{"id":11790,"date":"2016-06-15T07:47:13","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T06:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/?p=11790"},"modified":"2016-06-15T07:47:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T06:47:13","slug":"do-recent-reports-on-tiger-number-increases-tell-whole-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/news\/2016\/06\/do-recent-reports-on-tiger-number-increases-tell-whole-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Do recent reports on tiger number increases tell the whole story?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Do<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Latest reports suggest a spike in the global tiger population by 22%. Top delegates from 13 Asian countries got together recently for an Asian conference on tiger conservation in India\u2019s capital and pledged to double their number in the next decade. Conservationist Julian Matthews explains the real deal behind this number game.<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/span>s Delhi\u2019s temperature soared unseasonably to record breaking heights, conservationists, forest officers and Ministers from all thirteen of the countries within which tigers presently reign \u2013 or used to reign \u2013\u00a0 sat in an air conditioned auditorium listening to endless clipped presentations about smarter patrolling, so called greener roads and fighting criminal networks using new high tech drones and camera traps. All very interesting \u2013 if it ever happens \u2013 but underneath this highbrow event, many \u2018elephants in the room\u2019 failed to be trumpeted, or when they were, they were squashed at the first opportunity.<\/p>\n

With Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian delegates in the room, who between them have probably less than 10 individual tigers left in their forests, many of the most critical issues that face the long term fate of wild tigers failed to make it onto any discussion platform. Take tiger trade and farming \u2013 a driving force behind the ongoing poaching epidemic \u2013 which according to Indian intelligence sources haven\u2019t been this bad for 15 years \u2013 failed utterly to confront these same nations, China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, all deeply implicated in the trade and farming of now over 7000 tigers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the worrying (and seldom highlighted) fact that most tigers, many even in the most well-known protected areas, are largely eating a diet of livestock like cattle and goats, because prey species like spotted deer, wild pig and Sambar are in steep decline from both the illegal \u2018bushmeat trade, so easily caught and butchered to supply cheap meat to nearby towns, and heavy overgrazing in most forests outside of strictly protected areas. This together with the fact that in India, with 70% of the world tiger population and most of the key \u2018so called \u2018source\u2019 populations that could get us out of the tiger hole, the forests within which they can functionally live have shrunk by more than 25% just in the last decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"EMBARGOED-Infographic-Global-Tiger-Status-April-2016-high-resolution-1024x768\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Also alarmingly the biggest global economy in conservation, nature tourism, (estimated to be worth US$660 billion per annum) did not even get a footnote in the proceedings of the conference?\u00a0 <\/span>Surely the correlation between our enduring desire to see tigers in the wild (and their wild places) and pay handsomely for the privilege, and India\u2019s slow growth in tiger numbers can be seen for what it is? A conservation success story \u2013 even if this booming rural economy is happening by default \u2013 rather than under any clever, well managed planning regime.<\/span><\/p>\n

But underneath it all was a simmering and some might say cynical ploy to put a PR spin on present tiger numbers before the gathering tiger conference, with bold world headlines proclaiming success in expanding the tiger populations across the range states, up from the original and already dubious figure of 3200 to a total of 3890 individuals \u2013 a figure which is perfect for media editors to quote but infact reflects a \u2018best guestimate\u2019 \u2013 not an actual body count.\u00a0 <\/span>As Jay Mazoomdar, the investigative journalist who blew the cover on the local extinction of tiger in Sariska reserve in 2005 says, \u201cBetter counting methods through refined camera trapping and DNA analysis now increasingly account for animals that were either missed or not identified as separate individuals in previous studies. Yet, given that the elusive tiger\u2019s habitat includes some of the most remote and hostile terrain on earth, the truth is that we simply do not know \u2014 and may never know \u2014 exactly how many tigers there are in the wild.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Traveling<\/a>
Traveling to see wild tigers? Then download TOFTigers free \u2018Good Wildlife Travel Guide 2016 to India and Nepal\u2019 and be a tiger friendly traveller.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The catchy headlines may help the so called \u2018Tx2\u2019 initiative of doubling tiger numbers by the year 2022, but infact does little to give anyone a better understanding of what is really happening back at the sharp end.\u00a0 Whilst India and Nepal\u2019s Royal Bengal tigers and President Putin\u2019s Siberian tigers are given high profile political backing, other nations and their sub species including the South China Tiger, the Sumatran tiger, the Malayan tiger and the Indo Chinese tiger of the greater Mekong are all teetering dangerously on the edge of extinction (or have already fallen off the extinction cliff), to add to the three species that have already perished in the last century.\u00a0So the tiger species extinction count is actually nearer 5 down with 5 to go?Dr Ullas Karanth and three other world renowned tiger biologists hit back with their own PR slug. \u201c<\/span>Glossing over serious methodological flaws, or weak and incomplete data to generate feel-good \u2018news\u2019 is a disservice to conservation, because tigers now occupy only 7% of their historic range. A recent World Conservation Union (IUCN) assessment <\/b>showed 40% habitat loss in the last decade, and a spike in poaching pressure in many regions. Furthermore Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR and China have virtually lost viable tiger populations in recent years. This is not a time for conservationists to take their eyes off the ball and pat each other on the back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Time to celebrate?\u00a0 <\/span>No way. Time instead to get back and work x2 to do a better job \u2013 with all the conservation tools are our disposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feature Image \u00a9 Appaloosa\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a> (Male Panthera tigris altaica, Leipzig Zoo \/ Tomak )<\/em><\/p>\n

Julian Matthews is Chairman of TOFTigers, a nature tourism action charity based in Delhi.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was first published by Outdoor Journal\u00a0<\/em>and republished with permission here. Read the original article here: Tyger, Tiger, numbers burning bright but what is really happening in the night?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given that the tiger\u2019s habitat includes some of the most remote terrain on earth, the truth is we simply do not know exactly how many there are in the wild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":11791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14,535,72,140],"tags":[577],"yoast_head":"\nDo recent reports on tiger number increases tell the whole story?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Given that the tiger\u2019s habitat includes some of the most remote terrain on earth, the truth is we simply do not know exactly how many there are in the wild.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/news\/2016\/06\/do-recent-reports-on-tiger-number-increases-tell-whole-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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