On Monday August 20, a new area of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus, Thammasat University, will be officially dedicated. The India Corner contains gifts made by the Embassy of India in the Kingdom of Thailand, located in Thawi Watthana, Bangkok. Among the books which will be newly available for loan include one of particular interest to students of nature and wildlife. Tiger Fire: 500 Years of the Tiger in India is by Valmik Thapar. Dr. Thapar is an Indian naturalist, conservationist and writer. We is well known for his many books and international television programs about wildlife conservation. Born in Bombay, Dr. Thapar has spent many years studying the tiger population of India. He was inspired by Fateh Singh Rathore (1938–2011) an Indian tiger conservationist who was popularly known as the tiger guru. Another Indian protector of tigers was Kunwar “Billy” Arjan Singh (1917–2010) a hunter who became a conservationist. Mr. Singh made the first attempts to reintroduce tigers and leopards from captivity into the wild. Dr. Thapar has long battled against poachers and traders who deal in India’s tiger skins, which are purchased by Tibetans, who wear them at festivals. In addition, traditional Chinese medicine uses tiger bone as a painkiller, while other parts of the animal are used to fight a range of illnesses. Dr. Thapar told an interviewer in 2015:
I serve the cause of the tiger and no one else. I’ve devoted 21 years, one way or another to government committees (my worst experience) and probably the best time of my life in the company of wild tigers and with people like my tiger guru, Fateh Singh Rathore, the then-Park Director of Ranthambore… I began taking so many trips to the park that my parents often wondered about what drew me there. One night, sitting besides a campfire in Ranthambore, I heard the warning calls of deer signalling the predator nearby and I caught a fleeting glimpse of the tiger rustling through the grass. I felt connected as if this was the unknown that I was seeking all my life… Though I carry a camera, often when I sight a tiger I forget to take pictures.
On the website of Sanctuary Asia, he previously noted in 2011:
My tiger life has been full of wild tigers, and I am truly privileged to have watched them so closely in Ranthambhore, especially with someone like Fateh Singh. This part of my journey is satiated. Since 1991, I have worked hard for every government of the day, and seen the tragedy of decision-making where so much that is agreed upon never sees the light of day even when the PM orders it. Or when it does, it is a case of too little, too late, which makes it vital to bring about reforms in the entire process. I believe that this is where my journey has failed. Anything that I took up which had to do with the government just failed… And there are no excuses for neglect, incompetence, and mismanagement… The tiger and the tribal will suffer the most in this weird system we live in. New amendments in all the laws will further weaken governance and we are set to create even more chaos than before… I fear deeply for the future of wild tigers. I think we will end up in a few years with around 500 tigers…
For now, estimates report that around 2200 wild Bengal tigers are living in India. They are the national animals of India and Bangladesh. Images of the Bengal tiger are found far from India, including in American sports teams. The Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball team includes a Bengal tiger in its logo. Among many other examples, the University of Missouri has a Bengal tiger mascot. Students at the University of Missouri are known as tigers, their athletic team is called the Missouri Tigers, and their webspace and email are called Bengal-space and Bengal-mail. Louisiana State University’s sports teams are called the Tigers as well as the Bayou Bengals. The National Football League team of Cincinnati, Ohio is the Cincinnati Bengals. Life of Pi, a film from 2012 which is in the collection of the TU Library, features a Bengal tiger as the lead character. DVDs of the film may be viewed at the Rwat Buddhinan Media Center, Pridi Banomyong Library, U2 level, Tha Prachan campus, and the Puey Ungphakorn Library, Rangsit Campus.
Thailand and Tigers
While wildlife conservation in Thailand is also a serious issue, last year the good news arrived that some nearly extinct Indochinese tigers were found breeding in a jungle in eastern Thailand. An endangered species, only around 220 of these tigers were thought to survive in the Kingdom and Mynmar. The Department of National Parks of Thailand, the anti-trafficking group Freeland and Panthera, a wildcat conservation organization, are working to protect what remains of this population. Indochinese tigers are smaller than Bengal tigers, but poachers and the destruction of their natural habitat has made them basically extinct in southern China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and most of Myanmar. Poachers sell their bones for use in traditional Asian health remedies. The American zoologist Alan Rabinowitz, cofounder of Panthera, told the Guardian that Thailand has
one of the best-protected and best tiger areas left in the world. Thailand has shown that you can protect tigers and bring them back. They can do this now in the eastern forest complex as they have done in the western forest complex.
Songtam Suksawang, the director of the National Parks Division of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation (DNP), said in a statement:
The stepping up of anti-poaching patrols and law enforcement efforts in this area have played a pivotal role in conserving the tiger population by ensuring a safe environment for them to breed. However, we must remain vigilant and continue these efforts, because well-armed poachers still pose a major threat.
Last month, The Nation reported that the tigers spotted at the Thap Lan and Pang Sida national parks, part of the Dong Phaya Yen-Khao Yai Forest Complex, the Kingdom’s second natural World Heritage Site on the East, were still threatened by loggers. At Thailand’s first natural World Heritage Site, Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries on the West, tiger populations were closely monitored by the wildlife research station, Khao Nang Rum. As part of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme, Thailand has developed a Tiger Action Plan 2010-22 to double current populations. The DNP and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have participated in essential research. As the action plan observes:
In 2004, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation issued Thailand’s first official tiger action plan. In the years since then, Thailand has increased tiger conservation efforts and has undertaken more rigorous enforcement, monitoring, and research efforts—especially at the tiger source site in Western Thailand. These efforts include the Smart Patrol System for rigorous patrol and law enforcement monitoring, advanced tiger and prey population monitoring systems as important management response indicators, and increased ecological research to better understand tiger ecology and biology under a Southeast Asian environment. As a result, Thailand is now regarded as a leader in tiger conservation under best practice, science, and policy with much to contribute to the global tiger conservation effort.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)