What is the solution? There is only one, for Thapar.
"Decide on the size of the tiger population you want to have, find areas in India and have those areas free of human interference. There is no other way."
"The tiger and man cannot coexist," he says, "any kindergarten student will tell you that. Between 1850 and 1950, 30,000 people were killed by man-eaters, half a million livestock was killed by tigers, and 100,000 tigers were killed by man."
And yet, he points out, India has been following policies of coexistence. "That's why you get cases like the Tadoba man-eater," he says, pointing to the tiger that was killed near Chandrapur in Maharashtra after a number of attacks on humans. Thapar says the tiger killed by police sharpshooters and paraded in front of television cameras was "probably innocent, because another villager has been killed since then."
Habitat loss is a key factor for the vanishing pugmark. Dams are built in tiger habitat, core jungle areas are mined, villages are allowed, people graze cattle in tiger country. And now, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, which comes into effect on January 1, will give about 50 million forest dwellers certain rights over forest land.
"On January 1, every mafia leader who deals in timber will be celebrating," Thapar says about the new law. "National forests will have no legal cover."
He says the Act has repercussions other than the disastrous consequences for wildlife, pointing to the Gujjar-Meena conflict in Rajasthan. The real forest-dwellers will have to prove three generations of residency. "Real forest-dwellers don't plunder forests," Thapar says.
Supporters of the Act say tribals have been given a raw deal in marking forest land, and they are justified in seeking livelihood and development. Thapar agrees that villagers displaced by forests should be compensated, as were the villagers who moved out of Ranthambore.
"Why just any land, give them (displaced villagers) prime land. Give them prime land in urban centres, let them be part of the new India," Thapar says, adding that a forest for tigers should be a forest for tigers.
"There is nothing that can be done now but to wait and see if the supporters of the Act who say it will be good for wildlife, are wrong or right," says Wright. "If they are wrong, than it will indeed be a disaster, not only for tigers but for practically all of India's wildlife."
Photograph: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: The call of the wild
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