A crisis of survival of wild species was caused by India's partition in 1947 and the resultant population exchange. Large areas of forests were cleared to accommodate a burgeoning population. By the sixties, warning signals had gone up that natural India was under stress. The tiger population in India hit its lowest level of around 1700. Remedial measures taken in the early seventies under the leadership of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, made impressive gains which are relevant even today.
As the century comes to a close, a renewed crisis is upon us, and this time around, there are no easy solutions.
The threat to wild species from habitat degradation is set to accelerate in the new millennium. The prime mover is, of course, population growth which will touch the billion mark at the turn of the century or soon thereafter, with no slackening of birth rate.
The bulk of the population growth is in the segment of population at the lowest levels of education and income. These are the very people dependent upon bounties of nature, often at subsistence level, and sadly, the people who are most affected by degradation of natural resources.
The great majority of Indians cook their food on firewood, using something like 300 million tonnes of it annually, of which less than one third is extracted sustainably. This in itself is a time bomb. Extraction of fuelwood, fodder and other non-timber forest produce including medicinal plants are already documented at unsustainable levels. As there are really no alternatives available to the people dependent upon these resources, any regulation of use can only bring social discord, often militancy in many regions which is eroding the authority of the State.
The tolerance level of local people for wildlife depredation is taking a beating. Resource scarcity is only one of the reasons. The other is a rise in expectations, fuelled by exposure to the consumer culture of the West and richer Asian countries. These trends give a handle to commercial and industrial interests, aided by government planners to cut up protected areas reserved for wildlife. These are officially stated to be three per cent of India's land mass. In reality, perhaps less than half of that is in pristine condition.
The population of livestock was last recorded at half that of the human population. The five hundred million mouths grazing the biomass place an unacceptable pressure on shrinking commons, forests, sanctuaries and national parks. When village commons become too sparse for cattle grazing, goats and sheep can still survive. The close cropping by them prevents regeneration and this is followed by desertification.
Nomadic herders who had traditionally moved long distances with large herds of livestock find increasing resistance from local people to the influx. In times of drought, millions of cattle are forced into wildlife lands. Livestock is clearly the most intractable problem of all, because in rural India livestock represents wealth, and a monetary return for very little input. A ten year old boy or girl can tend a large herd. The input, of course is degradation of common resources.
India is blessed with one of the highest water resources of any country. Profligate use in agriculture, increase in both the human and livestock population has already exerted tremendous pressure on water resources in large parts of the country. By the year 2020, the demand for water will match its availability. Regional water shortages are already evident in many parts of the country. Water disputes are set to intensify. The role of natural forests as water catchments and regulators of lean season flow is not understood by many government planners.
The threat to bio-diversity from unregulated trade is often placed at a level lower than habitat destruction. This is so in most instances. What is overlooked is that habitat loss is a slow process, imperceptible over a short period, whereas poaching and trade causes rapid decline of many target species.
International trade in tiger parts is a prime example in India. In numerous forest areas outside tiger reserves, populations are declining rapidly in deteriorating but adequate habitats. The 1993 Tiger Census had documented that over half of India's tiger population was located outside the protected areas network.
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