Overview The tiger roamed the earth freely throughout Asia in the 1900s from the grasslands of Central India and the taiga of Siberia, to the bamboo forests of China. Fearless, they reigned supreme. Tigers are constantly living in danger and on the brink of extinction. Tigers have lost 93% of their historic range. Their habitat has been destroyed, degraded and fragmented by human activities, including the clearing of forests for agriculture and timber trade and development activities such as the building of road networks. Fewer tigers can survive in small, scattered islands of habitat, which lead to a higher risk of inbreeding. These small islands of habitat also make tigers more vulnerable to poaching.
Human Tiger Conflict People and tigers increasingly compete for space. As forests shrink and prey gets scarce, tigers are forced to hunt domestic livestock, which many local communities depend on for their livelihood. In retaliation, tigers are killed or captured. “Conflict” tigers are known to end up for sale in illegal/black markets. This conflict threatens the world’s remaining wild tigers and poses a major problem for communities living in or near tiger forests. Tigers need a pristine forest with little or no human interference and abundant prey. Humans have taken up the best forest areas for themselves, leaving tiger habitat encroached and forests fragmented. All this has resulted in human-animal conflicts, poaching and habitat destruction. We must provide tigers with good forest areas free of humans. We can do this by the proper relocation of forest dwellers. Poaching & Illegal trade Poaching is an immediate threat to wild tigers. Every part of the tiger—from whisker to tail—is traded in illegal wildlife markets. In relentless demand, their parts are used for traditional medicine, folk remedies, and increasingly as a status symbol among some Asian cultures. In Indochina and China, poaching is so pervasive that thousands of hectares of forests stand empty of tigers. The impact of the death of a single tiger at the hands of poachers reaches beyond one single loss. If the tiger that was killed was a female with cubs, her cubs will likely die without their mother and the female's potential for future breeding is lost. If a male is killed, his death can result in intensive competition for his territory among surviving males in the population, creating disruption in further breeding by those males.
Benefits (Direct and Indirect) You might want to ask: So what if the tigers are dying out? Why should we be worried? How does their extinction have any connection to our existence? Well, the answer is simple. The tiger is at the top of the food chain. Therefore, the healthy presence of tigers indicates healthy forests. The presence of tigers in a forest has dual benefits; firstly, it keeps the ungulate (hoofed animals like deer and wild boar) population in check and keeps humans at bay away from forests. If there is no apex predator, herbivores, and humans enter the forest for farming, logging, and poaching of smaller animals with less fear. The existence of tigers is vital for the survival of forests.
But why do we need forests? During the few months of monsoon, the forests absorb billions of gallons of rainwater. During the dry months, two things happen to this water; it is taken up by the trees via their roots and then transpired into the atmosphere. This transpired water, in the form of water vapor, forms clouds and in a few months’ time, precipitates to form rain. The second thing that happens to the rainwater is that it forms underground rivers and streams. These streams then later rise to the surface to form rivers. These rivers flow to areas even where there has been no rain for many months. Therefore, forests provide us with our drinking water. Three hundred of such small and big rivers originate from just 41 tiger reserves in India!
Therefore, we can say that: Tigers = Forests = Water = Healthy Living
This is why we need to save tigers!
Why should we start saving tigers? “Would you feel no embarrassment at all if the world is left without a single wild tiger?” “Would you be ready to show your next generation kids the tigers in pictures and videos as like what we are doing it with dinosaurs? How do we solve this big problem?
Conclusion We have to completely stop the poaching of wildlife, eliminating tiger trade, and find ways to product forests effectively and efficiently. If proper steps are not taken fast, tigers do not stand a chance for survival. Without adequate protection measures, security system and conservation efforts the Bengal, Malayan, Sumatran, Siberian, South China and Indochinese tigers will also meet the same fate as their Javan, Bali and Caspian cousins.