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Tigers need lots of space to roam around. They need to meet other tigers from other forests. But we leave only very tiny jungles for tigers to live in. Tigers, deer and all the other wild animals cannot live in a small, dirty home. Would you like it if someone came with big machines and destroyed your house?
The tiger's home is being threatened throughout the country. Vast forests have been felled for timber or agriculture. Only small fragmented patches remain. As forest space is reduced, the number of animals in the forest dwindle, and tiger can no longer find enough prey to survive. This is when tigers are forced to enter village fields and eat livestock. This is risky as villagers often kill the tiger to protect themselves and their livestock Population Fragmentation is another problem that arises because of habitat destruction. Groups of tigers get separated from each other by human habitation. So tigers in one area can no longer mate with tigers in nearby areas. They are forced to breed with a small group of animals and over time, this inbreeding weakens the gene pool, with tigers being born with birth defects and mutations, which would eventually lead the tiger to extinction.
Poaching
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People living in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and other far-eastern countries have started paying people to kill tigers in India so that they can use their bones for medicines which they believe can cure them of all kinds of diseases. More than 200 tigers have been killed recently and this is a cause for great sorrow.
On top of this, many Chief Ministers have started removing protection given to tigers saying that their jungles are being wasted. These people want that the jungles should be torn up and used for cement factories, aluminium mining and other such industrial processes. Then, when the jungles have been ruined, they will say "These are wastelands, so let us dump all our poisons and garbage here." This is all very sad. And the worst part is that if we allow them to do all this then it is you youngsters who will have to pay the highest price. If forests die, the tigers will certainly die. But so will our water supply. This will lead to floods during rains and droughts later. All because some people believe that making money today is more important than saving nature for tomorrow.
Some good forest guards and people who love tigers try to stop the poachers, but it is often very difficult. There are less than 2,000 tigers left in India today and some conservationists believe that poachers are killing one tiger every day!
Tigers In Captivity
Even the best zoo cannot even come close to the tiger's natural home, the rich, wild forest. If we continue to destroy the tiger's home and only keep specimens in the zoo behind bars and expect the species would survive, we would be the losers. Protecting the tiger's natural habitat is what saves the tiger, not locking it up in unnatural zoos. A tiger does not have any freedom in a zoo; often its cages are dull, cramped, unclean and it may not even have enough food to eat. Some zoos may create large forest-like areas with water pools for tigers, but its never the real thing! The tiger is put on display as if it were an object to look at and laugh or tease. We must tell our zookeepers that we children do not like looking at animals ill and suffering in zoos. Often, animals die because they are treated badly or not given adequate veterinary care. 13 tigers dying in the one of the best-managed zoos in the country, the Nandankanan zoo in Orissa came as a shock to Indian authorities who started questioning whether it was really necessary to have zoos at all.
It's much the same thing with circuses. People used to go to circuses and even take children there because they thought the big cat 'shows' were fun. But their trainers often starve them and use whips to get them to learn a 'trick'. Tigers can be suffocated when they are transported in small crates and cages as the circus travels. Besides whips, tight muzzles, iron rods and electric prods may be used. Luckily, now people have realised that it is cruel to use animals in the circus for our amusement and cruelty can never be amusing. We must promise to never, never go to a circus or a zoo for an outing or a picnic. Let's go on a nature trail instead and watch animals 'live'! There's so much that nature has to offer, that we will never ever be bored!
