WHY SHOULD WE SAVE TIGER?

Saving the tiger means saving mankind..

Not only is tiger a beautiful animal but it is also the indicator of the forest's health.
Saving the tiger means we save the forest since tiger cannot live in places where
trees have vanished and in turn secure food and water for all.

If we make sure tigers live, we have to make sure that deer, antelope and all other
animals that the tiger eats (its prey base) 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!
Saving the tiger means saving its entire forest kingdom with all the other animals
in it.

Also forests catch and help store rainwater and protect soils. In this way we protect
our rivers and recharge groundwater sources. Areas with less trees lead to floods,
killing people and destroying homes. It takes away the precious soil, leaving
behind a wasteland. The soil jams up our lakes and dams, reducing their ability to
store water. By destroying the tiger's home, we not only harm tigers, but also
ourselves.

The tiger thus becomes the symbol for the protection of all species on our earth
since it is at the top of the foodchain. This is why we sometimes call the tiger, an
apex predator, an indicator of our ecosystem's health

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HOW CAN YOU HELP THE TIGER?

Kids like you CAN help tigers! We have a list of suggestions to help you get
involved!

Start a Tiger Club in your school.

Visit Tiger Reserves with your family to know more about tiger conservation.

Write a letter. Start a letter writing campaign to help protect tigers.

Learn all you can about tigers, and teach others about the threats to tigers.
Teaching people about the dangers tigers face is an important part of bringing
about change.

Raise money and make a donation to a tiger conservation organization.

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 Kids can teach people about the plight of tigers and raise money to help support
tiger conservation. Let's look at the following example:

A "kids for tigers" campaign in India has got support of one million children &
has entered the Limca Book of Records in November 2000. If you and your friends
and classmates get involved in tiger conservation, let us know what your doing -
we'd love to hear from you!

WHAT DOES TIGER LIKE?

A tiger is a powerful jumper and can easily leap ten feet (three meters) off the
ground. Tigers can run 35 miles per hour! That's really fast. Whether in the wild or
in captivity, the tiger loves to sleep!

Tigers always live in forests because they offer places to hide. Tigers do not like
big open spaces. Tigers like to hide, because they hunt by sneaking up on their
prey. If they didn't have grasses or trees to hide behind they will never get food!

Tigers do eat people-but only in very unusual situations! Sometimes people roam
where tigers live. A sick or injured tiger finds it easier to attack a person than to
hunt for its usual prey.

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People have found ways to protect themselves by wearing masks on the back of
their heads. Tigers only attack from behind, so the mask fools them. It seems like
the person is always facing them! Another method used to deter tigers is
Scarecrows- which gives electric shock so any tiger that touches the dummy gets a
mild shock. It helps teach tigers to stop attacking people.

Tigers don't like becoming pets because they are wild. Even captive cubs that have
been raised by humans are not domesticated. Trainers in a circus use whips or
chairs to scare the tigers into submission.

Want to learn more about tigers? Here it is……

White tigers are not a separate subspecies of tiger, they are not from cold, snowy
climates-they come from India. White tigers are a rare form of Bengal tiger.
They're regular tigers with whiskers and tails-they just happen to be colored white.
White tigers actually range from pure white to white with chocolate brown or black
stripes. Many white tigers have blue eyes, but some have amber or even greenish
eyes.

White is a very, very unusual color for a wild tiger. Of the thousands of tigers in
the wild, only a few are white. There are many white tigers in captivity, though-
and almost all of them are descended from a wild white Bengal tiger named Mohan
that was captured in India in the 1950s.

Almost all of the captive white tigers in North America today are descended from
Mohan and are highly inbred. Some white tigers have also been mated with other
tiger subspecies, creating what are called hybrid tigers.

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The news is out and it is very loud, the Indian tiger is in grave danger. There are only 1411 Indian tigers
left and we do not take severe measures to save them there is a possibility our kids would never grow to
see an Indian tiger in real. Awareness on how to save Indian tiger is must in the current scenarios. Some
of the ways you can save an Indian tiger are mentioned below:

Save Indian Tiger Population

http://www.flickr.com/photos/judepics/2954936776/

1. Create awareness

The indian tiger is in danger and only excessive awareness programs can save the species. Everybody can
help if they did their part. You could help as well, all you have to do is make posters or fliers illustrating
about the significance of tigers on the planet earth.

2. Educating the people

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The people who do the most harm to the forests are those living nearby them. They need to be
educated about the significance of tigers to if they wish to see the Eco system balanced. If there will be
no tigers then we will not find any grass on our planet because all the there will nobody to stop the grass
eating animals from eating all the grass.

3. Discourage poaching:

Hunting of tigers is banned because selling tiger skin or any other body parts is the biggest reason why
indian tigers are going extinct. If you know somebody who is involved in indian tiger hunting then it is
your duty to report the officials.

4. Support a cause

If you see a program running to save the indian tiger, you should take part in it and support their cause.
You could also start your own blog on how to save the indian tiger, it will really educate the people.

5. Take an eco tour

If you really want to save the indian tigers then an eco tour is must for you. Eco tour really helps the
people in understanding the significance of tigers.

These are some of the simplest ways you can adopt to save the Indian tiger from becoming extinct.

Tiger Conservation Through Project Tiger

In 1972 Project Tiger was initiated to bring certain tiger conservation plans into action. The main aim
behind Project Tiger was to protect the Bengal Tigers living in several regions of India. To achieve the
mission of tiger conservation they set up several tiger reserves. The tiger reserves had the responsibility
of maintaining natural environment of the regions where tigers dwelled the most.

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For several years The Tiger Reserves representatives covered the area of nearly 37,761 km² and were
able to bring the population of tigers from 1,200 in 1970s to 3500 in 1990s. However, when the
Government of India did a survey in 2008 the tiger population was estimated to be only 1,411. This was
announced as a major setback, to rectify the loopholes in the activities of Project Tiger regarding their
overall tiger conservation activities the Government requested for a donation of US$153 million.

Tiger Rests

Some of the areas where the fund will be used extensively to further strengthen tiger conservation
activities include:

A high tech information network is needed by the wildlife protection and crime risk management team
of Project Tiger to deliver maximum protection to the fields where tigers live. The huge portion of the
fund will be allocated to develop several technologies which would help the representatives to gather,
maintain and make proper use of the data and also to watch over the tiger conservation areas through
Mapping and GIS modeling.

The activities of some of the units such as Sunderbans Tiger Conservation Unit, Central Indian Tiger
Conservation Unit and Western Ghat Tiger Conservation Unit will be strictly monitored as these are the
areas where tiger population has reduced rapidly. A satellite data will be set which will keep an eye on
the tiger habitats.

Further activities for tiger conservation will include education the villagers on tiger conservation so they
also help in saving the almost extinct species.

The Project Tiger is hopeful that with proper use of the fund and more international help they will be
able to save the tigers in the coming years.

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