For centuries, the prospect of spotting a Bengal tiger in the wild has been a highlight of visiting India. Now the Government is to end the spectacle amid fears that the species is being “loved to death” by visitors desperate for a glimpse of tigers in the wild.
A count in February 2008 showed that India’s tiger population had plummeted to 1,411 animals, down from 3,642 in 2002. The latest figure is disputed, however. Some experts say that there may be only 800 wild tigers in India today and that the species could be rendered extinct in five years.
According to government officials, the species has already disappeared or is in danger of becoming extinct in 16 reserves. A century ago, when tiger hunting was a favourite pastime of Raj-era dignitaries, there were an estimated 40,000 in India.
 
The decline is largely due to poaching, but habitat damage caused by tourism has also reached critical levels, experts say. “Seeing a wild tiger has become a kind of status symbol,” M. K. Ranjitsinh, chairman of the Wildlife Trust of India, said. “People do not realise the harm to the broader ecosystem. They are loving the tiger to death.”

Tourists, whether in vehicles or on top of elephants, destroy the high grassland in which the big cats hunt, and drive away their prey, Mr Ranjitsinh said. In many parks, lodges have been built in core reserve areas while hotels block the corridors that tigers use to travel from one territory or reserve to another.

But not everybody feels this way.  Lara Benfield of Steppes Discovery, a travel company which specialises in arranging tailor made holidays to exotic destinations, believes there are many reasons why tourism saves tigers.  "For six years, I (and many others) have been saying to NTCA and Forest Department that where tourism exists, tigers are still surviving. Alternative livelihoods and the presence of tourists prevents destructive activities such as marginal farming, poaching, grazing and forestry.  Forest staff are paid better and are accountable for their work.  Tourism channels resources into the regions and enables the millions of people who care about nature to visit them.  In turn this provides millions of additional finance in the Forest department’s coffers to return into conservation efforts." she says.

"Habitats that have no visiting tourist are in a desperately poor state of health; overgrazed and burnt - simply ‘unloved’. You don’t have to be a wildlife research scientist to see this! I am not justifying the damage mass tourism can cause (outside of park boundaries of course) - a lot of it is poor and unsustainable.  For years I have been advocating better rules, regulations and ENFORCEMENT." she adds.

We hope that in the future necessary protection measures are put in place to protect the tigers and maybe then can India reopen the gates to tiger tourism.  Afterall, we all want one thing and that is a glimpse of a free tiger in its natural habitat.