NEW DELHI — The Indian government wants to recruit retired soldiers to patrol tiger sanctuaries in the hopes of saving the last of the cats after an official report confirmed a drastic drop in wild tiger numbers.
Conservationists on Friday praised the decision, saying that even if it had faults, at least Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government were finally taking the plight of the beleaguered tiger seriously.
The plan was among a series of proposals presented Thursday by the government-run Wildlife Institute of India to the National Wildlife Board, which Singh leads, as part of a two-year survey on India’s tigers.
The report confirmed initial findings that there are no more than 1,500 tigers in India’s reserves and jungles — down from about 3,600 just five years ago and an estimated 100,000 a century ago.
It called for appointing a senior police official to head the recently created Wildlife Crime Bureau, set up to halt the killings and punish poachers. The report also recommended speeding up the relocation of villages from within reserves, filling empty park ranger posts and laying out “eco-tourism” guidelines to benefit local populations.
Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, was skeptical of the plan to recruit retired soldiers to beef up forces that patrol sanctuaries. She said her group had found retired soldiers unwilling to join such a project. “They seem quite happy to enjoy their retirement and pension,” she said.
Conservationists said the major breakthrough was in Singh’s reaction to the report.
“The real progress is that the prime minister sat for two hours and listened to us and realized that this is a real problem,” Wright said.
Valmik Thapar, an independent filmmaker and tiger expert, said the measures could be the “beginning of a new era in wildlife conservation where the government, nongovernmental organizations and individual conservationists work together.”
While these efforts could save tigers in sanctuaries, the study said prospects were bleak for those that roamed unprotected jungles and forests.
“One thing this report has found, very alarmingly, is that there are virtually no wild tiger populations outside the reserves,” Wright said.
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