By Aditya V Kumar
Unnatural deaths of tigers are increasing alarmingly and it has forced them to the verge of extinction. A research by the WWF has shown that there are just 1411 wild tigers left in the India, 50 in China and less than 3,200 in the US. Like all other animals and human-beings tigers do have the right to survive. Tigers who are classified as wild-cats are important for our survival too. Being at the top of the ecosysytem' s food pyramid their well being ensures the entire system is in order. The three main reasons why tigers are dying today are Poaching, Man-Animal Conflicts and Loss of their Habitat. The only way by which we can stop poaching is by ensuring that the poor who kill tigers and sell their skin to make a living are able to make it by other means. Once poaching stops, illegal trade of tiger-skin, their bones and other parts will become impossible.
Today, tigers are loosing their habitat because people are destroying the forests by felling trees for timber to large-scale destruction for industries and roads in the name of development. But we also have to think about the villagers whose living depend on the forests. To save our forests, we must help the villagers in earning a decent income for their living. By preventing deforestation we will not only help the tigers but ourselves as forests are the source of our rivers, streams and play an essential role in attracting rainfall and preventing soil-erosion. Tigers are territorial animals and they need their own unique space to live. So if we destroy their habitat they will move out to create their own territories. we have to protect our forests for the safety of tigers else they will take to straying into villages and cities and get killed due to fear.
All this sounds difficult but it is not. The population density in Asian countries has always been very high as compared to the West. Especially in countries like India people have traditionally shared space with many different kinds of species especially wild-carnivores which are almost extinct in the West. Tigers still have a great chance to live if we live up to that tradition. So we all must try to protect this endangered species from extinction.
Unnatural deaths of tigers are increasing alarmingly and it has forced them to the verge of extinction. A research by the WWF has shown that there are just 1411 wild tigers left in the India, 50 in China and less than 3,200 in the US. Like all other animals and human-beings tigers do have the right to survive. Tigers who are classified as wild-cats are important for our survival too. Being at the top of the ecosysytem' s food pyramid their well being ensures the entire system is in order. The three main reasons why tigers are dying today are Poaching, Man-Animal Conflicts and Loss of their Habitat. The only way by which we can stop poaching is by ensuring that the poor who kill tigers and sell their skin to make a living are able to make it by other means. Once poaching stops, illegal trade of tiger-skin, their bones and other parts will become impossible.
Today, tigers are loosing their habitat because people are destroying the forests by felling trees for timber to large-scale destruction for industries and roads in the name of development. But we also have to think about the villagers whose living depend on the forests. To save our forests, we must help the villagers in earning a decent income for their living. By preventing deforestation we will not only help the tigers but ourselves as forests are the source of our rivers, streams and play an essential role in attracting rainfall and preventing soil-erosion. Tigers are territorial animals and they need their own unique space to live. So if we destroy their habitat they will move out to create their own territories. we have to protect our forests for the safety of tigers else they will take to straying into villages and cities and get killed due to fear.
All this sounds difficult but it is not. The population density in Asian countries has always been very high as compared to the West. Especially in countries like India people have traditionally shared space with many different kinds of species especially wild-carnivores which are almost extinct in the West. Tigers still have a great chance to live if we live up to that tradition. So we all must try to protect this endangered species from extinction.
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