Expanded Indian Tiger Reserve Prompts Large Protests

Approximately 15,000 people in India protested on Tuesday against the expansion of protected areas, inhabited by the endangered Indian tigers. Despite governmental insurances that existing homes will not be destroyed or moved, people still went out and protested, even if this type of tigers can only be found there, and their numbers are significantly dwindling from year to year.

A century ago, there were some 40,000 tigers lurking the plains of southern India, but that number became history shortly. In 2002, official estimates placed the total number of Bengal tigers at 3,642, which has decreased to 1,411 this year, mostly due to the loss of their habitat to human activities and poaching. In a sense, the people who are now protesting against the animals' very survival are the same who made sure they would not live, killing them for money.

Mudumalai was declared a tiger reserve just this year, and the locals didn't think too kindly of it then. Now, as part of India's Project Tiger, a conservationist program designed to increase the number of large felines in the country, the reserve was increased, and new territories added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in 2006 that about 300,000 villages would have to be relocated from the protected areas, so as to discourage poaching and killing of the tigers. Illegal hunters, both Indian and foreign, take advantage of the fact that thousands of peasants are extremely poor, and keep them on their side, bribing them to remain silent about the slaughter of the big cats. This is one of the main reasons why the government wanted to relocate the villages in the first place.

"We have no intention to dislodge anyone from the buffer zone. In fact, people in this zone will be involved in the project as trackers and guides for eco-tourists to enhance their means of livelihood," says Rajeev Srivastava, Project Tiger field director for the region.