Five minutes ago I finished watching the film Two Brothers on cable. This movie which came out in 2004 is about two tiger cubs that become separated when they are young and then reunited in adulthood. It is only a fictional account but it totally makes you root for the tigers.

Set not so long ago in a distant land, the film follows the adventures of twin tiger cubs–one shy and gentle, the other bold and fierce–who are born among the temple ruins of an exotic jungle. However, on a fateful day, the brothers are separated by fate. The bold brother is sold off to a circus, where homesickness and living in a cage rob him of his spirit. Meanwhile, the shy cub becomes the beloved companion of the governor’s lonely young son, until an accident forces the family to give him away to a man who resolves to break his gentle nature and turn him into a fighter for sport. When they are fully grown the brothers find themselves reunited–but as forced enemies, pitted against each other. [Link]

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At the end of the movie, just before the credits roll, the filmmakers relate the message that a century ago there were 100,000 of these beautiful cats in the wild and that today there are fewer than 5000 remaining. I turned off the television, turned on my computer, and within two minutes I randomly found this new article in Time Asia that describes how a bad situation is getting worse:

One of the difficulties with killing tigers is that they scream. Snaring them is simple enough, says Nitin Desai, a conservationist at the Wildlife Protection Society of India–you set a few iron traps near a game-park watering hole, then wait for a tiger to take a wrong step. But when the trap’s jagged metal teeth sink into its paw, the tiger howls–an alarm that can rouse a sleepy park ranger. So, a smart poacher will plunge a spear down the trapped animal’s throat and tear out its vocal chords; then, at his leisure, he can poison or electrocute the cat–or, if the buyer doesn’t mind a bullet hole in the pelt, simply shoot it. [Link]

I felt that coming across this article just minutes after seeing the movie was a sign, and so I thought that blogging it was the next logical step 🙂

Imagine if the U.S. let the bald eagle go extinct, or China the Panda Bear. There is no animal that better captures the romance of India than the tiger. And yet, as the article points out, the Indian government isn’t putting enough resources behind the problem and is acting too slowly to make any difference. Perhaps no amount of money can solve the problem. Evolution is vicious that way and we are in the midst of one of the largest mass extinctions in geologic history, caused by the most ruthless predator that Earth has ever known.

Picture of a white tiger that I took in the wild last month. “The Wild” being the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Safari Park.

Though India remains the world’s last significant sanctuary for wild tigers, the numbers there are dwindling fast. The country’s wild tiger population has dropped from about 100,000 in the 19th century to as few as 1,200 to 1,800 today. In another five years this feline population could plunge to a level–around 500 cats–where in many parts of India it would no longer be able to sustain itself. At that point, they would survive almost exclusively in zoolike safari parks. “India is letting the tiger slip through its fingers,” says Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. “It’s going to be one of the biggest conservation debacles the world has ever known…” [Link]

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Maybe Razib knows more about this but I am pretty sure that once a population gets too small there isn’t enough genetic material in the pool to prevent errors in the genes from piling up and limiting the evolutionary potential and growth of a species.

The rest of the article is just depressing. I wish sometimes that India could marshall its resources as fast as the Chinese seem to be able to. I know that in the long run a democracy will outperform an autocratic form of government every time, but these Tigers don’t have that long.

I wonder if there is anything we can do as mere bloggers. Maybe we should have a day of the tiger where every desi blogger does something to get the Indian government’s and media’s attention. When some blogs got censored recently the desi blogosphere was able to harass the government enough to get a fix. Surely this is as important?

I’m just in a pissed off and defiant mood right now. You know what would be even better? If a small cabal of India’s top tycoons decided that they would take it upon themselves to save the tiger for the sake of India’s pride where the government has failed. Let’s see the private sector show what it can really do for India now that it has shown what it can do for India’s people. Also see what Botswana has done as a good example of success.

See related posts: Mystery shrouds dwindling tiger population, Saving Simba – the FME Approach, Salty Tigers Are No Match For A Woman, They’re Lucky Champawat isn’t Alive