1411

1411 mean a lot of different things to different people. The year 1411 was a common year starting on a Thursday of the Julian Calendar. The University of St. Andrews was founded. Under the Yongle Emperor of Ming China, work began to reinstate the ancient Grand Canal of China. The First Peace of Thorn was signed in Thorn, Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. To the average uninterested Indian, 1411 will hardly ring a historic bell.

To every wildlife lover in India, however, 1411 means panic. There are just 1411 Tigers left in India. We knew this would happen. Naturalists all over India were warning about this for decades and yet, the average Indian hardly gives a damn.

Tigers are territorial and often require large adjoining areas of habitat that support their prey demands. They are also home to the most densely populated areas of India. This has caused significant conflicts with humans. Of the nine subspecies of modern tiger, three are extinct and the remaining six are classified as endangered, some critically so. The primary direct causes are habitat destruction and hunting. Their historical range once stretched from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus through most of South and East Asia. Today it has been drastically reduced. While all surviving species are under formal protection, poaching, habitat destruction and inbreeding depression continue to threaten the species.

The word "tiger" is taken from the Greek word "tigris", which is possibly derived from a Persian source meaning "arrow", a reference to the animal's speed and also the origin for the name of the Tigris River. Out of the nine sub species of tigers, the 3 extinct are:

1. 1. The Bali Tiger – Smallest of all the tiger subspecies, they were limited to the Island of Bali. The last of them, an Adult female, was thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali, on 27^th September, 1937.
2. 2. The Javan Tiger – They were limited to the Indonesian island of Java. They were probably wiped out in the 1980s, due to hunting and habitat destruction. Their extinction was threatened in the 1950s when there was supposedly only 25 tigers left in the wild.
3. 3. Caspian Tigers – Also known as the Perusian Tiger or the Turanian Tiger, they were once found from Iran to Uzbekistan, until 1950s.

The other 6 critically endangered sub species of tigers are:

1. 1. The Royal Bengal Tiger – Found in India and Bangladesh, they are the most common subspecies of tigers. The most recent survey has brought out the population to just 1411, a drop of 60% in the past decade. In 1972, Project Tiger was launched to protect these magnificent creatures. But despite all efforts, the number has been steadily declining. Poaching is rampant and sadly Sariska Tiger Reserve has lost all its tiger population to poaching.
2. 2. The Indo-Chinese Tiger – Populations vary from 1200 to 1800, with only a few 100s estimated to be left in the wild. Most of the tigers killed in Vietnam provide for Chinese medicine.
3. 3. The Malayan Tiger – Found in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, only 600-800 of them are left.
4. 4. The Sumatran Tiger – Found exclusively in the Indonesian Island of Sumatra, the wild population is estimated to be around 400 to 500 only. Unique genetic markers found in them indicate that they might develop into a separate species, if they do not go extinct. Around 66 tigers were recorded to have been shot and killed between 1998 and 2000, around 20% of the total population then.
5. 5. The Siberian Tiger – Confined to far eastern Siberia, around 450 to 500 of them are left, which are protected. They are the largest sub species of tigers in size.
6. 6. The South China Tiger – They are the most critically endangered sub species and from 1983 till date, no tiger has been spotted in the wild, with fears that they might already be extinct.

Why is the tiger close to extinction today? Tigers are territorial and the size of their territory generally depends on the abundance of their prey and also to their access to females. A tigress may have a territory of 20 square kilometres or so, but a male tiger requires even more area spanning to about 60 to 100 square kilometres. In India the average territory of a tiger is far less, causing them to sometimes enter human settlements adjacent to the forests. I was once watching a video footage on a private news channel of the incident when a tigress entered a settlement near the Sundarbans in West Bengal. Terrified people starting hitting out the even more terrified being when the tigress had fallen into a ditch, with wildlife officials desperately trying to save the poor creature. Finally the tiger was sedated and rescued with minor injuries. We cannot blame the tiger for wandering out in search of food for its young!

A young male tiger will seek out its territory in an area devoid of males, or will be living transiently in another male’s area until it is old enough to challenge the male for the honour. The highest mortality rate (30-35%) occurs in young tigers who have left their niche to find a territory of their own. Sometimes, if a male admits submission, it is allowed to stay in the territory of the dominant male, but of course it shall have to maintain its distance. In such situations, dispute over mating rights also cause death of a tiger, though such incidents are rare.

Even though mating can occur all year long, it is generally more common between November and April. A litter of 3-4 cubs are born, blind and helpless. Generally, the mother brings them up, with the male playing no part. Sometimes wandering males kill these cubs to mate with the female. The mortality rate in the cubs is very high; approximately half of them do not survive to be 2 years old.

Tiger killing took place in a large scale in the early 19^th and 20^th centuries, which drastically reduced the number of the creatures left in the wild. Several man eating tigers are reported in the Sundarbans, these are however not old and toothless as generally man eaters are, but adults who prey on humans as a loss of habitat.

Poaching and habitat destruction has been the main cause behind the reduction of the tiger population. Following the results of the 1411 census, the government has supposedly flooded the Tiger Project with funds, set up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers and also funded the relocation of around 2 lakhs villagers to minimise human-animal conflicts. A project has also been started to reintroduce tigers into the Sariska Tiger Reserve. But all these efforts will be worthless unless we the people realise what is at stake here.

I remember a tiger conservation advertisement which cut a huge mark in my mind as a child. The protagonist started lighting candles and said words which still ring in my heart,” Are you wondering why I am lighting candles? You see, soon there will be no tigers left in the wild. With no tigers, people will cut down trees and remove forests as the king is gone. Soon there shall be no forests and with that there will be no electricity. So it’s better that we start practicing life with only candles, isn’t it?”

What more reason do we need? When will we realise? In a poll conducted by Animal Planet, Tiger (21%) was judged as the world’s favourite animal, narrowly beating the Dog (20%). Perhaps this is an indication that we are in fact on a road to realisation. If it’s not today, it shall be too late.

“When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when the tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity. The distinction between crime and justice is no greater.” - George Bernard Shaw

Source - Wikipedia