World Tiger Day is celebrated today, 29 July. Three of the nine subspecies of this elegant feline have gone extinct in the past 100 years: the Bali tiger, starting in 1937, the Caspian tiger, after 1970, and the Java tiger in the 90s.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
It is celebrated today, July 29, the World Tiger Day. Three of the nine subspecies of this elegant feline are extinct in the last 100 years: the Bali tiger, starting in 1937, the Caspian tiger, after 1970, and the Java tiger in the 90s.
And not only. To make matters worse, the six remaining subspecies are forced year after year to the reduction of their habitat original and are on the verge of extinction with less than 3 thousand specimens.
“Go on like this and all tigers living in the wild today will be extinct in the next 5 years”, they say from the International Tiger Day, the institution formed in 2010 that decreed the celebrations for World Tiger Day every 29 July.
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What could be done, then, to avert yet another extinction in nature. Experts say the only tool available may be there reintroduction in nature of specimens reared in zoological parks. But these are very complex projects, which should also involve local populations and which take decades to realize.
Meanwhile, on the occasion of World Tiger Day, Survival International calls for a conservation model that respects the indigenous peoples and recognize them as the best conservationists and custodians of the natural world, instead of criminalizing them and subjecting them to violence. Last week, a seven-year-old boy was injured in Kaziranga National Park, India, where guards are encouraged to shoot on sight to suspected intruders in the name of protecting rhinos and tigers. But this is just a notorious policy in which too many people have already been killed. And as tourism is encouraged, indigenous villagers face arrest, torture and even death.
"The rights of indigenous people are being undermined by the constant fear of death hanging over their heads," a local activist tells Survival. "Instead of being turned into enemies, they should be the ones to take care of the national park - government policy, on the other hand, impoverishes and alienates them. They have no means of subsistence and live in a perennial state of captivity ”.
READ also: TIGERS INCREASE WHEN LIVE WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (PETITION)
In addition, recently, four forestry officials from Kaziranga were arrested for involvement in the illegal trade of wildlife. A case (but there are many) that demonstrates how to target indigenous peoples diverts attention from fighting the real poachers and harms conservation.
But there are also Good news. In the BRT Tiger Reserve, India, the Soliga indigenous people have had the right to live in their ancestral land recognized. The Soliga have a deep reverence for tigers and, living alongside them, the number of specimens of this animal has increased considerably, exceeding the national average.
READ ALSO: WILD TIGERS ARE INCREASING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 100 YEARS
This is a way to make people understand that forest conservation is not possible without tribal communities and local and vice versa. Forest life and tribe life must go hand in hand peacefully and it has been proven time and again that indigenous peoples know how to take care of their environments better than anyone else.
Germana Carillo
