People voted the Tiger as their favorite animal in a survey by Animal Planet.

Playful Young Tiger in the Kanha Tiger Reserve.

Tiger, Tiger!
By Prof. Ashok Tiwari

Tiger, tiger, burning bright!
Dreadful is your present plight!

God’s mighty act of your creation
Filled Blake’s mind with fascination!
You are our national animal,
No other creature is you equal.
In deep forests you’re no longer found.
Your roars there no longer resound.
You are Goddess Durga’s mount,
All this does no longer count.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright!
Dreadful is your present plight!

Now your body is your enemy!
It is seen in terms of money.
Alive, some admirers you may please,
Dead, you’re worth lakhs of rupees!
The money is such a temptation,
In hunting you where’s hesitation?
Hunting you is no great art,
A steel trap, a bullet through the heart!
Your skin ladies wear for vanity—
An act devoid of all sanity!
It adorns a tycoon’s drawing room wall
Or the floor of some palace hall.

In China your genitals, ground to powder,
Restore old men’s sexual drive and power.
Your bones are used in medicines.
Your flesh and fat cure rheumatism.
Your skull is transformed into a trophy,
Your teeth hang in charms and jewellery.

Tiger, tiger, bright as flame!
Your extinction would be our shame!
In jungles may you thrive again!
May this wish not be in vain!
Lord of beasts, long be your reign.
Your blood jungle trails never stain.
May greedy plans of poachers fail.
May they spend their lives in jail.
May posterity still get to see
Your beauty, power and majesty.

Tiger, tiger, bright as flame!
Your extinction would be our shame!

Saving Sher Khan by Pracheer Saran.

We all have heard of famous character Sher Khan the tiger from the Rudyard Kipling‘s classic novel Jungle Book. As a kid, we all were enthralled, mystified and excited and longed to see the animated film ‘Jungle Book’ by Disney Animation studio. Sher Khan the tiger is one such character in the film besides Mowgli the jungle boy, Baloo the beer, Bagheera the panther, etc who will never be forgotten. However, in reality we have forgotten to save and protect him.

Click here to continue reading Saving Sher Khan by Pracheer Saran.

Just to let our visitors know – we are soon going to run a save tigers contest. 111 prizes would be up for grabs. While we iron out the modalities, please start thinking of what to do to save tigers or if you have already done something start documenting it – ideas, articles, photographs, drawings, games, software – anything goes!

Let the trees flourish and tigers will save themselves.

We read somewhere in the news that an educational institution spent INR 100,000 (around US$ 2,275) to adopt a tiger in a zoo for an year. First of all, a zoo is a very wrong place for a tiger to be in. Secondly, a zoo has funds allocated already to take care of the national animal.

We would rather this amount was spent on adopting trees in the villages. Each student of that school could have adopted a tree. You could adopt a tree and then look after it like your own child. Form a group and go to villages and forest fringe areas to educate people about saving nature to save tigers. Motivate the village folks, especially children for adopting trees in partnership with your group. Your group could provide moral support and other incentives to that person or child on the spot, who will actually save the tree.

You know, if you or your group have sufficient resources, you could even buy a piece of land and setup a plantation in partnership with the local folks. Why we are stressing partnership with local folks is that they are the ones who will ensure protection to the trees. Saving the trees will in turn save tigers.

Dear friends,

We have launched a sister website, a social networking platform for all nature lovers at SavingNature.org.

At SavingNature.org, you can register free and create your own blog, form a group of like minded members, start a forum and communicate personal or group activities on the common board. You can also network privately amongst your group.

I am the Tiger
4est है मेरा घर
सब डरते थे मुझसे पहले, अब वो मुझे डराते हैं, अंधविश्वास के चक्कर मुझे मारने आते हैं.
एक समय ऐसा भी था मेरा, जंगल में था राज मेरा.
हरा था जंगल, भरा था जंगल. तब था सुन्दर मेरा जंगल.
अब लोग घास काटने आते हैं, पेड काट ले जाते हैं. पहले ही कुछ कम था जो मेरा भोजन भी खाजाते हैं.

On a tour to the wildlife sanctuary at Kolleru lake in Andhra Pradesh, the union minister for environment and forests of India stated (source: The Hindu newspaper of 28 February, 2010) – “I don’t see the problem from the environment angle alone. Humans are more important than birds.”

The issue at stake is the reduction of the size of the wildlife sanctuary from present plus 5 contours to plus 3 contours.

Two local members of parliament and even the state government are reported to be pitching for this reduction in wildlife habitat. Pitiful situation indeed!

A final decision would be taken by the central government after a 5-member expert committee submits a report in about 3 months.

Thankfully, the minister recalled that the former chief minister of the state had sought a solution acceptable to all stakeholders.

The Kolleru wildlife sanctuary is a critically important avian habitat and stopover on India’s east coast between Chilika lake up north and Pulicat lake down south.

Ohh our lovely Tiger ,
We want to save you ,
We are so eager,
But some humans are really so bad,
By seeing ur beauty ,
They really go mad,
Ohh Mother World,
Please help us save your child,
And prevent humans,
From again becoming wild…

Divya Rawat

You know, in India, people revere millions of gods. Do you realize the ancient people’s wisdom in creating so many gods? Indian gods are symbolic of different forms of life! By associating every known form of life to a god, the clever sages ensured that all living beings lived harmoniously and the ecosystem was healthy.

The Chinese year of the tiger has just started. China is alleged to be the largest consumer of tiger parts or things created after killing a tiger! Sic! Let’s hope that this “year of the tiger”, will instill some reverence for the tiger in the misled tiger parts consumers and instead of clamoring for tiger parts, they will save tigers instead; Or out of reverence, at least think to save tigers.

On a continuing note, we also hope that the tiger farms will be stopped. These farms just keep on increasing the Chinese appetite for tiger parts.

Many of our readers have been asking what to do? There is widespread agreement and awareness of the need to save tigers, but the public needs an action plan which is not tied down by the so called red tape. Many people say they will contribute funds but have doubts if it will ever get used in the right time and manner? So, we will suggest here, things to do!

Let’s be very clear. Tiger killing is NOT the major reason for the dwindling tiger population. THE major reason is the dwindling forest cover and ever increasing encroachment of the forests by us, humans. An adult male tiger needs about 80 to 100 square kilometers forest area overlapping the area of about 2 to 3 female tigers to survive and reproduce.

What we can do? We have to educate, mold public opinion and actively participate to increase the forest cover and arrest deforestation. WE have to cut down OUR industrial and consumerist greed!

For a start, form a group of like minded people and start planting trees and protecting them. If you have lot of funds, buy out areas in the forest fringe areas and build non-commercial plantations with lot of trees. You could even pool funds if this is not possible individually. Create a society or trust and do this!

Please also see some of our past comments in the below pages for more ideas.

http://www.savetigers.com/our-comments-upto-06-feb-2010

http://www.savetigers.com/our-comments-upto-13-feb-2010

http://www.savetigers.com/our-comments-upto-20-feb-2010

Just installed a nice tiger theme for my Firefox browser. Here’s the link for Tiger Eyes theme for Firefox. This will keep you reminding of a promise – to Save Tigers.

Tiger Tiger burning bright,
will not let you fade out of sight,
that is my promise
and for you we will fight………

Naveen Hakhoo, JRF
JU-UCL

Jairam Ramesh, the central minister in charge of the environment and forest ministry in India, recently questioned the detractors of the proposal to divert the stretch of NH7 between Seoni and Nagpur. This stretch of about 130 KM passes through a critical area within Pench Tiger Reserve in central India, and it is feared that maintenance and up-gradation of the national highway would do irreparable damage to the protected area. The supreme court of India has put a stay on the highway up-gradation.

The diversion proposed via Chhindwara would increase the distance by about 40 KM, which is not a big price considering the damage that would be done otherwise. Chhindwara is an upcoming industrial town and this could also help the local people.

We are a group of non-governmental non-profit conservationists and interact closely with and actively support the tiger conservation activities of government agencies as well as non-government organizations.

This website is a weblog of information and activities to save tigers. Interested entities are welcome to actively take part in discussions and submit their opinions. Though we are not related to any government or private agency, we follow the principles and guidelines issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, India and the tenets of the Project Tiger, India.

We are very grateful to Animail.com who preserved this domain name and transferred to us for a very generous consideration. Animail.com is giving away conservation related domain names to interested genuine entities to use the domain names for furthering conservation efforts.