From a roar to a meow

The latest CSR based ad campaign by a new teleco caught my attention...More so because I am an animal lover and the campaign highlights the alarming decline of our beloved national animal- The Tiger. From 40,000 to just 1411 that is an almost 100% percent decline. The fall has beaten the stock market crash across the world. In India there seems to be a wave of optimism and some industry experts are hopeful that the sensex will gradually & eventually move northward, especially with the stimulus and corrective measures taken by the finance ministries. But I don't feel the same optimism when it comes to the tiger population, especially given there seems to be more lip service than actual action. I love tigers..so what if I've never been fortunate enough or rather have been fortunate enough to not have a rendezvous with one.I still feel strongly for this specie, especially because my first love was a tiger's cub, whose picture I had seen in one of the animal magazines in my childhood days.Pray, with the way things are going, future generations might well have to resort to movies and books to look at this magnificent creature. But don't get me wrong my love for tigers has nothing to do with my background, as in my community identity. My fondness is restricted to the stripped four legged man-eater and not to any individual whose considered the human equal of it.The only dissimilarity and a striking one that too remains that one is a national animal & the other one would rather want to be viewed as a regional member. Interestingly though, it appears that somehow their fates seems to be entwined.Both seem to be losing their battles to control territory and fight extinction...