WORLD TIGER DAY 2009 PART I

The Royal Bengal (RBT) tiger and tigress are majestic, magnificent, intelligent, and beautiful flagship species of the forests of India.

Their existence and continued survival is essential for the entire ecosystem in India. Today, three subspecies of tigers are 'highly endangered' because of relentless poaching and loss of habitat throughout their range.

They are, namely - Royal Bengal tigers in India, Nepal and Bangladesh; Amur or Siberian tigers that live in the forests of the Russian Far East in Siberia; and Sumatran tigers that live in the Indonesian rainforest.

In 2009 'World Tiger Day' was commemorated on the 27th of September. Sadly, no English language newspaper in Mumbai covered the event at all.

IMHO 'World Tiger Day 2009' mourned the passing of several majestic Royal Bengal tigers and tigresses who were brutally slaughtered by vile poacher gangs in various tiger reserves in India, to satiate the horrendous demand for tiger skins and tiger bones in several countries in the Far East where nouveau riche individuals and tycoons have a terrible greed for tiger parts.

Most importantly, on 'World Tiger Day 2009' all tiger lovers were worried about the future of these big cats and still feel there is a future for them if we can WAKE UP humanity from it's slumber as far as tigers are concerned.

In this article, I will be focusing exclusively on the majestic RBT, especially on various ways in which this big cat is massacred to the nth degree from Orissa to Kerala, by poachers.

I will also be focusing on ways in which this beautiful big cat can still be saved through timely action and the protection that tiger cubs urgently need, in various reserved forests in India as well as at tiger reserves where the tiger is still the 'Royal Predator' and 'Lord of all that it surveys'.