TIPU'S TIGER

One of the first articles I did when I started Phacemag, hence ... best pp xxx 31-12-19 

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​Tipu's Tiger in the V & A - Museum, is a very popular exhibit but very few know that it's very existence may be responsible for the slaughter of thousands of tigers...

​The History.... 

Tipu - The Sultan/Tiger of Mysore, resisted the East India Companies dominance for years. By doing so he resisted the might of the British Empire. He commissioned the tiger carving as a show of strength. Knowing full well the tiger represented his resistance. It became figure head,. A symbol of rebellion that arguably sentenced every tiger in India to death. After Tipu's eventual death, (i'll link the history) the tiger carving was captured by the British.

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​The tiger then became a figure of all that was evil. The enemy of the empire.

​Even Kipling was guilty of maligning the Tiger, in 'Jungle Book.'

What A Baddy

Soon literaly! Thousands of Tigers were being slaughtered for sport, for recreation. The amount of tigers you had killed became a status symbol.

Sadness continued because even after India's independence, Tiger killing was associated with success and power. So was adopted by the once down trodden indiginous people !

Tiger slaughter continued,.

At an alarming rate...

Until...

​ The saviour of the tiger arrived.

Indira Ghandi, who as the then prime minister, understood the senseless threat and set up project Tiger in 1973.

It worked, and slowly from a tiger population as low as only 1800!! In 1973. It climbed to 4000.

The Tiger was saved.... For now.... For then? For when?

​Because on the 31st of October 1984. The saviour of the Indian Tiger, Indira Ghandi was assassinated.

And just as politics started the tiger slaughter. It went on to kill the one person who even today is recognised as doing more for nature conservation (project Tiger) than any other Human.
​Namely, she saved the Bengal Tiger from extinction. ❤️

​pauliepaul

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