Published: 06-Feb-2015
"I don’t hold any grudge against tigers or the ones fighting for them. In fact, the tiger is a very good friend of mine. We have drinks in my backyard every day." - Author
Stop any person walking down the road in India and ask this question “Do we need to protect the tiger?” In most cases (unless they are poachers), the answer would be in the affirmative. Follow it up with this question – a one-worded question but is the most feared in the world- ‘Why?’ Well, here, the answer would vary.
A nationalist would reply “Because it is our national animal.” Now, the question is, who made the tiger our national animal and why was it made so? Why does the tiger deserve such special honour in a democratic republic? Did the tiger win us independence? Did he do a lot of social work (well, he did his bit for population reduction). Or was he chosen because he belonged to the Gandhi family? There were more deserving candidates like the cow, monkey and elephant, which symbolize us Indians better. People who have knowledge of adjectives say the tiger was chosen because it symbolizes power, elegance, intelligence and alertness (which none of us are by the way). The point is, we have animals who could replace the tiger as our national animal for the same reasons it is – for example, the lion. In fact, we could choose one animal from different classes for each quality, in the process making sure even the minorities are represented (secularism! Congress).
More sane minded people would reply “Because it is on the brink of extinction.” Now, what would happen if the tiger became extinct? Usually, extinction of a species results in an ecological imbalance. This is because the food chain or rather the food web gets affected. The tiger, being an apex predator is on the top of the food chain in its ecological environment. If there were no tigers, the populations of deer, wild boar, sambar and other prey would rise. An increase in herbivores would deplete the existing vegetation. Without any place to stay, homeless insects and smaller animals would shift to farms destroying the crops. And with loss of food crops, humans would be impacted. This does sound like an apocalypse story (Hollywood, here is an idea).
Here is an alternate view. With widespread rapid urbanization, vegetation and forest cover is going to reduce leading to loss of habitat for all these species. Moreover, the rate at which human population is growing will soon lead to shortage of food (as Malthus proposed). So, the outcome is inevitable and is independent of the tiger population. Since the food chain is anyway going to be affected because of exogenous factors, why bother ourselves with saving the tiger.
Our obsession with the striped feline has led us to hound poachers while all this time, the common man of India lying on his bed was the culprit. Pushing this clueless cat who cannot speak a word into the limelight is not going to do us any good. We would still end up sleeping hungry regardless of the number of tigers yawning in the forests. Rather, persuading people to come out of their ‘bedroom’ and watch the ‘Save the tiger’ campaign would help. Not bothering about the tiger could save us a lot of time and resources, both for us and the tiger.
But, there are some problems that can be avoided if tigers are saved from extinction like unemployment. Wildlife photographers can continue to squeeze out more money for their snaps of the elegant animal. National parks will continue to get revenues from inquisitive tourists who have no idea about their impending doom. Environmentalists and Animal rights activists will continue to believe they are doing their bit to save the environment. NDTV will continue to have some news to broadcast as long these campaigns run. Imagine the number of families being supported just because of the tiger!
Assuming that we operate in the framework of rational decision making, i.e., we are homo economicus and having laid down the pros and cons of the tiger sharing space with us on our planet, I again ask the question “Do we need to protect the tiger?”
Disclaimer: This article isn’t intended to offend anyone nor is it to be taken seriously.
