Year for the Tiger - its significance
For centuries, tigers have played an important role in the world's religions
and cultures. At least 5,000 years ago, the Indus people in what is now
Pakistan used tigers on their signatory seals. Elsewhere on the Indian
sub-continent, the Hindu religion portrays the god Siva sitting on a tiger
skin while the supreme goddess, Durga, rides a tiger. The Warli tribes of
north Mumbai worship the tiger god Vaghadeva for its powers over
fertility, marriage and pregnancy and regard Vaghadeva as the greatest
of all gods. And in the Buddhist temples of Bhutan, China, Thailand and
Tibet, beautiful murals depicting the tiger can be seen.
More recently, South Korea chose the tiger as the symbol of the 1988
Olympic Games and Malaysia uses two tigers to support its national
crest. The perceived power of the tiger has led to the terms "Asian
tigers" and "tiger economies" to describe the economies of South-east
Asia for their dynamic growth during the 1970s, '80s and early '90s.
In western society, tigers have been immortalised in literature - not least
in the celebrated poem by William Blake:
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Today, images of tigers are used in advertising to sell any number of
products from breakfast cereals to petrol. In sport, many teams have the
tiger as their club emblem or nickname - for example, Britain's Leicester
Rugby Football Club and in the United States, the Detroit Tigers baseball
team.
In Chinese culture, every 12th year is dedicated to the tiger and as part
of the new year celebrations, tiger markings are painted on children's
foreheads to promote vigour and health. Someone born in the Year of the
Tiger is thought to be powerful, passionate, daring, rebellious, colourful
and unpredictable: a fortunate person to have around with a contagious,
impulsive and vivacious nature.
The most important feature of tiger people - and one that is needed by
real tigers - is that no matter how bad things become, they never say die
and always appear to re-light the fire of life. Never before has the tiger
needed this quality to such an extent as now, when it approaches the
new millennium with an uncertain future.
In the last 100 years, tiger populations have declined by 95 per cent due
to a combination of factors: habitat loss, trophy hunting, pest control, and
the increased use of tiger bone-based medicines. This has resulted in
the extinction of three sub-species: the Bali, Caspian and Javan. Three
more - the South China, Amur and Sumatran - are in danger of the same
fate, and populations of the Indo-Chinese and Bengal tiger are declining
rapidly. The situation is serious - tigers are disappearing fast.
To change this situation WWF, with the support of communities and
governments and the participation of other NGOs, must act ever more
urgently to address the major threats to tigers. This is no easy task, due
to the multitude and magnitude of the threats and the complexity of
different economic, political and cultural issues involving tiger
conservation. But if we fail to act now, tigers everywhere will be on the
verge of extinction by the next Year of the Tiger in 2010.
This report gives a brief overview of the status, distribution and biology
of the surviving sub-species and the threats they face. It also contains
comments from key tiger experts and people who share their
environment with tigers. It outlines WWF's strategy for 1998 and details
the tiger related projects in which WWF is participating. It also discusses
possible solutions for overcoming the key threats to the tiger, and both
the immediate and long-term activities necessary to ensure the continued
existence of one of the planet's most revered animals.