"Right now, there are only 1,500 Bengal Tigers left in the world. At current rates of poaching, deforestation and conflict with humans, the Bengal Tiger will be extinct by 2020. Since humans have led to the endangerment, it is now our duty to help protect it. However, the state of Maharashtra, in India, is doing just the opposite. It has just given the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra permission to clear over 90,000 acres of land. The land would be stripped of its natural ecosystem and replaced with a bamboo and teak plantation. The FDCM, while often stripping down natural habitats, has absolutely no practices in the way of conservation. They do nothing to try and preserve the wildlife that they are disrupting. They have a history of cutting down trees without at first considering the destruction they are doing to wildlife.
In the case of the Lendezari, the name of the area making up half the land in question, they would be cutting down critical tiger habitat. The area is between two important tiger reserves. The Lendezari acts as a corridor between the Pench and the Nagzira Reserve. There were once proposals to make it a reserve in and of itself. If these tiger habitats become fragmented, then tigers will not breed as often. Also, when habitats become fragmented, poaching and human destruction to the animal population generally worsen.
Therefore, we need to tell the Principal Forest Secretary of the State that we need to preserve this area. The Lendezari is not the place to create a bamboo and teak planation. Since we, as humans, have endangered Bengal Tigers, it is our duty to help preserve their habitat and allow them a fighting chance."
