India is urbanising rapidly – India’s tiger population is expanding. There is a link between these two facts, this is not a coincidence.
When we use extensive peasant agriculture to make a living then we use lots and lots and lots of land to do so. This means that there’s not much land left over for wildlife:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] India’s tiger population has increased by a third in four years, bringing the animal back from the brink of extinction. The census results, a success for government conservation efforts, were unveiled this morning by Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister. They showed that the tiger population rose to 2,967 last year, from 2,226 in 2014. [/perfectpullquote]As we intensify agriculture, that pressure on land use diminishes. We use more fertiliser and less land to gain the same crop for example. We mechanise so that less labour is used out there in the fields. That now unused labour migrates into the cities where it is exploited in the sweatshops by gaining indoor work with no heavy lifting:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]According to one estimate, big cats breed and live in only about 10% of India’s total potential tiger habitat of 300,000 sq km (115,830 sq miles).[/perfectpullquote]As we make farming ever more efficient in terms of land use – by industrialising and chemicalising that farming – then we’ll have more room for tigers, won’t we?
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]India’s tiger population rises to 3,000 despite cities expanding[/perfectpullquote]Yes, well done there to Sky News. The correct headline is:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]India’s tiger population rises to 3,000 because cities expanding[/perfectpullquote]Very well done indeed.
Being a wimp, I’d naturally prefer that my country was NOT infested by things that would eat me. So, if I was an Indian, I’d prefer to know that India’s tiger population had dropped to zero.
I suppose I really have a palaeolithic attitude. I feel that the thing to do with the megafauna is to kill it.
Why is so much MSM so wrong about so many issues? Feeling trumping fact probably.
The Age of the Enlightenment is over, The Age of Sentimentality is in full swing. It almost makes one want to have a hissy fit.