Not many of us know that India is part of a group of countries known as mega diverse countries. There are 17 countries in this group out of 196 counties in the world. This makes India an extremely lucky country in terms of flora and fauna. What makes our country even more special is that it is home to the royal Bengal tiger.
The Royal Bengal Tiger is a tiger subspecies which is present in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. Luckily, the Bengal tiger is the most populous among other subspecies. There are a little more than 2500 of them in the wild.
Apart from the tiger being the largest cat species, they are also the strongest and history has shown that when lions and tigers fight, even though the lion is called the king of the jungle, the tiger has almost always won the battle. To spot this magnificent beast in the wild is a feeling which cannot be described in words!
But, tigers are now an endangered species. They are used as status symbols, for decorative items, and folk cures. Due to these unwarranted needs, they are being poached illegally.
Why must we care, the question arises.
Since tigers are apex predators, they belong at the top of the food chain. Thus saving the tigers automatically leads to conserving our ecosystem.
Saving tigers also means that we are controlling deforestation since tigers need to protect themselves under a lot of forest cover. If we make sure tigers live, we have to make sure that the tiger’s prey also continues to live. To make sure that these herbivores live, we must make sure that all the trees, grass and other plants that these prey animals need for food are protected. In this way, the whole forest gets saved!
Therefore, saving the tiger means saving its entire forest kingdom with all the other animals in it.
Doesn’t this sound too good to be true? Who knew that saving one animal could save the entire forest?
Also, saving tigers help the local economy grow because tourism grows in the area where tigers are located and thus even the people in the areas around the tigers benefit.
Let us all come together and try and stop poaching of tigers and raise awareness about tiger conservation!
