Travel News September 2007

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A wild time in India's tiger territory

Conserving Majuli - world's largest river island

A wild time in India's tiger territory
September 9, 2007

My elephant has stumbled across a tiger. It sounds like the least used line in a Hindi phrasebook, but it’s the truth. And instead of being safely down around the elephant’s feet, the tiger is at eyelevel, on a ledge just 8ft away. He watches our panic with disdain, his thick fur spilling in golden folds over his rocky perch, his whiskers catching little rainbows in the dappled sunlight, as the mahout, or elephant jockey, frantically tries to back up.

At least 100lb heavier than Africa’s biggest lion, the tiger is the true king of the jungle. His head is as big as my chest; his fangs are long enough to skewer me from sternum to scapula; and his paws look big enough to scrape a shallow grave for me, the mahout and the elephant, if need be. His eyes look straight into mine, reflecting something between the nonchalant and the psychotic, making it perfectly clear that if he wanted me, he could have me, and there’s nothing I could do about it.

In the shadows behind his stare lies his sister, sprawled over a rock like a mafia moll in furs. This is their manor and I’m at their mercy, but, for the moment, these natural-born killers seem content for me to admire their fearful symmetry. IT’S NOT easy to come face to face with a tiger in its natural habitat. Worst accounts reckon on as few as 2,500 remaining in the wild, spread out in rapidly shrinking populations from Siberia to Bangladesh.

Shamefully, the nation with the world’s highest concentration of panthera tigris is the United States, with an estimated 10,000 of the beasts banged up on ranches, or caged in the fashionable homes of American millionaires.

The current value of a tiger corpse is about £20,000, which is more than a poor Indian farmer will earn in a lifetime. Tiger bone fetches up to £350 a kilo in South Korea, and in Taiwan a pair of tiger eyes — used to treat epilepsy — costs £65. In the Chinese city of Lanzhou, a phial of ground tiger tail — supposedly effective against skin cancer — will set you back £170; and in Japan, virility tablets containing tiger penis have been found on sale at £13,000 a bottle. And despite the efforts of all the soft-hearted celebrities and well-meaning charities, the killing goes on — by poachers, by big-game hunters and by local populations who can’t think of another way to stop tigers taking their stock.

These days, your only chance of seeing a tiger, outside a pharmacy or a cage, is in a national park. India’s Ranthambore National Park is by far the most popular, but the best place to spot this critically endangered predator is in Bandhavgarh, in the little-visited central state of Madhya Pradesh. Cradled between the Vindhyan highlands and the eastern flanks of the Satpura Range, this remote reserve is currently home to 58 Royal Bengal tigers and there’s still room for a dozen more.

Source: Timesonline

Conserving Majuli - world's largest river island
August 17, 2007

The Majuli Island in Assam is the world’s largest river island which has a unique biodiversity. Now the government is making special efforts to conserve this eco-diversity of the beautiful island.

The government has allotted Rs.865.6 million for Majuli to save it from the threat from floods and erosion. Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni said the money would be given in three phases - Rs.412.8 million in the first phase, Rs.182.8 million in the second phase and Rs.270 million in the third phase. The move is based on the recommendations of a report prepared by the Brahmaputra Board.

Majuli is the world’s biggest riverine island and a principal place of pilgrimage for the Vaishnavites of Assam since the Ahom days.

Source: MSN India