback Turtle

Yes now coming back to the issue : Save Tiger. But why?

• National Heritage : We dont want to see this treasure disappear. We want our kids to see tigers.
• Ecological Balance : Yes again a scientific term but I guess most people do understand the term. Still how I look at it. A tiger eats a deer (in a jungle, the case in zoo is different where tiger gets ready made food) , a deer eats grass (it is a herbivore) . Now if tigers disappear, (they have already dwindled in numbers )and suppose deer population is heathy( which is not, I guess deer numbers are not very encouraging too) then deer will eat all grass. Deer will keep on growing and grass will disappear. Now if u say Lions will come and eat deer , then that is a different story. I took a simple example.. but it is much more complicated- there are so many carnivores – lion/tiger/cheetah ( already extinct from India).. so many herbivores – deer, cow, rabbit.. so God made a balance. And what we did is – hunting deer, hunting tigers.. spoiling the balance and off course natural treasure.. The point is if humans want to live longer, other ainmals must be protected.
• Save the tiger – save earth- save our ecosystem. Keep the treasure for future generations.. Else these fascinationg animals will only be confined to story books/ photographs/museums and if lucky then in zoological gardens.

Now the point is how to save the tiger???

Wear a T shirt saying save the tiger?? How will it help??

Not directly, but yes it will spread the word.

Let us look at scientific / bio engineering techniques to save animals :

• Captive breeding : Get them to reproduce . More kids more population.. more numbers
• Can cloning and other restructuring techniques help us? Can we go back and get extinct animals .. nah not a real jurassic park .. bt ya some beautiful creatures which we once saw and want to see again.. off course not causing threat to our own existance

Let us make a focussed effort in saving the tiger and many other animals facing the same danger – the danger of getting lost forever.