missing royal tiger - National Park,India

It’s been not long when I wrote an article telling about my story for fascination for tigers and shattering alarm bells ringing in India, “the census of tiger population in India has a decreasing sign...” India had 1827 tigers when Project Tiger was set 35 years ago. The number as per the census figures in 2008 is 1411. How much man has been cruel to tigers and today the census speaks louder than tiger strong roar.

It has been my recent trip, way to (RAJASTHAN) Jaipur from Alwar via Sariska National Park. Sariska Reserves which is now a days more popular for unwelcoming the tigers. Sariska falls in Alwar district. This park is situated only 200 km from Delhi and 107 kms from Jaipur. The Aravali Hills dominate the area with its sharp cliffs and long narrow valleys. The history of Sariska even dates back to the days of epic Mahabharata, when the Pandavas were believed to have taken shelter during their exile. The speciality of the forest is that it looks extremely dry in the summers and becomes dense and lush green after the monsoons.

I was indeed lucky on my way to see Sambar, spotted-deer, lots of monkeys and a huge range of different species of birds . Although thrilled to spot animals, I wondered how unsafe were the animals there, where the heavy vehicle rush every second. And above all its so easy for poachers to enter the forest and create menace with animals and forest resources.



A highway bypass road stretching the mid of Sariska forest have been a real problem for the wild big cats and disturbance for other animals. Our cab calmed our anxiety by informing us that the Sariska-Kalighati-Tehla road on which we were heading shall soon be closed and Alwar-Sariska-Thanagazi Road shall be diverted from Kushalgarh to pass from Talvraksh-Narainpur-Gahtabandrol and connected to Shahpura. This shall relieve the Sariska forest from the unwanted interference of loads of vehicles. He also said that sooner some wild cats shall may be from Ranthombor shall be brought to Sariska for better eco-living in forest. Its the irony of the era that long back to the royal time, Sariska was the prime location for the Maharajas and Kings to hunt the tigers in the forest for leisure..!

“In January 2005, journalist Jay Mazoomdaar (The Indian Express) broke the news that there were no tigers left in Sariska. Thus broke open the Third Tiger Crisis. Soon the Rajasthan Forest Department and the Project Tiger Directorate declared an "emergency tiger census" in Sariska and the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted a probe. After a two month exercise they finally declared that Sariska indeed did not have any tigers left” – Ref. Wikipedia



I was in a way unlucky that not much time I could spend there to explore some of the enchanting areas and temples present in the thick forest, and hence I plan a next trip to Alwar and Sariska soon. But let the tigers are not unlucky to come and survive at Sariska.

Genuinely, we need to propagate the message through out to save the wild cat, or else there will be a time when our next generation shall only see tigers in pictures, paintings or hear tiger's enchanting stories from us.

Save & Conserve TIGERS.

Go Green.