Today is Global Tiger Day. India has a special place on the global map; to celebrate
this day. Do you know that world’s 75% tigers live in India as of now?
Do you know
that tiger became India’s national animal only in year 1972 and before that the
national animal status was with “lion”? To me, lions still deserve it.
Today, three
tweets from the account of @IndianHistoryPics were posted which opened our eyes
to a history which we do not imagine. First one is below:
This would
shock anyone that government of India advertised in Western countries inviting
foreign tourists to come to India to shoot tigers for pleasure! How reckless
anyone could be. Similarly, the British and the Rajas had hunted Cheetahs and
Cheetah had become extinct in India. I had written about it earlier here.
The other
two pictures above show queen and royalties killing tigers:
Recently there was an uproar on social media when some
villagers got together and killed a tigress. A villager had somehow reached
near the tigress and she had attacked him. The man ran and saved his life and
later on all the villagers got into group, searched the tigress and killed her
by hitting her with sticks and sharp weapons. When forest officials reached
her, she was found to be beyond cure and all her bones were broken. She later
died. This event although shocked anywhere and people naturally called for
arrest of the villagers, the villagers approach is easy to understand. it is
believed that once a wild animal tastes human blood, it comes back for more.
Therefore, it was likely that the tigress would have become a "man
eater". Hence out of fear, people decided to take law into their own hands
and kill the threat.
There is no doubt that tigers are magnificent animals and
need to be protected. Hopefully we shall have truly protected jungles in India
where wild animals can live in a natural environment. It is very important to
stop human interactions with them.
On Global Tiger’s Day, let us remember the sins our people
have done in the past against the tigers and let us pledge to help maintain a
balance in nature.
- - Rahul
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