Tiger tiger burning bright

January 26, 2007 5:49 PM

As two more villages are relocated to create reserves for Project Tiger in India, each family will be offered two hectares of land, a house and 100,000 rupees or approximately $2200. But is this a sustainable solution for anti poaching measures? At Ranthambhore tiger reserve in the backward district of Sawai Madhopur, poaching has been controlled but pressure on the park remains as long as the seven relocated villages are unable to find alternate sources of long term income and other resources. When seeking food and shelter, saving the tiger is the last thing on their minds. Witness the slaughtering of the rare gorilla in Congo for food recently until the rebels were convinced to stop. Local needs versus long term ecological preservation will continue to be issues unless alternate viable solutions can be found.
posted by infini (8 comments total)

One hand gives and the other hand takes away (while the remaining two hands sit by and watch): meanwhile, the Lok Sabha (parliament) is in the process of changing certain tribes' currently informal usage of Indian forest land into some kind of formal ownership, or at least a legal right to live in and use the forests.

The catch is that political compromise seems to have resulted in other forest 'immigrants' being entitled to the same rights, in addition to the traditional tribal occupants.

This will probably have no effect on the dedicated tiger reserves, but augurs poorly for India's remaining natural forest environments outside of those reserves, and outside of existing national parks.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:43 PM on January 26, 2007

Hm...maybe the reserves & national parks are not so safe:

Over 40 million of India's most impoverished and marginalized people live in the country's forests -- including tiger reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks -- but for years have been neglected by the government and left to fend for themselves.

The Maldharis have long lived with eviction threats, alleged harassment and extortion by officials who say they are guilty of environmental destruction and endangering wildlife in the sanctuary -- one of the last bastions of the rare Asiatic lion.

But a new law will for the first time enshrine their right to live in the forests and national parks. Conservationists are worried this could hamper efforts to save India's endangered wildlife such as lions and tigers. link
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:59 PM on January 26, 2007

Excellent post. Thanks.
posted by homunculus at 9:06 PM on January 26, 2007

Thank you for this!
posted by hadjiboy at 9:43 PM on January 26, 2007

This is a wonderful post... Thank you!
posted by amyms at 9:54 PM on January 26, 2007

The same thing happened in the US, most notably in Yosemite, Yellowstone and Glacier. And then there's Pt Reyes National Seashore where the former owners turned tenants are hitting the end of their leases.
posted by fshgrl at 11:55 PM on January 26, 2007

Different place, different predator, same trouble. (self-link alert).

Too tired to post anything else. :(
posted by the cydonian at 3:59 AM on January 27, 2007

There is consensus among scientists that it is impossible to count every tiger. While Nagarahole alone is spread across nearly 644 square kilometres, the total range for tigers in Asia is a staggering 1.5 million square kilometres. The practical option for conservation professionals is therefore to sample tigers in the area of study with a variety of devices such as camera traps, radio telemetry, DNA analysis from scat and, potentially, dogs trained for scent recognition. The data are then used for statistical modelling to estimate the abundance (total number in a population) and density (individuals per given area). For estimates of prey populations, assessment methods rely on establishing transect lines in the forest and counting all animals seen along several kilometres of these.

The Nagarahole Study
posted by hadjiboy at 3:24 AM on January 28, 2007