Implication of Extinction of Bengal Tigers - Assignment Example

? Implication of Extinction of Bengal Tigers How will the Extinction of Bengal Tigers affect the Food Chain, Local Communities, and surrounding Species in India? Bengal tigers are the most numerous sub species of the tigers in the world and are found in Southern Asia particularly abundant in the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans which is shared between Bangladesh and eastern India.. The Bengal tiger is a species that is highly endangered due to constant poaching for its bones, teeth, claws and skin and if conservation measures are not enhanced, it might become extinct. With the tiger being at the top of the food chain, it is intuitive that its extinction will have devastating effects not only to other animals in the food chain but also the surrounding communities and other species. This paper will explore how the extinction of the Bengal tigers will affect the food chain, local communities and the surrounding species in India. First, the paper will look into how this sub species is under constant threat of extinction and then have a deep insight into what might result from extinction of Bengal Tigers. The Bengal tigers were once very common across Asia from Turkey in the west to the Eastern coast of Russia but have greatly reduced in the past 100 years and now remain in few Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Indonesia where they still face constant threat of extinction (Bhattarai & Kindlmann, 2012). Some cultures in Asia believe that powdered tiger bones have medicinal value and this has been one of the reasons for the poaching of tigers in India to get their bones. The other reasons for poaching of Bengal tigers is to get their Skin, teeth, skin and claws which are in great demand in Asia. The tiger habitat is also at great risk due to human activities including conversion of forests into agricultural land, commercial tree logging and human settlement, which is greatly affecting the survival of tigers. Depletion of prey is also a factor contributing to extinction of Bengal Tigers, as there are increased tiger attacks on livestock and human s resulting to intolerance of tigers from the surrounding communities in India (Borthakur, et al., 2011). The extinction of Bengal Tigers in India will however have strong and far-reaching consequences on biodiversity in India. This is because the disruption or elimination of one element from a fragile ecosystem causes an imbalance that not only affects the food chain but also the local communities and also other species that share the tiger habitat (Bhattarai & Kindlmann, 2012). This is in agreement with what the Nobel laureate and environmentalist, Prof Wangari Mathai, once said that nature is very unforgiving and if you destroy nature, it will destroy you. The tiger being a carnivore is at the top of the food chain in all its habitats and helps to keep the population of its prey, most of which are vegetarians, such as the deer, antelopes, and wild pigs in check. If the tigers get extinct, the population of these animals will grow uncontrollably resulting into an imbalance (Chapron et al., 2008). The increased population of these vegetarian would ravage the vegetation in the forest and this would make the place inhabitable for small animals and insects. The insects would then move to the farmland, which would greatly effect on vital food sources that human beings depend on for survival thus negatively affecting on human population. If vegetation can no longer grow in the jungle, the soil in the jungle would soon lose its fertility and eventually the jungle would lose its life to become a wilderness. The extinction of the Bengal Tigers in Indian forests will also lead to co extinction of other species in the forests. First, the tiger being on top of the food chain helps other animals such as birds and reptiles get food when it catches a prey. When a tiger has eaten its fill for instance from a prey, it abandons the rest which become food to the scavengers and other animals such as reptiles. The extinction of the tiger will mean that these animals will have difficulty getting food and thus their survival is threatened. The extinction of a major predator from a food chain can also cause the extinction of the prey species, as increased population will result to increased competition, which poses a threat to the survival of the species (Mondol, Bruford & Ramakrishnan, 2013). The extinction of tigers would greatly affect the welfare and economic development of the communities in India in a very big way. The communities in India depend on the natural resources such as clean water, fresh air, rainfall and forest reserves all that the tiger requires for survival and is helpful to the human race. The conservation of tigers also helps in conservation of its natural habitat, which is also very essential for human survival. Extinction of tigers would cause neglect of conservation of the ecological resources, which would in turn result to negative impact on the welfare of the human race, and the animals that depend on the ecological resources (Chapron et al., 2008). The extinction of tigers would also mean a loss in ecotourism opportunities that are cantered around tigers especially in the Sundarbans (Sunquist & Sunquist, 2002). The local communities in India work very closely with the government and NGOs to promote ecotourism cantered around tigers, which is beneficial to the economy of the surrounding areas. Extinction of tigers would mean a loss in this opportunity and thus drawback to the economy of the surrounding areas and that of India as well. The extinction of Bengal Tigers will change the attention of the poachers to another species of animal to exploit it as well (Sodhi, Brook, & Bradshaw, 2007). For instance, after the extinction of the Javan tigers in the 20th century, poachers turned their attention to the Sumatran tiger, it is not yet known which other animal will be under threat of exploitation after the extinction of the Bengal tigers. Climate change would also result from the extinction of the Bengal tigers in India as there are very many hectares of forestland that are under protection because of the Bengal tigers (Unruh, Krol & Kliot, 2004). If these tigers were to become extinct, then the forest would fall victim to illegal logging, human settlement and urbanization. The forest plays a vital role in attracting rainfall as well as removing carbon dioxide from the environment. Destruction of the forest would result to low rainfall and accumulation of greenhouse gases, which causes the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming, as well as sea level rise which would negatively affect life in the planet. How will the extinction of Bengal tigers affect the food chain, local communities and the surrounding species in India? The extinction of Bengal tigers in India will greatly threaten the survival of animals lower in the food chain and those animals that depend on the leftovers of the tiger. The local community will also be affected due to loss of ecotourism and loss of biodiversity and ecological balance. The extinction of the tiger will also greatly affect the survival of other species in its habitat due to the loss of ecological balance. The destruction or elimination of one element in the ecosystem has far-reaching and enduring effects on the environment. Extinction is permanent and irreversible; the human race should revisit the issue of conservation of Bengal tigers by regulating human activities, which is the greatest threat to the survival of tigers. References Bhattarai, B. P., & Kindlmann, P. (2012). Interactions between Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris). Biodivers Conserv, 21:2075–2094. Borthakur, U., Barman, R. D., Das, C., Basumatary, A., Talukdar, A., FirozAhmed, M., . . . Bharali, R. (2011). Noninvasive genetic monitoring of tiger. Eur J Wildl Res, 57:603–613. Chapron, G., Miquelle, D. G., Lambert, A., Goodrich, J. M., Legendre, S., & Clobert, J. (2008). The impact on tigers of poaching versus prey depletion. Journal of Applied Ecology, 45, 1667–1674 Mondol, S., Bruford, M. W., & Ramakrishnan, U. (2013). Demographic loss, genetic structure and the conservation implications for Indian tigers. Proceedings the Royal Society B, 1471-2954. Sodhi, N. S., Brook, B. W., & Bradshaw, C. J. (2007). Tropical Conservation Biology. Victoria: Blackwell Publiushing. Sunquist, M., & Sunquist, F. (2002). Wild Cats of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Unruh, J. D., Krol, M., & Kliot, N. (2004). Environmental Change and Its Implications for Population Migration. Dordrechi: Kluwer Academic Publisher. Read More