Sonakali is an example of new initiatives developed by a dedicated few who are struggling to save India's dwindling population of wild tigers. While their efforts can, like Sonakali, serve a very practical purpose, greedy poachers, unchecked industry and human population growth have made this sad battle to the death very difficult to win. Tiger Country India is the tigers' last bastion, home to 3,000 of the world's 5,000 to 7,500 remaining wild tigers. Those very few remain from about 100,000 tigers alive at the turn of the century, according to the World Wildlife Fund. But the existence of the last few thousand is in extreme peril.
Tiger hunting has a long history in wildlife-rich India.
Trophy hunting, a favorite pastime of the British overlords during the Raj, took its toll. Some of the last Asian cheetahs in India were taken this way in 1948. Conservation programs, implemented after Indian independence in 1947, helped to protect the tiger. Now, some activists believe one tiger a day is lost in India. Here poacher kingpins, in collusion with corrupt officials and aided by legal loopholes, thwart conservation efforts.