SAVING SHER KHAN Author: Rahul Fonseca Photography: Sachin Rai Mowgli, Bagera, Baloo and Sher Khan. Would Rudyard Kipling’s story be the same without its two central characters, Mowgli, the man cub and Sher Khan, the Royal Bengal tiger? With the count, down to 1400 pan-India, one wonders if future generations will know anything but old photographs of this gold and black pelted big cat.
According to The Wildlife Protection Society of India, the country has lost almost 53 tigers, 26 of them to poaching alone this year. Wildlife reserves like the Panna Tiger Reserve (TR) in Madhya Pradesh and Sariska TR in Rajasthan have been forced to admit that all of the big cats under their protection have disappeared. Recent efforts to relocate tigers have meant further dwindling of the population. The Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg this year (2010) saw participation from 13 Tiger Range Countries (TRC), including India, set itself the target of doubling the population of the endangered animal in the wild by 2022. However after accepting the failure of 40-years of tiger conservation efforts can these commitments be trusted?
The Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 enabled government agencies to take strict
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