Help in the Time of Crisis

Migrants from Iraq, Syria and other Middle Eastern nations are fleeing to Europe, a continent whose migrant camps are struggling to keep up with the growing numbers. PHOTO: SBS

Migrants from Iraq, Syria and other Middle Eastern nations are fleeing to Europe, a continent whose migrant camps are struggling to keep up with the growing numbers. PHOTO: SBS

Greece has agreed a deal in principle with its lenders about a third bailout, worth around €85bn and allowing some €10bn to be disbursed to the country’s struggling banks almost immediately. There is a long list of reforms the country has to carry out in return for the cash. While governments do the talking in terms of numbers, there is a group of people doing the talking – in deeds of compassion and kindness towards multitudes of refugees who wash up on the country’s already struggling shores. They come for travel, they stay back for humanity.

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On the Tail of the Tiger

A captive tiger at Bannerghatta National Park, Bengaluru, India. PHOTO: Rosanna Abrachan

A captive tiger at Bannerghatta National Park, Bengaluru, India. PHOTO: Rosanna Abrachan

The world has seen the population of individual wild tigers dwindle from 100,000 in 1913 to just about 3,200 now. Classified into six species, a majority of these surviving cats belong to the specie panthera tigris tigris, more popularly known as the Bengal tiger, that are found in India. Here too, their population, estimated to be between 20,000-40,000 at the turn of the 20th century, reduced to fewer than 2,000 by the 1970s, mostly due to hunting and poaching. It has now inched to 2,226, making India home to 70% of the world’s total tiger population.

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