The
Indochinese tiger is a Pantheratigristigris population in Southeast Asia. Theravāda
is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest extant school. Modern
Theravāda derives from the Mahāvihāra sect, a Sri Lankan branch of the
Vibhajjavādins, a sub-sect of the Indian Sthavira Nikaya, which began to
establish itself on the island from the 3rd century BCE onwards.
It
did not happen overnight ~ pressure was building with the hype created by the
foreign media who hyperactivated news that things are not aright .. and then
more than 500 officers from Thailand’s Department of National Parks (DNP)
swooped on the Tiger Temple, in the town of Kanchanaburi, a couple of hours’
drive west of Bangkok, on May 30, 2016 stating allegations of illegal breeding and
trafficking in the endangered cats.
It
was a Buddhist place of worship ~ known for its calmness. The temple’s abbot
vigorously denied any impropriety. But a total of 147 live tigers were
confiscated.. .. .. and the Tiger Temple had to be shut down. It clearly demonstrated what a
focussed media attack can do – first they congregated calling it a
controversial house. Founded in 1992,
Wat PhaLuang Ta Bua Yanasampanno, as it was officially known, received its
first cub in 1999. Buddhist temples have traditionally been places to take
injured and abandoned animals. But Kanchanaburi became famous because it was
the only place where visitors could see orange-robed monks and big cats living
together in what appeared to be harmony. The Tiger Temple was essentially a
theme park, sprawling over 60 acres, with Tiger Island occupying 5 acres in the
middle. Hundreds of deer, boar and cows roamed the outer scrub, along with
gangs of civet cats, ponies and peafowl. The tigers were mostly confined to
individual concrete cells, although they had the run of larger enclosures on a
rotating basis. Every afternoon, a few were led on chain leashes to “the
Canyon” — an artificial habitat complete with rocky cliff face and pond — for
pictures with tourists.
Reportedly,
in Thailand, all tigers technically belong to the government, but private
owners are permitted to keep tigers, and breeding and using them for commercial
purposes is legal with a zoo license. There are hundreds of captive tigers reared at various places. Thai DNP officers chose to strike at Wat
PhaLuang Ta Bua Yanasampanno, accusing that monks were illegally breeding and
trafficking endangered animals.
Logically
as the tourists grew, the space for Tigers and animals shrunk and there were
more younger ones, which were the natural choice of visiting tourists to get
closer and take ‘selfies’. It was also
claimed that they had kept some dead tiger cubsin the freezer for legitimate
reasons, they say, as the temple’s former vet insisted that they keep deceased
cubs — a litter’s natural mortality rate can push 40% — to prove they were not
being trafficked.
Whoever
is right, there was something about the Tiger Temple that didn’t sit easily
with Buddhism — not even Thailand’s brazenly commercial brand of it. It was hard
to square the principle of ahimsa — “do no harm” — with the feeding $15,000 of
farmed poultry to wild animals each week, not to mention coaxing the revenue
from tourists. Each day, hundreds of visitors paid entry fees and more for
cuddling a tiger cub. The economies of operations were getting
messier ~ to maintain the cubs, to pay for food and vet bills and full time
staff, the Tiger temple did need tourists to come and part with money.
Increasingly
visitors wanted to take photos with cute, tiny cubs. That meant breeding more
of them, since cubs become unbridled adolescents when they reach the age of 6
months. From that age, impetuous and unaware of their own strength, they can be
very dangerous. So whether the abbot was really making money from the venture
was always a big Q ! - those volunteers
and supporters cried hoarse that the abbot was unfairly marred and targeted.
~
and they were not without reason .. if
the purpose was to save the tigers and not allow private display – what
followed was really worser. Some media
highlighted that immediately after the raids, three months after the raid, the temple’s
tigers were in a worser state. Robbed of
distractions, toys and space to prowl, several sported facial wounds from
bashing their heads against the bars of their tiny government enclosures, where
they spent 24 hours a day. One died too.
Perhaps the measure of confiscating all tigers was in a rush, without
any proper plans for keeping the tigers and rehabilitating them. Curiously, after the raids too, one large cat remained at the temple: a lion,
called Petchy, who still roams his own leafy enclosure. The foliage so thick
that the only clues to his continued existence are a ripped up toys left for
him daily — and the occasional roar from deep in the undergrowth.
So
after that botched operation, 147 tigers were taken over by the Govt and taken
to two breeding stations in nearby Ratchaburi province but not many have
survived ! ~ not admitting that deaths
have occurred whilst in their custody for over 3 years now, the Dept tries to
state that deaths could be linked to inbreeding !“Most of the tigers were
already in a distressed state stemming from the transportation and change of
location … later their health problems emerged,” said another department
official.
Conservationists
question whether authorities had looked after the seized animals appropriately,
with small, cramped cages enabling the spread of disease.Conditions at the
enclosures were “not good enough to house so many tigers and the setup was
wrong”, they added.Three years after 147 tigers were seized from the Tiger
Temple in Thailand, government officials are reporting that 86 of the rescued
animals have died. The official cause of death, according to the Thai
government, was a viral disease exacerbated by inbreeding of the big cats.
The
tigers did live well and attracted hundreds of tourists adding revenue to the
Nation, but a National Geographic expose
and work by the Australian conservation nonprofit Cee4Life alleged controversial
practices, including alleged animal abuse and speed breeding of the big cats to
supply tiger body parts for illegal trade.With
pressure building up, Govt acted in haste without really being prepared for it
! raiding on the abbot taking away 147 tigers – of which 86 have died whilst
being provided care at Govt custody..
So what would the authorities, and the Press which campaigned
for the safety of tigers say now ! ~ were they right in vociferously
campaigning removal of big cats, only to lead to their deaths probably due to
negligence, lack of space and care. Opinions would naturally be divergent ! ~
not good for the big cats.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
19th
Sept. 2019.
