Chinese "Last" Year of the Tiger

The Chinese Year of the Tiger began on 14^th February 2010. According to the Chinese zodiac sign, the year 2010 is the year of the tiger, which extends from 14^th February 2010 to 2^nd February 2011. The previous years of the tiger are 1902, 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, and 1998. In the circle of the “Heavenly Branches”, the year of the tiger is the third year, also known as “Yin”. 2010 is the “Ji-Chou” year. Jji is the sixth of the Ten Celestial Stems and yin is the third of the Twelve Terrestrial Branches and marks the Year of the Tiger.

Of all the worlds that this Year of Tiger will affect, perhaps the most threatened is that of the tigers that still roam in the world’s fast declining forest lands. It is thought that there are only 20 tigers left in the wild in China, and in India, poachers are working doubly hard to make good use of the world’s largest tiger population. It is now officially estimated that there are only 1411 tigers left in India, which is a half of the amount that was present a decade ago and only a fraction of the approximate total of 1,00,000 tigers that once roamed the Indian subcontinent in the early 20^th Century. In India, however, the laws against poaching are not strict enough.

If an offence is committed against the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, there is a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment or a fine which may extend to Rs. 25,000 or both. For an offence against a Schedule I or Schedule II (part 2) animal, or for an offence committed within a sanctuary or natural park, there is a mandatory prison term of three years, which may extend to seven years. There is also a mandatory fine of at least Rs. 10,000. For a subsequent offence, the mandatory prison remains same, while the mandatory fine is at least Rs.25, 000. For an offence committed inside the core area of a Tiger Reserve, there is a mandatory prison term of three years, extendable to seven years and a fine of Rs. 50,000 extendable to Rs. 2 lakhs. In case of a subsequent conviction, there is an imprisonment of at least seven years and a fine of Rs. 5 lakhs which may extend to Rs. 50 lakhs. Despite these penalties, the laws are difficult to enforce and to date, in spite of hundreds of cases; only 16 people have ever been convicted of killing a tiger.

Most poachers in India have international links, who supply them with the necessary equipments and exposure to carry out the heinous act. Poachers use one of the following methods to kill a wild tiger:

1. Poison – This is usually placed in the carcasses of domestic buffaloes and cows. During the dry, hot summer months small forest pools are also poisoned by poachers, or depressions dug and filled with water for this purpose. There is a sophisticated and well organised supply route operated by the major traders, to distribute poison and collect tiger bones from the remotest villages. .

2. Steel Traps – These are made by nomadic blacksmiths. These traps are immensely strong. In a tiger poaching case near Raipur in 1994, it took six adult men to open a trap. In one area in central India, investigators found that so many steel traps had been set that the villagers were fearful of going into the forest. People have received dreadful injuries from these traps.

3. Firearms –These are used where hunting can be carried out with little hindrance.

4. Electrocution –This is carried out by tapping 230 volts -11KV overhead electrical wires and laying a live wire on animal tracts.

While shrinking habitats remain the major problem, the biggest threat to Indian Tigers is probably the Chinese hunger for tiger parts. “All of the demand for tiger parts is coming from China,” said Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. “Unless the Chinese change their attitude, the tiger has no future on this earth.”

China has banned the trade of tiger parts since 1993, but there is still a huge market for tiger bones, traditionally priced for their healing and tiger skins, which has become a symbol of aristocracy among the Chinese elite. The value of a dead tiger is sky high, giving poachers all the many more reasons to make the kill. In 2009 according to the government census, 88 tigers were found dead, double the amount in 2008. For the calculation, either dead tigers found in the national reserves or tiger parts seized at border crossings are used. Hence the actual number could be even more.

Surprisingly, China bans the use of tiger parts in traditional medicine but overlooks the sale of alcohol-based health tonics steeped in tiger bone. It is a grey area that has been exploited by Chinese tiger farms, which raise thousands of animals with assembly-line efficiency. If there is any mystery about what happens to the big cats at Xiongsen Tiger and Bear Mountain Village in Guilin, it is partly explained in the gift shop, where fuzz coated bottles in the shape of a tiger are filled with “bone strengthening” wine. The liquor, which costs $132 for a 6 year old brew, is sold openly across the surrounding Guangxi region and beyond. “This stuff works wonders”, said Zhang Hanchu, the owner of a spirits shop Guilin. A daily shot glass of the rice-based alcohol, he said, can reduce joint stiffness and a lot of other clinically critical illness. With the year of the tiger nearing, demand has been soaring, he said.

The Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Village is located about 25minutes from the city centre just off the Guilin Airport expressway. It's located right by the highway ticket booth, where one has to pay the toll to enter the expressway. The zoo extents over 300,000 square meters, and is one of the largest tiger and bear zoos. There is supposed to be 1100 tigers, 300 lions, and 300 bears. It also has various other types of animals such as monkeys, snakes, crocodiles, and many other species. As claimed by the zoo to "maintain the wild nature of the beasts", they hold daily training performances, which are more ridiculous than appealing! Tigers perform like dogs, giving displays of obedience, patience and un-tigerly skills, much to the amusement of some spectators and the dismay of the wild-life enthusiasts. And if there are enough people watching, they’ll put a tiger and cattle in the same cage, in a ridiculous re-emanation of the jungle experience. Opened in 1993 with financing from the State Forestry Administration, Xiongsen is china’s largest tiger-breeding operation. Some of its 1100 tigers roam treeless, fenced-in areas, while many others are packed in small cages where they pace agitatedly. The park is a fairly dispiriting place. In addition to the tigers, there are hundreds of capuchin monkeys rattling in cages, awaiting their fate as fodder for medicinal elixirs or medical experiments. Beside these the 300 Asian Brown Bears are used for their bile, which is supposed to improve eye-sight! Even two years ago, Xiongsen sold tiger steaks in its restaurant, with the name “Big King Meat”. After a press intervention two years ago, the names have changed now. Even in the wine bottles the word tiger has been replaced with “rare animal bones”, but the retailers proudly confirm that the key ingredient is indeed, tiger bones. Government official and small fry alike, the wine is a huge hit among every Chinese. Chinese government, in a way, might be turning a blind eye to the felonies of these farms, due to their politically powerful owners. Ironically, inside the Xiongsen bear and Tiger Village hangs a large sign, “Protecting Wild Animals is the bounden duty of every citizen”

But despite these captive tigers being bred for the demands of their bones and carcass, poached tigers actually fetch far more money, because the Chinese somehow believe that the healing properties of a wild tiger is far more than those brought up in captivity. These farms, incidentally, provide cover for the poached tigers.

This Chinese year could be a rare opportunity to actually uphold the case of the fast vanishing tiger to the world. The awareness in the world is increasing by the day and this might lead in the intervention of top world bodies and authorities in what could be the last effort to save the tiger. But even with optimism, there are nightmares. The last tiger year was 1998. James Compton, Asia program director for TRAFFIC, which monitors the global wildlife trade, recalls similar efforts that were carried out last time around to upload the case of the tiger. He has a vivid memory of a poster used for that occasion – SAVE THE LAST 5,000 TIGERS

In a way this Chinese year could well be the last year of the Tiger in the wild, or might as well pave the path for the majestic beast’s road to extinction. But this could also be the year we all realised the true worth of the Tiger in the Wild. It’s neither the balance of the ecosystem nor the equilibrium of nature that gets lost with the tiger. It is, in fact, the human nature, the only thing that separates and makes us civilized, that gets lost with them. We go back in history to being the dominant animal which wiped out the recessive species, for fun, entertainment and luxury.

Courtesy – Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times & Google Search

Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji

Sometimes in life, you listen to a number and wonder if you are ever gonna listen to another good song. This is a fear most music lovers have deep within themselves, that maybe, one fine day, all the good music will be gone and we shall be left with only the nasal craps! Thankfully, our fears can never win over our faith and faith delivers yet again. Dil to Bahccha hai Ji is a sweet romantic melody about falling in love and it is so wonderfully composed that one can actually feel the emotions that make love so special. Rahet Fateh Ali Khan sings this wonderful number in “Ishqiya”.

This song takes me back to that wonderful year in school, mid 2001 to early 2002, when as a class 12 student, I experienced that special feeling. The walks through the basketball court, with my eyes on the class 11 veranda in the second floor.. “Aisi uljhi nazar unse hatti nehin...” Love is magical when it happens to you. The many sleepless nights, the effortless smile from inside just at the sight of Eden, my increasing heartbeats, my numb legs, this song makes me remember them all like I’m living that life again. The desire to face and the fears of being disposed, the moments of yearning and the evenings of pondering in the dark of what would become. The dream of a life together and the harshness of a reality apart, of realisation and yet the heart and mind seldom listen to reasoning! Of the lonely evenings spent in silence, of the many words not said, and the feeling deep inside that could not be expressed, this song takes me to a time so close to my heart.

This song is of the thousand poems written and then destroyed later. And about the final three still left, which provided agony and then ecstasy!

Thank you, Mr Gulzar (Lyricist), Mr. Vishal Bhardwaj (Composer) and Mr. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. You made my day. I would do anything to go back to that time of my life.......

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