In a statement that would confuse our caveman ancestors, India’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar happily said Tuesday that the country’s plan to grow the tiger population is ?working. In just seven years, the tiger population has risen from 1,411 to 2,226.
India has struggled for years to stop the country’s deforestation problem, which has led to the loss of the tigers’ natural habitat. Indian officials have also been working to stop the booming trade of exotic animal parts and have made efforts to slow poaching of these majestic animals.
In fact, poachers and those who buy tiger carcasses for use in traditional Chinese medicine were a major factor in the population decline from 100,000 tigers at the beginning of the 20th century to 1,411 in 2008. Though tigers may be beautiful and interesting animals, you’re probably wondering at this point how this could possibly be your ?problem.
So let’s forget for just a moment the moral side of understanding we as a species do not have a claim to destroy any and all things we see fit. The true reason the rise in the tiger population is such fantastic news is one word: biodiversity.Biodiversity is how many different kinds of organisms live in a specific ecosystem.
The reason this is so important is we have absolutely no idea how a certain organism’s existence affects the ?entirety of an ecosystem.
A perfect example would be the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone ?National Park.
Before their reintroduction, wolves had been absent from Yellowstone for about 70 years. As such, deer populations had exploded due to the fact they had very few natural enemies without wolves to hunt them.
As wolves were reintroduced, the deer changed their behavior. They no longer grazed in valleys or near riverbanks where they could easily be trapped and eaten by a pack of wolves. Due to this, trees began to flourish as fewer deer were eating their saplings.
More trees meant more beaver dams, and more beaver dams meant an environment better-suited to ducks and amphibians, and these animals saw an increase in population as well.
However, the biggest change was something many people have a hard time wrapping their heads around. Not only did the wolves change the behavior of the animals in Yellowstone, they changed the behavior of the rivers. The wolves ate deer, which ate trees and shrubbery around the banks of rivers.
Without deer to eat these plants, rivers eroded less.
They began to meander less as well, meaning the rivers became more fixed in their course. This is exactly why we need to be excited about the increasing number of tigers in India. One seemingly insignificant change in an ecosystem can have a huge effect.
A poacher may look at a ?tiger and see an easy ?paycheck, but he should be seeing the innumerable organisms that revolve around that predator.
Ecosystems are much more delicate than we give them credit for.
All of us would do well to respect them.
kevsjack@umail.iu.edu
