By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's dwindling tiger population will never recover and it will take a miracle to save those left from habitat destruction and poaching, a renowned expert said on Wednesday.
Failure by authorities to understand the needs of tigers and provide protection has led to numbers falling to 1,300 now from around 3,700 in 2001/02, Valmik Thapar told Reuters ahead of the Reuters Environment Summit next week.
"I believe that the government of the day failed the tigers of India and we cannot recover this population ever again," said Thapar, who has spent the past three decades documenting the behavior of tigers and crusading for their survival.
"A miracle is required to save the Indian tiger. But I don't believe in miracles, as the commitment to save tigers is non-existent."
India has half the world's surviving tigers, but their populations have suffered, driven by a demand for tiger skins and bones in China for traditional medicines.
Thapar, 55, has written 15 books about tigers and presented around 20 documentaries for broadcasters and channels such as the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery and Animal Planet.
His close relationship over six or seven years with a tigress called "Macchli" -- meaning fish in Hindi due to a fish-like marking on her cheek -- is widely documented in his films.
Thapar, also known as India's "Tiger man", was also the first to document how male tigers behave in a family unit. Continued...
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