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A study by Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) says that if
efforts are made to preserve tigers’ breeding areas and it is ensured that they are
connected by habitat corridors, the number of tigers can triple.

At present, about 3,200 tigers live in the wild, down from
100,000 a century ago, and those that remain face a losing battle with poachers
who supply traders in India and China with tiger parts for traditional
medicines and purported aphrodisiacs.

The study says that Asia’s tiger reserves can support more
than 10,000 wild tigers – three times the current number – if they are managed
as large-scale areas that allow movement between breeding sites.

‘In the midst of a crisis, it’s tempting to circle the
wagons and only protect a limited number of core protected areas,’ Eric
Dinerston, chief scientist at WWF and one of the study’s authors, said in a
statement.

‘We absolutely need to stop the bleeding, the poaching of
tigers and their prey in core breeding areas, but we need to go much further
and secure larger tiger landscapes before it is too late,’ Dinerston added.

The study says that about 20 tiger conservation landscapes
with the highest probability of survival can support more than 10,500 tigers,
including about 3,400 breeding females.

 

Lions’ share going to
tigers
The union conservation funding for lion conservation
in India is now being transferred to tiger conservation programmes across the
country.

The Asiatic Lion subspecies, also called Panther Leo
Persica, were once found in Central Asia, Middle East, and even Eastern Europe, but
today their numbers have been restricted to just about 411 within a restricted
area of the Gir Forest National Park.

The Gujarat state government made enough efforts to sustain the
numbers of lions. Considerable promotions also brought a nearly 55 per cent
jump in the number of tourists to the park.

However, global pressure seems to have prompted the central
government to be more partial towards tiger conservation over lion conservation.

‘We are unable to understand why the central government is
being so tightfisted with lions when the tigers are being allocated huge
amounts regularly. Though the state government has allocated funds for now
under the Lion Conservation Society of India, several mega projects are on
hold,’ a senior Gir forest official told the media on condition of anonymity.