Save Our Tigers

The Save Our Tigers is a collaborative campaign run by Aircel and WWF-India.

I recently came across their poignant advert (which you can view here).

With the Chinese New Year (interestingly, of the Tiger!) barely 3 days away, tigers have been placed on WWF’s list of ten critically important endangered species facing extinction. There are only 3200 tigers left in this world (a reduction of 95%), spread over the subspecies of the Amur, Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan, and Sumatran tigers. Three subspecies (viz. Bali, Caspian, and Javan tigers) are now extinct, and the South China tiger have not been sighted for the past 25 years.

In India, from an estimated 40,000 tigers a century ago, only 1411 tigers remain in the wild (according to a study conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India, in association with NTCA, Government of India, 2008). The Bengal tigers (the national animal of India) have, unfortunately, become an easy victim to the avaricious and callous man. It was cruelly hunted during the colonial times and its parts are now used in certain indigenous/traditional Asian medicine.

Please, let not our descendants read about the tigers like we now read about the dodo.

Please register your support and do the spread the word to your friends and acquaintances as well. You can also join the Facebook page or tweet @saveourtigers

The Ponmudi example

Over the past 45 years, various members of my family have researched into various issues faced by the Ponmudi forests, part of the Western Ghats range of high mountains in India. Ponmudi, at 1100 m elevation, is located 60 kms North-East of Trivandrum city. When my father commenced his fieldtrips in the 1960s, the Ponmudi forests used to start immediately after the Vithura village. Nearly four decades later, Vithura is now a sprawling township and the forests have receded approximately 5 kms, and now commence from Kallar bridge. Ponmudi, from a distance

Although Ponmudi is now incorporated under the Agastyamalai Biosphere Reserve (so named after the 1868m tall Agastyamalai peak), Kallar is changing with new developments sprouting up and more developments slated to be constructed at the summit, an area with montane grasslands and cloud forests (also known as sholas). Plantations sprung up in these mountains nearly 100-150 years ago (mainly tea), which was later followed by the construction of tourist resorts.

This is just one little example of what’s happening in one little part of the Western Ghats. But it cannot be denied that the pattern can be extrapolated to forests elsewhere around the world.

The afore-mentioned developments at Kallar

Forests: the backdrop

I welcome my readers to join me for a quick jaunt to the nearby forests….

… and here we are, standing amongst the soaring verdant trees, with their chestnut coloured barks and branches reaching out towards the blazing Sol. One can make out the distinct canopies and the undergrowth with ferns and mosses. A gentle breeze sends a few reddish leaves fluttering down to the ground, where it joins its companions in enriching the soil. There is peaceful silence, sometimes interrupted by the forests’ orchestra- the rustling of leaves reaching sporadic crescendos when played upon by gusts, the chirping of numerous unseen birds, accompanied by the fluttering of wings, the croaks of a tree frog, the piping of grasshoppers and crickets, the distant milieu of a pure cascade, and the nearby gurgling of a hidden spring watering the rushes. How much long until these trees are made way for humans? Until when will the silence of the forests be interrupted by the whirring of the chain saw and the felling of trees?

Over the next few weeks, I am hoping to post a series of posts on deforestation and biodiversity. As always, I welcome your contributions and comments.

New Poll

The polls, which previously used to be displayed on top of this page, have been relocated to the RHS of the blog, directly below the 'About Me' box. I will be very grateful for your input on my questions. Thank you.

Poll results: What should be our responsibility towards the planet?

60%- We are morally obliged to preserve this planet for our own benefit and survival

20%- We should preserve the planet for the future generations, so that they wouldn't drive themselves to extinction.

20%- We needn't worry because if we run out of natural resources, we are bound to develop new technologies to compensate for these losses.

0%- The planet and its resources are for our sole use- we needn't be concerned about preserving anything
and
Why should I care?

A lesson from the past

A few months ago, a research team led by Dr. David Beresford-Jones (Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge) published some interesting findings in the Latin American Antiquity journal ('The Role of Prosopis in Ecological and Landscape Change in the Samaca Basin, Lower Ica Valley, South Coast Peru from the Early Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period')

Nearly two millennia ago, a civilisation existed in Peru. Their claim to fame was their strange creation of ‘Nazca Lines’ in the desert plains between Nazca and Palpa. Many were the hypotheses behind these bizarre etchings.

In their paper, the research team points out that this civilization was obliterated, around AD 500, as a result of their deforestation activities aimed at clearing away forests for agriculture. Specifically, the annihilation of huarango (Prosopis), an unlikely jack of all trades (providing food, fuel, and timber, apart from nitrogen fixing/recycling and water retention) led to the irreversible calamity. The result: the civilisation could not recover when the climate changed for the worse, helped by an El Niño event. Eventually, it all resulted in persistent drought and famine.

A civilisation, thus, met its demise because of their own unsustainable anthropogenic activities. Perhaps their unwise disregard could be excused: after all, they did not possess the knowledge and tools which the current generation has. It may always be tempting for entities (countries/regions/companies/individuals) to make the fullest and pillaging use of the vast resources offered by planet Earth, without remembering that these resources are mostly nonrenewable. Such lucrative ventures may neglect the importance of maintaining the ecosystem, that fragile web of balance where excessive stresses can change and destablise the dynamics. If the planet continues to be maligned and stabbed…. even the optimist shudder to visualise the future.

Poll results: Do you believe that climate change is detrimental?

- Yes, the evidences are very convincing (60%)
- No, I refuse to believe in such paranoid theories (20%)
- No, climate change has been happening through the centuries (20%)
- I don't care (0%)