Tiger conservation

The three-day 2nd Global Tiger Stocktaking Conference held at a hotel in the city has awfully exposed the country's inadequacy in putting in place measures for tiger conservation. Bangladesh was host to the conference but it failed even to provide an update on the population of the big cat. According to the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI), of the nine targets set for 13 countries to achieve, the country has fared very poorly because it could not complete any of them. The nine targets are considered important for tiger conservation in the context of the threat to the endangered species. In fact, the existence of the Sunderbans is largely correlated with the survival of the magnificent Royal Bengal Tiger. The deer population there are herbivorous but those beautiful animals in turn are the main food for the carnivorous tiger. Naturally, a balance in the food chain there is all the more necessary for the survival of the forest which is isolated from the mainland.
Now, Bangladesh's poor performance in creating condition for tiger conservation has starkly been contrasted by India's initiatives. In fact, the big neighbour has led the 13 countries, followed by Thailand, in conservation initiatives. What is notable here is that India has a share of only 40 per cent of the forest and Bangladesh has under its jurisdiction the rest 60 per cent. Earlier, reports had it that tigers crossed over to the Indian side because of better condition prevailing there. This is unfortunate. Even in carrying out a tiger census, the old method of pug marks was followed in one of the two such initiatives. In the other survey the camera technique was adopted. Unsurprisingly their results vary by a wide margin. A progress report presented by Bangladesh claimed a 95 per cent increase in allocated budgetary fund for the country's forest department. But when a query of the expenditure under different heads was made, inconsistent facts came out. For example, the procurement of two sea trawlers and three launches -- one for overseeing tiger safety aspects and other two for forest department officials -- is yet to be completed. Again, not enough fuel was available for the boats used for monitoring tiger protection work at the field level.
A highly placed conservator of forests however is optimistic that things will improve in the coming days when the implementation of the conservation programmes now underway will yield results. The basis of his optimism is certainly the increased allocation of fund for the forest department. However, the nine-point Dhaka declaration put emphasis on protection and creation of habitats for tigers and involvement of local people in the protection project among other measures. Naturally, increased allocation of fund will be needed but it should be specific to the tiger conservation programme. The vessels and modern equipment requisitioned for achieving the GTI targets are badly in need of carrying out the overall conservation programme. At the same time, dedicated and knowledgeable people should be at the helm of such a sensitive programme. Professionalism surely counts but unless one knows at the heart of one's heart how important it is to save the magnificent animal for the posterity as well as for diversity of Nature, the job cannot be accomplished perfectly.