ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[GuateGojira]

(04-15-2019, 07:41 PM)peter Wrote: He said he would do another post on Sankhala in some time, but it seems this could take a while. For this reason, we decided to get to a conclusion without him.

@peter, as you know, my time is very short now. In fact, I can visit the forum just in Monday, and to create a post to show my point of view will take time.

I still support my point of view, Sankhala do helped to save tigers in India (we can't ignore this big fact), but he was not the only one, we need to be fair. Many other people also helped. Also, I continue saying that the point of view of Sankhala, altough helpfull at the begining of the Project Tiger, it was a dissater at long term, and at the end caused its failure. Yes, failure, because tiger droped from an "artificial" figures of 3,500 specimens to about 1,400! How was that posible? This was less than the number of tigers before the Project Tiger started!

I need to insist on this, because the more I read about this topic, the more that I found that there was a cover up made by the government to show that tigers were "save" in India just for political issues and reputation. Yes, tigers still have the highest numbers in India, but at least 50% of this success is not related with the officers and conservation but because tiger have a high resilency, they can recover its population fast and India have the best tiger habitats. However, I have testimonies of great tigers conservationists and biologists (actually published) that at 2019 they still fight against the indiference of the authorities in the country.

I don't know how to say it in simple words, but the tiger conservation in India is a very deep and problematic topic, for somre reason. Yes, we will found many webpages puting Sankhala as the only savior or that Indian tigers are doing so well that there is no need to worry about them in India, but the point is that at the end, his point of view, his methods and the constant ignoring ot the "western people" and they "methods", almost drive to the Indian tiger to its extinction. Is interesting that in the first 15 years of Project Tiger existence (not taking in count the NTCA) there was no document or study published by the officers about tiger biology or ecology.

I see that you don't want me anymore in this topic because I am out of the "politically correctness", but I think that this place is also made to chalenge our preconceptions. If not, sooner or late, other poster will challenge them too. I am prety sure that other posters are now investigating what I am saying, I don't think that my words will fall in deft ears. And somehow, my objective is to show that the "conservation heaven" that must people believe that is happening in India is not true. Tigers need our help more than ever, we can't just believe blindly in the figure of about 2300 tigers in India, we must be critic on this like Dr Karanth suggested, if not we can have a very harsh and bitter surprise in a couple of years. As far as the Indian authorities continue with the old point of view of Sankhala and ignoring all the scientific methods that has been develped in these last years, tigers will still be in danger.

Also, I am very interesting to know why you are defending him so much. I mean, why you also don't not put in Dr Karanth/Chundawat/Seindenstiker feet too, I mean, Sankhala and other officers made whatever was in they reach to destroy the reputation of these great "tiger-men", but thankfully they failed (I guess...). These man of Science are very polite and will never discredit Sankhala (specially for his reputation), but they do show how the same policies from Project Tiger in the 70´s and 80´s are still been used in 2019.

Again, I want to make the post, but not only about Sankhala, but about tiger conservation in India in general, I manage to have at least 6 sources about this. I really want to make it and if at the end that post cost me a ban from the forum I will accept it, but you must think this: Who is going to give his life and reputation for a lie? If some one is really convinced of a point, may be posible that the point is actually valid? Think about it first and believe me, there is more than meets the eye in this point.

For those that want to start reading what I am going to use, here are my sources:
1- Tiger the ultimate guide - Thappar, 2004 (my tiger "Bible").
2- Más espacio para los tigers (More space for the tigers) - Ward, December 1997 (NatGeo magazine article, I have the version in Spanish but I don't know the name of the article in English).
3- The Rise and Fall of the Emeral Tigers - Chundawat, 2018 (the book that opened my eyes on this cover up).
4 - The Nagarahole tiger controversy - Sukumar, 1990 (the tip of the iceberg).
5 - Indian Science for Indian tigers?: Conservation Biology and the Question of Cultural Values - Lewis, 2005 (the contract what they "say" and what they "do").
6 - Wired Wilderness - Chapter 3: Diplomatic and Political Subtleties - Benson, 2010 (when a man reject help).


Also I have found a book of Belinda Wright (I am still reading it) about her strougle to save tigers, and I think that I will some parts of it in my post.

@peter, please don't missunderstand me, I am not trying to create problems, but like an old Vulcan proverb says: "Challenge your preconceptions, or they will challenge you". Reply