To go to India in search of tigers sounds like a Kipling-inspired childhood fantasy. But the fantasy is turning into a nightmare. A country where tiger is the spirit of Indian jungle, the symbol of Indian wilderness is disappearing slowly and steadily.

Wildlife experts have long pointed out the miserably declining numbers of tigers in India, the situation has been looming for a long time, and recently when the official figures were released by Government's National Tiger Conservation Authority it was the final nail on the coffin.

Only 1411 tigers remain in India, its shocking if you see that a century ago there were 40,000 tigers and there has been a decline of 60% in the past decade.

The reason for this is well known - poaching of tigers and encroachments by humans in their habitat. Humans are always the destructive force. Out of dismay and in a bid to save the animal, the Finance Minister announced a special grant of $12.5 million (Rs 50 crore) in this year's budget.

The bulk of the grant will be used to raise, arm and deploy a special Tiger Protection Force. Yes, the writing is on the wall. A leading news channel in India has taken the initiative and launched a petition called "Save the Tiger", which we hope is just not creative capitalism. Its pretty simple, they plan on approaching the Prime Minister to declare emergency and make Tiger Conservation the responsibility of the Federal Government.

The Centre has done its bit by allocating funds, its now the turn of State governments to save its tigers. According to the official stats, which is another debatable topic as people have questioned how accurate they are, here are the figures of some of the states.

Overall, there are 178 tigers in Uttarakhand, 109 in UP, 10 in Bihar, 95 in Andhra Pradesh, 26 in Chhatisgarh, 300 in Madhya Pradesh, 103 in Maharashtra, 45 in Orissa, 32 in Rajasthan, 290 in Karnataka, 46 in Kerala and 76 in Tamil Nadu. There are 70 tigers in Assam, 14 in Arunachal Pradesh, six in Mizoram and 10 in northern West Bengal.

While the Centre must have control over tiger protection, it is crucial that the state governments step up and take responsibility for the tigers too. Some of the states instead of working on the solution, as mentioned earlier, are harping about the inaccuracies of the report. Wildlife wardens from states like Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh questioned the efficacy of the camera-trap method used in the latest census. They often give wrong count too.

Let's spread the word that tigers are endangered species in India, sign up for the petition and do our bit. Probably then hope the state governments realise the need of the hour. Its an ironical situation, in South Africa the government has withdrew the ban on killing or poaching elephants. They want to kill elephants because of the rising population, and here, India faces a challenge to save the tiger.

We don't want the living fire of the forest to snuff out forever.

Resources:

Tiger Safari in Tadoba

India survey finds far fewer tigers in the wild

Threat to a national symbol as India's wild tigers vanish

Project Tiger

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Wildlife holidays in India

Poaching of Tigers is rampant in India