S1E96: India has remarkably saved the tiger but deeper issues remain: Asian Insider

Published: April 27, 2023, 4 p.m.

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India\'s experience offers lessons for other countries in wildlife conservation, and one of the keys is having local communities on board.

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Synopsis: Each fourth Friday of the month, The Straits Times\' US bureau chief Nirmal Ghosh presents an Asian perspective of the biggest global talking points with expert guests.\\xa0

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India very recently marked the fifth anniversary of Project Tiger. India has saved the tiger. Bringing a predator like the tiger, back from the brink of extinction, in a country of now over a billion people, is a remarkable feat.\\xa0

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India now has something like 70-75 per cent of all tigers in the wild. The tiger is functionally extinct in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. There has been a small comeback in Thailand, but its status in Myanmar is unknown and most likely very tenuous.

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But species conservation is a complex issue with many moving parts, with both people and wildlife having agency - so it never really ends and old challenges remain and new challenges emerge.\\xa0

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In this episode, to discuss what worked and what did not - and the consequential challenges that remain - Nirmal Ghosh hosts renowned wildlife conservationist Belinda Wright, founder of the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI); and the publisher and editor of Sanctuary Asia Magazine and Kids for Tigers, Bittu Sahgal.\\xa0

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Highlights (click/tap above):

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1:55 Best practices: What worked for the tiger, what did not work

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11:15 On managing wildlife-human conflicts, statistics, and why it\'s "not rocket science"

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14:40 Is there a strategy for the next 50 years, after 50 years of Project Tiger? Why economists need to be educated on the biosphere

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17:10 It was found that among villagers who were attacked by a tiger, almost all had been out in the forest collecting fuelwood

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18:32 Do grasslands and wetlands get adequate protection?

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28:51 Why India has a convincing asset now that few other countries have; why Asia can show the world how to survive the climate crisis, and the tiger is metaphor

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Produced by: Nirmal Ghosh (nirmal@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis, Hadyu Rahim and Fa\\u2019izah Sani

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Edited by: Hadyu Rahim and Fa\\u2019izah Sani

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Follow Asian Insider with Nirmal Ghosh every fourth Friday of the month:

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