Supreme Court Castigates Government for Poor Tiger Conservation Efforts

August 22, 2012, 10:14 am

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday extended the temporary ban on tourism in the core areas of the country's tiger parks by another week, as it criticized the government for its inaction in protecting the endangered animal.

The court's initial ban, which went into effect on July 24, aims to protect the endangered big cat, whose numbers are dwindling. The ruling followed a petition filed by a tiger conservation activist, Ajay Dubey, last year that demanded that tiger habitats be kept “inviolate of human activities.”

The temporary ban on tourism will last until Aug. 29, when the Supreme Court will issue its final decision.

On Tuesday, the central governm ent had filed an affidavit asking permission to review its guidelines on tiger conservation and requesting that the court review the tourism ban. But the two-judge bench that presided over the hearing on Wednesday scolded the government for its lack of effective measures to protect the tiger population.

“What are you going to do to save tigers?” the judges asked the attorney representing the government, according to the Press Trust of India. “What have you done for the tiger project? The Union of India has not done anything except filing affidavits.”

“Earlier it was 13,000; now it has come down to 1,200,” they said, referring to the tiger population. “You are more worried about the commercial activities.”

In an earlier post on India Ink, Heather Timmons of The New York Times wrote that the “number of visitors to India's more than three dozen tiger parks has skyrocketed in recent years as domestic tourism increased, bringing facilities like luxury lodges with swimming pools to the edges of parks, and tourist-friendly fare like jeep safaris and New Year's Eve parties.”

The court's interim decision could “cost India's tourist trade millions of dollars in income,” Ms. Timmons wrote. She noted that tour operator groups were against the ban, arguing that well-organized tourism could be good for tiger populations.

Some wildlife experts in India have in the past opposed proposals for such bans, saying that wildlife tourism helps in protecting tigers from poachers, Ms. Timmons wrote.

Wildlife organizations estimate the global tiger population to be about 3,000, down from as many as 7,000 from 10 years ago. India is home to nearly half of the world's tigers.

A 2010 tiger census, conducted by the World Wildlife Fund in India and other agencies, reported an increase in the country's overall tiger population since 2007. But the organization also found an “an alarming decline in tiger occupa ncy from 36,139 to 28,108 square miles outside of protected areas” and an “increase in human-tiger conflict around tiger reserves.”