They’re left to fend for themselves

The government has been so busy taking care of tigers, that it has completely overlooked 48 other species of endangered, vulnerable, indeterminate or threatened mammals in the country.

What’s worse, in the past three years, the Centre spent more on tigers than on the entire wildlife population. Consider this. While it paid Rs270 crore to protect wildlife over three years, on tigers the government lavished Rs280 crore.

This disregard is pretty appalling. Of the total number of species, there is no official count of 30, say sources. Besides, there’s no information on animals under the ‘K’ category.
Of course, there were several species of animals in the Himalayan states about whom it is difficult to get information, mostly because of difficult terrain. So, the government knows little about what’s happening to the golden cat, hangul, markhor, black bear, brown bear, common otter, Himalayan musk deer, Himalayan shrew and lesser panda.

“The Kashmir government is trying to protect hangul but not much is being done for markhor. The Centre is clueless about the desert cat, clouded leopard, clawless otter, brown palm civet and brown antlered deer. There is no official count,” said a wildlife official.

The states, too, have done woefully little for wild animals, the officer said.  “The protection of animals is a state subject. We too, have a role but most of the work has to been done by the states,” said the officer.

However, researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India said that since the government is spending money on saving tigers, it will not work to the benefit of one particular species but the entire forest area.