We are in the worst mess we can ever be, and yet we are doing nothing about it," says Thapar. He says stray stories of hope for the tiger, like recent reports of tiger traces in the Sahyadris, are just stray stories.
"Tigers get killed, they get poisoned, they get poached," he says, pointing out the case of the Bharatpur tigress, who turned up out of nowhere, and lived in the park for six years before dying.
"At the moment, it is not the government but a few individuals who are making the crucial difference," says Wright.
And there are very few reserves where the tiger is fighting it out, yet. Like Kaziranga in Assam. "It is a state's pride," Thapar says.
But there are other factors, he says, behind Kaziranga, which was not a tiger reserve initially, boasting of 75 big cats now.
"There are elephants, rhinos and water buffalo in Kaziranga. These are dangerous animals; no one enters Kaziranga for grazing and such. Only poachers go into Kaziranga armed with AK-47s and the forest guards are also armed and there is a lot of firing and a lot of people get killed."
"There is still active protection going on. God knows why the example has not been followed elsewhere," he adds, pointing to the Rajasthan forest guards, who only wield sticks.
"There is a shortfall of 8,000 to 10,000 forest guards," he says, welcoming the government's proposal to deploy army veterans as forest guards.
"At the moment" Wright points out, "it appears the authorities are finding difficulty in finding retired army personnel who wish to work in the forest system."
Thapar emphasises the forest guards must be trained.
"Give them the best expertise, from Kenya, from South Africa," he says, pointing out that in Kenya people like Richard Leakey were given a carte blanche to deal with poachers. India it seems, Thapar adds, doesn't feel the need to learn.
"We can't fight poachers with policies made decades ago," he says.
Wright echoes him: "If effective measures are not urgently implemented then yes, we are looking at the end of the road for wild tigers in India."
Photograph: Aditya Singh/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: 'There is more concern for the tiger outside India!'
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