By no means as publicized
or insidious, but much more problematic than poaching, are habitat loss
and fragmentation. Without a safe and healthy home for tigers and their
prey, neither can survive in the wild. Humans are rapidly encroaching
into wilderness areas that were once ruled exclusively by the tiger. For
example in India, which is home to over one third of the world's wild
tigers, the human population has exceeded one billion inhabitants, a number
that many estimate could double in the next three decades if the current
rate of growth continues. Asia, which was once covered with vast forests,
and where at the turn of the last century more than 100,000 tigers lived,
is amazingly now home to more than half of humanity. There is no question
that incessant population growth is steadily eliminating the tiger and
the forest ecosystems it is dependent upon.
Please
support The Tiger Foundation's effort to protect some of the last tiger
strongholds of Asia.
|
|
Wild tigers may now number as few as 5000, and live in small islands of
forest surrounded by a sea of humanity. To survive in the wild, tigers
need water, prey and healthy forests. Nevertheless, Asian forest cover
has declined by more than eighty percent in the past few centuries, and
what remains exists as small fragments under heavy human pressure. Furthermore,
water and air pollution are making some tiger habitats unlivable. Even
worse, in some regions, tigers and humans compete for the same prey, to
the point where not enough prey remains to sustain the tiger population.
Human settlement, as well as industrial and agricultural expansion is
forcing tigers to retreat into shrinking tracts of land. As the resources
that sustain tigers disappear, so too, do the tigers. Currently, there
are only a handful of forests in Asia that contain populations of more
than 100 tigers.
|