Illegal poaching has led the Indian big cats to dwindle at an alarming rate! With 40,000 tigers in India just a century ago, decades of poaching have cut their number to as low as 3,700! Aiming to save them from disappearance, the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act 2006 came into force this September amending the Environment Protection Act 1970.
But according to activists, parts of the law might have the opposite effect and have called on India’s Supreme Court to scrap them. They believe that the law calling for co-existence of humans with large carnivorous wild animals is a myth!
On the basis of this concept, the Bombay Natural History Society, the Wildlife Protection Society of India, the Conservation Action Trust and the Wildlife Trust have filed a petition on Monday. It also says,
Conflict between the two is the reality, a reality which is reflected in the ascending graph of the number of fatalities on either side.
According to the activists, the law insisting authorities ensure the agricultural, livelihood, development and other interests of the people dwelling in tiger-bearing forests or a tiger reserve, could eventually go against the livelihood of the rare wildlife, as both cannot coexist together.