FIFTH COLUMN
A 17-year-old silverback gorilla was killed by the Cincinnati zoo after a child walked into its enclosure on May 28. The following week, 40 tiger cub carcasses were recovered from a Thailand temple. A zoo in Santiago, Chile, also killed two lions to save a suicidal man who jumped into the enclosure.
Closer home, endangered animals were killed as part of a tribal ritual in three Bengal districts on Sunday, World Environment Day! Over 16 street dogs were allegedly culled in a residential complex near Calcutta. A nilgai appeared on the streets of Delhi and was injured when police gave chase. A camel was left standing under a scorching sun with its legs tied in Rajasthan for hours till it vent its anger on the owner. Eight rhinos have been killed in Assam this year, the last on Tuesday.
These are just a few instances of how the past weeks have dealt the unkindest cut to animals in an escalating conflict with humans. The trend hits at the very roots of conservation efforts. According to Project Tiger conservation data, the big cat population in Madhya Pradesh (which has six reserves) in 2001-02 stood at 710. The 2011 tiger census revealed there were only 257 tigers left in the state, indicating a decadal loss of 453 tigers. To add insult to injury, Madhya Pradesh will next week sing a dirge for the Baghira log huts at Kisli, a favourite tourist haunt for over three decades, following a Supreme Court order.
Under watch
Located in the core area of the Kanha forest (30 per cent of Madhya Pradesh is under forest cover, home to nearly 300 big cats), the log huts offered a rare window for communing with nature - sighting tigers making a kill, deer grazing at the doorstep or a leopard's snarl. Several other forests offer accommodation in core areas, like Dhikala in Corbett National Park, Rajasthan tourism department's Jhoomar Baori at Ranthambhore (the former hunting lodge of the maharaja), Jungle Huts at Masinagudi in Tamil Nadu's Mudumalai forest, among others. Though the Supreme Court's axe looms, these are still functioning.
The requiem for Kisli's log huts will continue to ring in the hearts of nature lovers, especially those who know that it sits on copper reserves and foresee a bleak future when mining could drive these majestic tigers to extinction.
The contention that tourists 'disturb' wildlife is a myth. When tigers disappeared from Panna and Sariska national parks, it was the tourists and wildlife enthusiasts who blew the whistle on park officials for manipulating tiger statistics and hiding facts on poaching. Tiger scientists and others working on conservation have always maintained that increasing tourist numbers have actually helped tiger preservation by making poaching difficult.
Soft targets
The Centre recently outlined plans for 10 highways that will pass through sanctuaries like Madhav National Park, Kanha and Pench in Madhya Pradesh, Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand and protected forests in Assam. Given that hundreds of animals are run over every year, clearance for such a project will cock a snook at the very premise used to justify the closure of Kisli's log huts.
But do we really care? Conservation efforts received a rude jolt when zoos, whose raison d'être is the nurturing of animals, justified the killings of a captive gorilla and lions with shameless equanimity. If they had to shoot animals again, they would, Cincinnati zoo director Thane Maynard has asserted. Ever heard of tranquillizer darts, Mr Maynard?
