Black Tigers in India

[snIPer]

Ah Jonah finally some visible evidence - thanks for the snaps.

[shahid]

The Tiger will survive in India but it has to pay for its survival. It is a hard fact of the world we live in today.

Lease out Rathambore to a private company. Fence out the beats. A Tiger beat is usually a triangular area of 15 KM each side which it covers once in 15 days.

The concession holder guarentees that if there are 10 Tigers in Rathambore he will provide all incentives for their population growth at 20 % per annum.

If any growth over the 20 % figure, i.e the 13th animal is free for him to offer to a client who will pay a figure close to Us $ 25,000 as trophy fee.

One of the older male tiger of Rathambore who has had its useful life has made his contribution to the gene pool, has spawned about 12 to 15 litters in its lifetime producing about 30 to 40 cubs will give its life to ensure long time survival of its species.

Here individual life is not important but the continued survival of the species is.

Will our politicians with no exposure to outdoor sporting life undertand this point of view. No sir they wont.

Will a certain Mrs. Meneka Gandhi not find an opportunity to start street protests and media hobnobbing the moment such a mention is made ?

Imagine the fodder it will give to their firery statements.

Killing. Hunting eh. Nawabi was abolished in 1959 itself. Indulgance of capitalists etc etc., Bloodspports in a vegetarian land. WHy do Tigers need to die ? We can save them much better. Lets keep a Tiger each in our backyards and feed them vegetable scrap.

She and other politicians will realise their mistake and be willing to accept such solutions, but after the last tiger dissappears from Indian Jungles.

The saddest part is that the Tiger conservation project is directly under the PM. But even a learned man like our PM will hesitate to pursue this formula. Each one is living under the shadow of his own fears. Unpractical approaches will be debated over and over till the last Tiger poacher of India sells his kill in 2012.

[Mack The Knife]

a client who will pay a figure close to Us $ 25,000 as trophy fee.

You can count on 10 to 20 times that amount. Easily!

Mack The Knife

[Grumpy]

Yes, there are plenty of rich bas*ards out there that will pay half a million easily. Who was the Arab guy offering to pay $1m to shoot a Tiger in the wild a couple of years or so ago ?

[shahid]

Well its only an estimate. A top class good Ivory bearing elephat in SOuth Africa from a good rofessional hunter commands a trophy fee of anything from $ 16,000 to 20,000.

SO I estimated a figure of 25,000. Of course the Govt. of India could fix a higher trophy fee, maybe there would be takers for $ 60,000 to 75,000 or perhaps more.

Indians go to SOuth Africa and pay these kind of trophy fees.

Leopard is $ 4,000
Lion $ 7,000
Buffalo - mostly $ 3,000
Nyla - $ 4,000
Springbok - only $ 150
Bushbok - $ 200
THomsuns Gazelle - $ 400

Plus there is a charge of $ 350 per day in the forest camp for accomodation, food and PH guide.

For shooting a Leopard at least 15 days is required for tracking and gaining a chance, so a hunter pays another $ 5,000 to 6,000 for board & lodge.

[sat]

We spent 5 days in Ranthambore in june 07, met a person who was responsible for apprehending most of the poachers operating around the Ranthambore National Park. The facts are shocking. Inspite of the poachers confessing to the crime, the judge (not corrupt) mentioned that lions had been killed in ranthanbore sanctuary ( not ranthambore national park)

Panna National park was down to 3 tigers before the onset of the monsoons this year, I just hope a breeding pair will survive this year.

Last month a family, now arrested, who lives close to Bandhavgarh was caught with 3 tiger skins thanks to the effort of the director of the panna national park. These 3 tigers had been poached from the Tadoba Tiger reserve in Maharasthra.


shahid,

In the faint possibility a tiger shoot/permit was to be auctioned, I would agree with Grumpy's figures of half to a million dollars....

One could perhaps start with green hunting in India. One shoots with a tranquilizer gun, client then poses with his trophy, measurements are taken which are recognised by SCI. Radio collar can then be fitted for research. I gather this is being done successfully in Africa with rhinos & elephants.


Sat

[Grumpy]

"In the faint possibility a tiger shoot/permit was to be auctioned, I would agree with Grumpy's figures of half to a million dollars...."

Actually Mack The Knifes figures originally - see above.

I`m still trying to figure out what a group of white Tiger cubs - which is albinism - have to do with melanism ????

[shahid]

Nobody will pay half a million dollars for a Tiger Trophy fee.

Exotic hunting concessions in many other parts of the world will organize Tiger shoots for 10 % of that figure.

Coming back to the original issue the reality is that no Indian authority dares to reintroduce controlled hunting in India.

With this stubborness, the end result will be a total loss of all forest cover and complete wildlife within the next 5 to 7 years.

[Grumpy]

"Nobody will pay half a million dollars for a Tiger Trophy fee. "

Oh yes they will. There are plenty of people with more money than sense ....... and much more money than morals !

[shahid]

Tigers are on offer at a private exotic shoot outfit in Austin, Texas for as little as $ 12,000. There are hidden expenses there of course.

[Vikram]

Shahid wrote

"Nobody will pay half a million dollars for a Tiger Trophy fee."

Why do you make these blanket assertions when not fully aware of what happens around the world? There are people willing to fork obscene monies for exclusive thrills.You shoot a tiger on a ranch and you call it a tiger shoot in the wild? People were offering a lot of money just to dart shoot a Snow Leopard in the Himalayas.

Best-
Vikram

[Mack The Knife]

Shahid,

There is a difference in shooting Stripes on a ranch in Texas and one in India because of the romanticism and history of tiger shooting associated with the latter.

Mack The Knife

[shahid]

Very well then I agree, there may be people willing to pay half a million dollars. Which makes my case even stronger. The government will collect awesome sums of money for preservation of forests and conservation of wildlife in India.

But at the same time once again, rest assured nobody in India has the guts to implement this or to come up with a better or more practical solution.

The whole word SHIKAR or hunting which is in effect nothing but outdoor field sports is a bad word in India.

Enormous fears of opression, luxury, gay abandon, royality, massacare of poor animals, slaughter of a species and god alone knows what all have become associated with this feared word that nobody dares to open his mouth in India.

India's city dwellers who are most of the educated lot have no idea of the outdoors, jungle craft, nature or alternate sports apart from what the idiot box feeds them with, and what do Indians see on the TV ? Meneka Gandhi turning vegetarian and hugging stray rabid dogs.

What they do not see is forests being destroyed, illegal timber being felled by hooligans patronised by politicians for whom they never bothered to vote but their village bretheren did, and now crops being raised on this land.

Also what is not shown is hares and rodents distroying food grain and feral pigeons pecking at it.

It is not known that Cheetal, Black buck and BLue bull are prolific breeders and each Blue bull destroys crops worth Rs. 60,000 every year.

There is simply no hope. The Tiger will be wiped out for sure followed by all other wild animals.

[Abhilash Nagalingaiah]

it would be a fantastic thing if IFG would try to promote wild life conservations for all the fellow enthusiasts ... so that these things would not be remained as a topic of discussion or debate ...

[jonahpach]

it would be a fantastic thing if IFG would try to promote wild life conservations for all the fellow enthusiasts ... so that these things would not be remained as a topic of discussion or debate ...

forgive my limited grasp of the english language but I fail to understand what this means..