Keeping the Tiger Safe

The New Indian Express , Friday, February 14, 2014
Correspondent : K Naresh Kumar
“The debate about development at the cost of environment is an ongoing one. If one looks at the extent of protected area in the country, it does not exceed more than four per cent of the total land space. If this is protected, then where is the question of it impeding development,” enquired leading tiger biologist and conservationist, Dr Ullas Karanth. An engineer-turned-environmentalist, the Padma Shri awardee was speaking at a programme ‘25 years with Tiger’ held at Lamakaan, organised by Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society (HYTICOS) on Wednesday evening.

Besides raising pertinent points about the contentious environment versus development, Karanth also addressed a host of other issues which have often seen heated discussions in public forums.

Speaking at the hour-long session, Dr Karanth paid rich compliments to the strong ‘cultural moorings’ of Indian society where a tiger is revered by both tribals and mainstream people. “Our tiger population in reserve forests are more on a per sq.km basis in comparison to Russia where there are fewer tigers spread over huge land mass,” he informed, adding that in fact, across the world, there seemed to be a certain apathy towards wild life protection.

“In many parts of the world, where I served, the attitude towards tiger protection is worse than ours. I have worked in Buddhist countries like Burma and Laos where the tiger population has been totally decimated,” he shared.

Given his wide experience and knowledge, the audience were treated to various insights into the feline

beast, and in fact, were also witness to a few myths being debunked. For instance, Dr Karanth elaborated on how the tiger population gets affected not just by poaching it alone but also comes under stress when its prey too gets reduced in the reserve area where it lives and inhabits.

On the touchy issue of relocation of forest dwellers, the tiger expert seemed satisfied with the Karnataka experiment where a few evacuations have taken place. “It would still be a worrisome thing as relocation can only be possible with adequate incentives to those who are likely to get affected,” he expressed. Still, he was hopeful of a workable solution as in his home state he was being regularly approached by forest settlers to help them relocate after hearing of his successful attempts.

The engineer from NIT, Surathkal, much feted and felicitated nationally and internationally, has successfully replaced older methods for tiger census (pug mark identification) and even pioneered the radio frequency identification tag for the animal, which began at Nagarahole National Park a few years ago.

The HYTICOS has been working in tandem with AP Forest Academy on this subject which saw a very high level of participation from it. The 100-strong crowd quizzed Dr Karanth on various issues from the wildlife protection scene in Andhra Pradesh to the future of the big cat.

 
SOURCE : http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/Keeping-the-Tiger-Safe/2014/02/14/article2056142.ece#.Uv3WsyfG3IU
 


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