Life, or something close to it.

So, apparently there are 1411 tigers left in India. It’s a sad thing to know. We live in a time when the ugly human population has become unbearable and the magnificent tigers are approaching extinction. The situation I admit is not ideal, but this horribly shocking news is unfortunately nothing more than a mere trivia to me. For being under circumstances that I am in, there isn’t much I can do. In fact if I were in a free world where I was able to pursue the path I chose, I don’t believe saving tigers would be my priority. Sure I support the cause to save them, but in my own passive way. I am not a champion for their cause, I never will be. I feel bad for them but my feeling bad from this distance doesn’t help a single one of those 1411 tigers, and I will not pretend to think that it does. I can promise that I will not kill a tiger if I get the chance, but I wasn't really a threat to begin with. I'm writing a blog to spread awareness, but you who are reading this most probably aren’t ruthless tiger hunters either. So where do I stand in this fight for the preservation of the striped cat? Nowhere to be honest. I write a blog, spend some minutes in front my computer screen, feel bad and then I look on as the countdown continues. Nothing changes. To be involved, really involved we will have to begin a crusade and fight for the rights of those exploited felines and put in a true struggle. And the brutal truth is I’m not that bothered about it. I do not mean to say that everyone shares my views. There are more than a few who are truly spearheading this thoughtful cause. Unfortunately I am not one of them. I am the modern 21st century man. I'll phone the ISP office and shout and threaten them if my internet is not working for an hour but when I read about the concisely finite numbers of tigers left, I will get shocked, I will say that’s too bad and I’ll continue browsing my high speed broadband internet.
When asked about the situation the tigers face, everyone likes to say "there'll come a time when I’ll have to show my kids pictures and movies of tigers." I find that is such an idiotic sentence to make. I've been alive for 21 years now, and years ago when the tiger population wasn’t this alarming I hadn’t seen a tiger in the wild, when there are 1411 left now I won’t see one in the wild, and irrelative of whether the number increases or decreases I still will not see one in the wild. The only ones I see will either be in a zoo or yup, in movies and pictures. They are not there for us to see them. They have a right to survive. To say we are fighting to keep them alive so we can exhibit them for the next generation is simply wrong and demeaning. We help them because they are facing a danger they are incapable of fighting. We save them because this is as much their planet as it is ours.
The message I try to spread through this blog is admittedly useless. When a poacher wants to kill, he'll kill. It doesn’t matter how many are left. His greed for material goods will make him see the insignificance of the life of an inferior creature. He'll feel no guilt. When the bad and the worse side of the human conscience are in a battle the worse side always presents the more profitable option. Greed is a more powerful force than compassion. To save the tigers we have to fight the poachers. Either the poachers become extinct or the tigers do. We have to stop encroaching on their jungle. There's a line that separates the jungle from the city, the wild from civilization and harmony will ensue if we both keep to our sides.
I accept that the effort that I put in through this blog is futile. And yet, I do not write this just for the sake of writing, just so I can feel better about myself. Somehow I hope it will bring a change somewhere. Maybe it'll bring a cascade effect of a vast dispersal of awareness of the fact that there's fight going on. Probably not. Right now I represent a contradiction of emotion. I understand my efforts are futile and yet even in my futile efforts I can find an irrational hope for a change. I guess that's what being human is. Gandhi said, 'Everything we do is futile but we must do it anyway.' Who am I to argue with Bapu?

If you want to help visit www.saveourtigers.com