Tigers Pour Out From National Park In India

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A century ago there were 100,000 tigers roaming the wild. Today, their are less than 4000 globally. Poaching, human intrusion and systematic destruction of their natural habitat has sounded the death knell for the most beautiful of cats.

So far, conservation efforts have managed to save them from complete annihilation. Conservation efforts fought against an apathetic population and an even more apathetic poachers. So, when one hears a positive report on a conservation success story its time for cheer.

From one of India's best known nature reserves, The Jim Corbett National Park comes the glad tidings that tiger population is up by nearly 20 percent. The word 'crowd' usually carries a depressing connotation in context of humans but for a country struggling to save the big cats, its great news. Due to better conservation efforts the population of tigers here at the national park has increased manifold.

So much so, that they are spilling over into the buffer zones separating the 500-square mile reserve from the surrounding villages on the Himalayan foothills. Hence, the authorities have agreed to extend Jim Corbett's buffer zone by 19 square miles initially.

Rajesh Gopal of the National Tiger Conservation Authority said,

” Tigers are a highly territorial animal and the young will move away from where they were born and carve out their own space. If we cannot increase the carrying capacity of a reserve, which is easier said than done, there will be internal conflict and mutual killing of tigers."

Now, as Rajesh says the challenge due to the spillover is to prevent their killing at the hands of poachers and villagers. And it is better said than done. Conservation efforts have been plagued by poor mismanagement of resources, underpaid guards, thriving poaching cartels, corruption and an ever-growing encroaching population. But the fight to save the big cats has been on for some time.

There are thought to be just 1,411 tigers left in India, according to a new survey that alarmingly cut numbers by half since a 2002 census.

India has 28 tiger reserves and it announced early this year that it would spend $150 million to save its tigers over the next five years, using some of the money to shift villages and tribal communities out of tiger habitats. It is a necessity because in some cases poor villagers have helped poachers to snare the big cats and cut down the forests for illegal logging.

Though, efforts are yielding results the battle for survival of the big cats is being fought by both man and beast almost everyday.