How are we driving our Felines to extinction?
Tags: Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, Biodiversity, Tigers, Environment

Put to the guns: the Cheetah, the White Tiger, the Asiatic Lion and the Human Morality.

The Lion’s population has declined by 42% in the past 21 years, disappearing from almost 16 African nations | Image by Arleen Wiese on Unsplash

1947~ The year India won her rightful independence from the mighty British empire, was also the year the last of the majestic Asiatic Cheetah was shot dead by the Maharaja of Koriya, a former princely state in the present state of Chattisgarh, India. In 1952, the felid was declared extinct in India. 6 decades later, the Government of India has finally, formalized the process to reintroduce Cheetah from Namibia, making India the only country to host and boast of a uniquely extravagant diversity in the large cats.

Still and all, the threat from us humans had loomed over these large yet courtly and docile cats for centuries. The cheetahs are extremely difficult to breed in captivity, yet they were extensively broken (trained) to hunt, for sports, especially the second fastest animals in India ~ the Black Buck since the medieval times. Way back in the 16th century, when India used to have larger deciduous forests and wide expanses of grasslands, Mughal emperor Akbar was said to house 9,000 Cheetahs in his royal menagerie. In a turn of events, 3 Centuries later, the colonial Britishers, dealt a final blow to the species by declaring them as vermin and offering rewards for destroying the Cheetah population. Over the centuries, alongside the above (in)human acts, desertification (of fertile grasslands) due to deforestation, inappropriate agriculture, droughts et cetera contributed to the decline of the free-ranging cat.

The fastest land animal, Cheetah can reach a whopping 120 kmph and accelerate to 96 kmph in almost three seconds | Image by Charl Durand on Unsplash

Iran is home to the last of the Asiatic Cheetahs on the planet, numbering around 50. After Iran declined to provide them, post multiple rounds of negotiations since the 1970s, India settled with their larger and darker coated cousins from Namibia- the African Cheetah, to be relocated in Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh as of 2020.

The Cheetah is often confused with a similar rosette and vulnerable big cat widely distributed and native to the Indian subcontinent ~ The Leopard. This elusive, solitary hunter is found in forests across the country. Owing to our push into the forested areas for urbanization and agriculture, and the feline’s adaptability to urban areas, they frequent the news of man-animal conflict, especially in the foothills of the Himalayas, the Western Ghats, and Central India among others. In spite of the efforts of the Forest Department officials and the awareness created by the animal welfare organizations, they often end up dead in such conflicts.

The Leopards are one of the few big cats capable of climbing a tree | Image by Colin Watts on Unsplash

Occasionally, there have been cases of leopards turning man-eater, mostly triggered by our foot- in- the- mouth approach towards wildlife. Apart from the loss of habitat and man-animal conflict, hunting and capturing them for illegal wildlife trade (Poaching) has been another palpable factor for the decline in their numbers. However, a significant population survives, due to the recent efforts of both, the Central and the State Governments as well as concerned NGOs and figures like Billy Arjan Singh in the preceding decades.

The above risk factors have led to the decimation of big cats across the entire length and breadth of Himalayas. While the high- altitude mountains of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand in India boasts of about 500 remaining solitary Snow Leopards, the dense and pristine forests of North East Himalayas is the home of the secretive and stealthy Clouded Leopards. Black Panther is another shy and rare to find variant of Leopard, with black skin due to melanism (pigmentation).

Black Panther spotted in Kabini in Karnataka, India on 5th July, 2020 | Image by Shaazjung

The Department of Environment, constituted by the Indira Gandhi led Government of India in 1980, reconstituted as a Ministry in 1985 and presently existing as the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has taken significant strides to conserve the wildlife and the big cats have been the cornerstone of the wildlife policies ever since.

The big cats have been accorded the highest status of protection in India under the Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and globally under the Appendix I of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna), the latter being legally binding international treaty.

1961 ~ The pilots of INAS 300 Fighter Squadron of the Indian Navy made the deck landing on the aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant. In the east, flying from the aircraft carrier was so rare in those decades that a rare breed of the tiger was adopted to symbolize the combat unit ~ The White Tiger.

White Tiger is extinct in the wild in India. Bajirao, the last captive in Sanjay Gandhi National Park died in 2019 | Photo by Smit Patel on Unsplash

The White Tigers were known to prowl freely in the forests across India less than a few centuries ago, especially in and around Rewa, an erstwhile princely state in the present state of Madhya Pradesh. Gradually, they suffered a loss of habitat and prey- base as well, some taken captive for exhibition, many hunted for trophies and trade, and a lot many shot down. In 1958, the last white tiger in the wild was shot to extinction, leaving behind a critically low population, all of them in captivity today. These remaining rare beauties are the melanistic variants of the largest cats that roam the earth today ~ the Bengal Tiger.

The national animal of India, the Bengal Tiger, commands not just the striking linchpin and pride of Indian wildlife but a holds a cultural significance for India. The feline, one of the animals in the ‘Pashupati Seal’ of Indus Valley Civilisation sculpted about 4 millenniums ago, however, was close to being exterminated when the Project Tiger was launched in 1973. Being less than 2,500 individuals in 2011, the population has risen to more than 3,300 as of 2020, making India the country with the highest population density of Tigers in the world.

Apart from the above risk factors, Climate Change is another engrossing cause for concern about the Tigers. Taking an example of the world’s largest mangrove forests of Sundarbans in India, home to about 400 Bengal Tigers, is just a few feet above the sea level. An 11- inches rise in sea level would destroy close to 96% of the Tiger population, by 2070, according to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

India has a forest dwelling population of more than 100 million. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 has granted rights to habitat as well as collect MFP (Minor Forest Produce) to these indigenous citizens. Loss of forests has pushed them, as well as other habitations and tourism closer to the tigers’ territories, resulting in the increased man- animal conflict.

The largest of the big cats, Bengal Tigers are powerful swimmers capable of attacking and killing even Leopards and Rhinos | Image by Frida Bredesen on Unsplash

In addition to these exquisite big cats, India is exclusive home to another royal feline ~ the Asiatic Lion. Historically it roamed from Bengal in the East to as far as West Asia and the Middle East. However, they were shot, mostly for sports and trophies by Indian rulers as well as the colonial Britishers. Integral to the Sarnath Pillar, commissioned by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 250 BC, which was later adopted as the emblem of India, they were exterminated from ranges in Palamau, Rewa, Guna, Allahabad and so forth from Bihar to Rajasthan by the 19th century. Fortunately, the then Nawab of Junagadh helped protect the last remaining Asiatic Lions in the Gir Forest (which happened to be his private reserve), and is the only home of these royal cats in the world today.

Gir National Park in Gujarat, India is the last remaining natural habitat of the Asiatic Lion | Image by Frida Bredesen on Unsplash

Impacted by the loss of prey- base and diseases like CDV (Canine Distemper Virus), the presence of all the individuals in one single habitat zone is a decisive risk factor in itself. Any epidemic or unfortunate biological/ anthropogenic/ climate factor et cetera can wipe out the entire species from the planet. An unfortunate example like the mysterious death of 350 elephants in Botswana in May and June 2020 should be illustrative enough for the policymakers.

Regardless, the population of around 400 Asiatic Lions in 2010 has grown to about 650 individuals in Gir, as announced by the ecstatic Prime Minister of India in June 2020, vindicating the effectiveness and efficacy of the prevalent wildlife policies, norms, and governance in the command of IFS (Indian Forest Service) officers and other relevant officials and authorities of the state.