Friday, February 26, 2010

“Save our Tigers” by Aircel: Is it a little too late?

One fine morning I was greeted by a nice cute ad showing a young tiger cub being the centre of an emotional scene and with Dhoni, Kiran Bedi, Suresh Raina and actor Surya claiming that they fully support Aircel’s newest initiative to Save our Tigers whose numbers they claim stands at only 1411.

Lets go a little back to the era of the Raj when maharajas and nawabs used to go hunting for what not and this addiction was passed onto the invading East India Company’s footsoldiers. These people hunted the kings of the jungles so badly that the majestic Cheetah went completely extinct from India and is now restricted to only the African Savannahs.

I am sure the generation x, y, z, bla bla won’t even know that the Tiger is the national animal of the nation. 15-20 years from now, I imagine people will identify it only from vintage pictures in books or stuffed carcasses in museums.

I still remember Bill Clinton visiting the Ranthambhor National Park in Rajasthan in 2000 while on a visit to the country. The tiger last attracted the people’s attention at that time. Now I remember reading news articles in leading newspapers that tigers have been exterminated from that National Park. Another national park Sariska has been added to that wonder list where tigers have miraculously vanished to the surprise of the local authorities.

More surprising is this became known to them when not even a single pug mark was recorded in Tiger census record. The Kings simply fled the country for their lives, or they might have vanished into thin air or some deep rooted smuggling mafia have put an end to their hapless lives in this country.

Just two weeks back I read in another popular news magazine that the famous Corbett National Park, the success story of Project Tiger is now a favourite haunting spot of urban kings, who organise night shows and all sorts of nuisance parties. Not a surprise as I feel they know that no tigers will come to haunt them as they are already dead by now.

I don’t give Aircel’s initiative much chance of success as it will fizzle away too quickly amid all this confusing chaos our nation is under.It might be a marketing ploy in this age of cut throat competition or their owners might have soft corners for our national beast. However I think it has all come a little too late. It is high time we get conscious of all the dangers the varied flora and fauna of this land are facing and should extend every possible help for their conservation. otherwise, the tiger will join the cheetah in becoming a dodo in this nation and our wise politicians will have one more arduous task in their hands to choose a new national animal.