Protect wildlife to protect ‘ourselves.’

A big part of India was covered under dense forests in last centuries but rampant urbanization, industrialization and human appetite to acquire materialistic things has shrunk valuable forests and natural habitats of wild animals. With forests reduction there has been a direct encounter between wild life and human and poachers have been rampantly poaching into wild life areas to hunt various spices of wild animals and many of these have come to an extinct. Indian tiger is the biggest victim of this.

From 40000 numbers in the last century, Indian tigers have reduced to easily countable numbers. The year 2008 revealed the shocking number of just 1411 tigers in the wild left in India. The same year Aircel, Indian telecom service provider in association with launched the much acclaimed ‘Save Our Tigers’ (SOT) initiative to create mass awareness on the plight of this magnificent animal. The tag line, ‘Just 1411 left’, struck a chord in the hearts and minds of millions of Indians. From just 1411 to over 1700 today, it has been quite a journey.

Reaching the masses with their active participation in Saving Our Tigers has always been a goal of Aircel. It is only when the masses rally for a cause such as this that high impact becomes tangible and realized. Our seriousness towards doing our bit to Save Our Tigers has led us to partner with NDTV for the third time. The tiger whip is valued as in Chinese medicine, and demand has contributed to illegal hunting.

In India, presently tigers are being preserved in various national parks and some wild life zoological areas. Ranthombhar in Rajasthan, Kanha and Bhadhavgarh national parks in Madhya Pradesh, Sunderban deltas are some prominent places where tiger’s population is flourishing. Govt. and some NGOs are supporting this mission by posting outlooks in deep forest areas and restricting unauthorized access to protected wildlife areas.

The campaign titled as – Save Our Tigers, has set up tiger defense units in all tiger reserve national parks. It has set up anti poaching camps in all tiger conserve areas. It is expected that the fortification of APCs will provide equipments to carryout protection duties in an efficient manner and better living conditions for forest guards.

Nature had created a balance in entire eco system but due to human involvement in it there has been big imbalance in ecology. For our interest, we have been killing wildlife which is contributing big role in ecology imbalance. Various celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan have joined this campaign to support this mission and hope to be supported by all responsible citizens to prevent the day when we would see tigers in photographs and animated movies only.