The Karnataka Government made a surprising revelation about the endangered species of our country which even the tiger conservationists were unaware of.
According to them, there is a relation between the drop in the number of tigers each year and tigers fighting among themselves.
They claim that there was no scientific study explaining as to why tigers fight amongst themselves and to find out the main reason for the same it would require at least 10 years of in-depth study.
National Geographic
According to Lehar Singh, a BJP MLC:
“There is no scientific study focusing on the relation between spurt in population and in-fighting among tigers. Even if one were to find suitable answers for this, it would take at least 10-years for a tiger expert or scientist to study the matter in detail!“
Upset over minister’s lack of knowledge, tiger conservationist and director of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) of India Dr K Ullas Karanth said that he has been studying tigers and conducting research since the 1980s.
“I am surprised that the honourable minister was not briefed about projects and their results. I have been studying tiger behaviour and ecology since 1986 through a series of projects. This is the longest running tiger research project in the world.”
“Tigers compete for space or mates or prey and aggressive encounters occur as a result. Such aggression increases with increasing population densities. Our data on tiger densities (Shared with NTCA and the government periodically) show high densities sometimes going up to 15 tigers per 100 sq km in Nagarahole-Bandipur. At such high densities, intraspecific aggression and injuries will be high,” he added.
