As a part of celebrating World Wildlife Week I was sharing information about the importance of saving our Natural Heritage, trying to create awareness among the growing population of nature lovers and wildlife photographers.

In the previous posts I discussed the relationships between healthy ecosystems, the well-being of wildlife and humans.

Here I’ll address another essential element for a healthy tiger population – territories!

Next to food, the most important requirement for a tiger is territory. A male tiger with a territory encompassing those of several females has more mating opportunities. A female in control of a ‘home range’ with abundant prey has the best chance of raising more cubs.

With so much at stake, tigers are fiercely possessive of their turf, and scent-mark and defend their territories from rivals.

There is increased pressure on the Tiger territories from the development front. Environmental and forest clearances have been delinked to allow work on linear projects, such as highways, on non-forest land without waiting for approvals for the stretches that require forest land.

India has ONLY 4.9% of total geographic area established as protected area (PAs). If we are not able to increase this, we need to see how we can at least protect that. But look at this news published in hindustantimes:

In a boost to the real estate sector, the environment ministry may soon allow state governments to take a call on setting up new townships, information technology and developmental parks near tiger reserves, national parks, eco-sensitive zones and critically polluted areas.

The ministry has already issued draft rules proposing delegation of its power to decide on construction projects within 10 kms of wildlife areas and critically polluted areas to the state governments.

Till now, the Centre used to examine such projects to consider their impact on wildlife before giving a go-ahead. But now, the ministry has proposed the “general condition” for construction projects including information technology parks, hotels and offices will “not” apply.

The proposal, once notified, would mean that in the future, real estate projects such as the one coming up near the Okhla Bird Sanctuary in Delhi would require only the state government’s approval.

Coming back to the key point – If we want to save the tigers and increase their population, then we need to have enough forest patch with prey base for them to survive. Otherwise there will be lot of territorial fights resulting in death or forcing the tigers to move out of PAs and probably get poached.

Our survival is dependent on the natural environment as it provides us with clean air, food and water. Tigers are at the apex of the food pyramid and are indicators of a healthy environment. The ‘Web of Life’: all things in nature, including humans, are interrelated – changing any component of the web will impact others. In saving the tiger we are protecting the entire ecosystem and all its inhabitants.

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