Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Save Tigers…a Great Initiative

 


I am not one of those great nature and animal lovers whose heart goes out to animals…which is not to say that it does not pain me when I see bears with jugglers and horses and camels being used for “sawari” in melas…. kids and adults as fat as elephants fit to be ridden themselves plonk their behinds on these animals while they shed tears!

It boils my blood when I see all of this…but sadly, I don’t do anything.

I remember having numerous “naughty” conversations with gal pals about what a beautifully powerful animal a tiger is. Conversations range from how majestic looking a tiger is, what sexy eyes it has, and what an amazing gait!

But, honestly since most of us quit going to zoos before we got into our teens, our image of tigers is relegated to what we have either seen on television or in books.

Each time I have spoken to people who went to Jim Corbett or Ranthambhore to spot tigers, they have only described their sightings of beautiful birds….

This in a way is an indication of how prominent is the danger that tigers find themselves in.

Just 1411 tigers left…isn’t that particularly ominous?

This was one initiative that truly captured my attention, more so because I recently witnessed how this majestic animal was literally tamed and domesticated.

I had gone to Thailand where for INR 350, you can feed a cub some milk from a feeding bottle…If that is not piteous, I don’t know what is…

The cub is nearly starved to death, so that the moment a bottle is brought close to its mouth, it suckles at it, without pouncing on a mere human that poses to hold it in his or her lap. It’s a hideous sight. Unfortunately, I was one of the people who willingly posed for this cruel spectacle. The sheer injustice dawned upon me much later.

These safaris to my mind are a mockery of wanting to keep the tigers alive. A tiger or a lion is a majestic animal. Irrespective of the area kept for these animals, you cannot deny the fact that at the end of the day, the tigers are living in captivity, not in their natural abode as they should. Why should that be?

I think we will do nature a great service if we allowed these animals to live in their own habitat. It sounds preachy alright, but all it takes to get you to understand what I am talking about is to go visit a zoo and spot a royal animal like a tiger or a lion in a cage looking helpless.

On an ending note, the least that you can do is when you see a disgusting brat of a kid or his or her more disgusting parent poking the animals at the zoo or pelting stones at them, throw a stone back at them…They deserve it!



1 comment:

The Withering Willow said...

When my bother in law saw this ad..he said 1411!!!! Itne tiger toh bahot hai...kya karna hai tigers ka..zoo mein hi toh dekhne hotey hain. uske liye itne bahot hai!!!

And we were like..kachra kar dia poorey awareness campaign ka!!!