Now restricted to a fraction of its former range, all surviving tiger sub-species are endangered. In Indonesia, palm oil cultivation and the pulp and paper industries are the biggest threat to the Sumatran tiger.
A large percentage of this palm oil is destined for Indian markets, imported by companies such as Adani-Wilmar, Ruchi Soya, Cargill and others. From here it makes its way into biscuits, chocolates and cosmetics manufactured by household names such as ITC, Britannia, Godrej and others.
India might be home to the largest remaining tiger populations in the world, but the striped cat's existence in this country is no less tenuous. Tigers are wide-ranging animals, and large, contiguous forest areas are essential for the dispersal of young tigers and to maintain a healthy gene pool. However, the government's latest reports show that in the last few years, the tiger has disappeared from 20,000 sq. km. of its former habitat.
Who are the culprits? Poaching plays a role, but the fragmentation of the tiger's habitat by infrastructure and industry are a much more insidious and widespread problem.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the Central Indian tiger landscape. Widely believed to be the largest contiguous tiger habitat in the world, this landscape covers areas of Eastern Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Chattisgarh, as well as parts of Orissa and Jharkhand, and spans several tiger reserves, including Tadoba, Kanha and Bandhavgarh. Unfortunately for the tiger, this is also where much of India's coal reserves lie, under forests home to the tiger, leopard and other endangered wildlife.
As coal mining expands, these forests are being destroyed and fragmented - not just by the open cast coal mines themselves, but also by the attendant infrastructure - thermal power plants, roads, railways and transmission lines. This has had a devastating impact on wildlife, water sources and forest-dependent communities. Of course, once this coal is burned, it adds to the CO2 burden in the atmosphere and to climate change. Read the full report here.
Source: Greenpeace India.
