In the name of development we are violating human rights with an abandon only seen in savages of past. While poor people are being driven away from their lands, all sorts of justifications are available.
If Vedanta wants a tribal hill, it is necessary in the name of development to drive tribals out of there.
If Tata wants a factory land, they are given fertile land and farmers driven away from it.
The tiger is on the verge of extinction. And who do we blame? Tribals.
While the tribals right to forest bill has been passed (and diluted), the dissent in tiger conservationists voices is apparent. They have been crying hoarse that the tribals should be driven out of these forests.
And most of us believe and buy that argument.
It’s too easy to believe. Tribals crowd the forests, hence tiger dies. Foolproof.
Or, is it?
Here is an amazing story of how tribals and animals co-exist. And why we must go back to their culture if we want to preserve our country.
http://infochangeindia.org/Environment/The-paradox-of-environmentalism/The-tribal’s-right.html
The tribals aren’t stupid people. Their knowledge and ways of co-existence with the environment is what we need.
People’s rights to their land and environment are not conflicting issues. The conflict is brought about by corporate greed. And the blame falls on indigenous people.
In this confusion caused by short term solutions, we will not only lose the tiger, we will lose our country and all that it ever stood for. To the lowest bidders. The Great Indian Sale is on.
Don’t let them tell you that tribals are the sole reason for tigers going extinct.
http://infochangeindia.org/Agenda/Reporting-conflict/Is-it-really-tiger-vs-tribal.html
And here's how they kill animals for fur in China. If you read the Time magazine story here, you can well imagine this is what the poachers do to the tigers in our own backyards.
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I oscillate between hopelessness and dreaming. In the dream phase now, want to do something about all the nonsense going around to help my restless soul. I don't know if this strategy can be applied - in 2007 USA, when immigration opened the floodgates to already delayed green card applications (ours being one of them) - people were relieved and took unscheduled travels to apply before the time ran out. When all was done, the immigration department pulled themselves out and said, all will be void, and will have to go back to where it was. What did Indians do? They startd sending roses by the dozen to the director of immigration (inspired by the munna bhai movie) to put him to shame. After 10 days, he admitted his mistake and reversed his stupid decision. Wonder if we can apply this to our ministers for this problem - or for a few more?
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeletefurther to your article I would like to add that the biggest threat to tigers is not just from habitat loss. that can be controlled.
It is from illegal poaching not just for fur but for tiger parts in Chinese medicines. these medicines are sold to a posse of countries and hubs like taiwan, hong kong, thailand, malaysia and world over.
China also has tiger farms...where they sell tiger bone wine. they claim it is from the tigers who have dies a natural death...but well.to be honest Chinese actually don't see anyhting wrong in this. However chinese traditional medicine practitioners do provide an alternate to tiger parts (sadly another mole rat like creature).
tiger poaching is a very well organised and highly systematic industry. its very cheap for them to poach tigers from india Nepal or Bangladesh. The russian Amur tigers are facing a similar extinction.Already Sariska national park is wiped out...
so at best India can seriously put measures to stop poaching...but its not possible to man such vast areas even with increased resources and the poachers will always find a way out. besides the tiger lives in a delicate world. living in smaller isolated populations they are more vulnerable to extinction.
Unless there is global pressure on china, the demand for tiger parts will be fulfilled. as its a million dollar industry.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteTried posting a comment earlier, don’t know if it got through…
further to your article I would like to add that the greatest threat to the extinction of the wild tiger is not just habitat loss and conflict with humans.
The biggest threat is from poaching not just for furs but mainly for tiger parts (bones, claws, body parts etc) in Chinese medicines.
Tigers are poached from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, even Russia and Cambodia…they have a delicate habitat and are easy prey to poachers. Sariska is wiped out, the Amur tiger faces extinction and there are many more horror stories. Moreover, they are fragmented into many small isolated populations which make them vulnerable, further endangering their survival.
Chinese medicine is sold t a posse of hubs like Taiwan, Singapore, hong kong, Thailand and world over). In China there is high regard and preference for Chinese traditional medicine. Growing economic affluence has enabled more Chinese to buy traditional medicines containing tiger parts A BBC report states “Chinese medicine practitioners believe some tiger parts can cure a variety of medical conditions: a tiger's penis soaked in alcohol is said to increase virility; its nose suspended over the marriage bed is believed to increase the chance of having a boy and its whiskers are said to cure toothache”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/chinese_new_year/50218.stm
Not just for virility; tiger claws are worn as an amulet for courage and good luck. Eyeballs rolled into pills are believed to cure epilepsy. The tail, when mixed with soup, is thought to cure diseases of the skin. Tiger penis soup is prized as an aphrodisiac. Bones are thought to cure rheumatism and prolong life. Given these claims no wonder the wild tiger is worth hundreds of dollars.
China also has tiger farms. And tiger bone wine is sold outside these parks with premium packaging that looks very premium and worth every dollar. They claim it’s made from soaking bones of tigers that died a natural death…but well.
Indian government or for that matter governments of any of the supply countries like Bangladesh, Nepal etc. can’t really do much.
Unless there is global pressure on China to really take a serious step to stop poaching, the wild tiger will be wiped out…after all its a million dollar industry.
This is quite an eye opener! Went through the links and the video. Really relevant to the post! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI hope that they will do something about that. Tigers are great animals, especially Siberian tigers, which are also the largest species of cats in world.It would be a shamed to disappear.
ReplyDelete