Education Helps to Save Wild Tigers

It has been a challenging year for fundraising for our education and other projects as the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit hard. With no new donations to the Education project since January 2024 we have been unable to move forward with new initiatives or the expansion of our Forest Safety Education programme which we launched in 2023. In the last quarter we have concentrated on reinforcing the importance of forest safety whilst continuing to roll-out the programme to the remotest villages in the far reaches of Bandhavgarh’s buffer zone. Providing Education packs for the poorest children living with wild tigers is still a key priority for Tigers4Ever but fundraising for education over the last year has been incredibly challenging.

Forest Safety Education is more important every day as human encroachment into the forest increases and wildlife encroachment into the villages does too. Especially during the monsoon rains when people move into the forest to gather fruit and graze their livestock on fresh grasses. Tigers4Ever has always prided itself on its ability to adapt to the immediate needs in Bandhavgarh and 2024 has certainly brought many new challenges which needed urgent action. The biggest current challenges include increased incidences of Tiger-Tiger conflict, Human-Tiger and Human-Elephant Conflict, whilst Sloth bear attacks, forest fires, and unseasonal rainfall have also presented challenges in the last year. Possibly the biggest challenge we continue to face is a lack of funds to address the increasing demand for help. Every challenge faced by Tigers4Ever needs an individualised solution and we do our best to get these in place as quickly as we can. New challenges present learning opportunities for our Team both in India and the UK, emphasising just how important Education is for all. Yourcontinued support for everything we do is amazing, and we are eternally grateful that you’re there when we need you most.

All Tigers4Ever projects have interdependencies as our unique 3-pronged approach to ensure that wild tigers will have a wild future is effected and involve communities who live with wild tigers who want to ensure that wild tigers survive too. Without support from the wider tiger community, our efforts to protect the wild tigers and their precious forest habitat would all be in vain. Our projects to reduce human-wildlife conflict, our anti-poaching patrols and our education projects are all vital to ensuring that wild tigers have a wild future living harmoniously alongside the people whose ancestors have been guardians of the forest in the past centuries. At the beginning of the 20^th century, 100000 wild tigers roamed the earth living alongside 1.65 billion people with both giving the other space to thrive. In 2024, there are only 5574 wild tigers and an estimated 8.1 billion humans with much less space for the wildlife to roam.

If humans and wild animals can’t live alongside each other in harmony, then the future for wild tigers is very bleak. This is why forest safety education and school education are priorities alongside everything else we do. In addition, we need more solutions to address the increase in human-wildlife conflict which threatens to undermine the success we have had to date in boosting wild tiger numbers!

Local Children are the Future Tiger Protectors

Sometimes when thinking about wild tigers it is easy to forget that the current generation of conservationists and tiger protectors won’t be around forever. If we want wild tigers to be around forever, we must plan for their future too. That means that we can’t forget about the thousands of children living alongside wild tigers, as we need them to become the next generation of wild tiger protectors. Without education, it will be almost impossible as these children will become dependent on the land and forest to survive, cutting down more trees to create more firewood and farmland without knowing the impact of their actions.

We need to help these children in 2024 and beyond, before it is too late. In 2023, we gave educational opportunities to 820 children living alongside wild tigers and with our Forest Safety Education programme we have helped the children of another 105 villages to be safe when encountering wildlife too. But in 2024 we have been unable to provide education packs in the villages so far. Our anti-poaching patrolling Team continues to deliver safety education talks and resources to the people they encounter in the forest with the hope of keeping both them and the wildlife safe.

The biggest threats to life for wildlife and humans in Bandhavgarh still come from four main species: Tigers, Elephants, Snakes and Leopards. Sloth bear attacks are less frequent and are rarely like the one at the end of 2023 which resulted in many casualties and deaths from a single sloth bear’s attack. Sadly, the press seems to focus on the killings made by wild tigers, which leads to outrage and claims that the tiger is a maneater, which in most cases it is not. Without education, such incidents never end well for the wild tiger as people gang up to attack it with sticks, which can lead to more human deaths or injuries! People will also try to poison the tiger and its cubs, or demand that it be captured and put in a zoo, none of which are good for the tiger or its offspring.

We Hope to Deliver Safety Education beyond Bandhavgarh

Human-wildlife conflict is a growing problem in tiger territories all over India, so we hope that we can help in areas beyond Bandhavgarh, but we can’t do this with current funding, and we will need extra human resources including volunteers too. Until we have the necessary funding, we are unable to talk to the key people in other areas to find out which animals cause the most human-wildlife conflict for them, as we would need funds to produce tailored forest safety education resources to address their specific needs too. Securing funding for the production and distribution of the safety banners will then be our next biggest challenge! For now we are focusing on solutions to reduce the loss of life for both humans and wildlife in Bandhavgarh by ensuring that everyone in the 105 villages has access to the Tigers4Ever forest safety education and that we have installed safety measures like our solar-powered street lighting initiative in high risk locations where human-wildlife conflict is frequent. To learn more about the solar lighting project and our waterholes to reduce human wildlife conflict, please take a look at our latest project report here: Reports on Water for Bandhavgarh's Tigers - Reducing Conflict - GlobalGiving

Nonetheless if elephants, leopards, snakes and wild tigers, are to have long term futures in Bandhavgarh, and elsewhere in India, it is essential that the human and wildlife communities can live together in harmony.

Traditional Educational Resources

As previously mentioned, we still intend helping the poorest children living in the villages around Bandhavgarh, so we’ll try to raise sufficient funds to enable the maximum number of children to go to school. This will give them the best chance of becoming future wild tiger protectors rather than the devastating alternative of destroyers of the precious forest habitat which wild tigers and their prey so desperately need. Now there are more tigers and more elephants living in and around Bandhavgarh, the risk of retaliatory attacks on wildlife is too high for us not to prioritise forest safety education and anti-poaching patrols! By ensuring the people know how to protect themselves and keep wildlife safe, we hope that such attacks and human-wildlife conflict will reduce.

It would be amazing to know that you’ve helped us to keep thousands of wild animals safe thanks to our latest education projects, would it not?

If you want to help us provide essential education training and resources, your gift today will make a huge difference: https://goto.gg/32565  

The Record so Far

We have helped 3400 children living with wild tigers in 34 villages gain access to education, so we still have a lot more to do. Thousands of children desperately need your help too! On 29 July 2024 it will be the 15^th Anniversary of Global Tiger Day (also known as International Tiger Day) and it would be amazing if all our supporters could spare £15/$15/€15 or 15 of your own currency in honour of this special day and wild tigers:https://goto.gg/32565. We want to ensure that the future generations of Bandhavgarh will protect the forest and its wild tigers as our team in India and our anti-poaching patrols do now. To do this, we need your help to fund vital education resources today. If you can help, please do: https://goto.gg/32565, where even the smallest donation can have a huge impact.

For every £1400 (US$1800) we raise, we can provide educational resources for 450 children living with wild tigers to give them the best chance of becoming the next generation of tiger protectors in Bandhavgarh. (https://goto.gg/32565).

Please help us to help more children to have an education and become tiger protectors rather than foragers, by considering a new monthly donation. It is never too late to make a difference: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/education-saves-tigers/?show=recurring.

Long Term Impact

Our experience has shown us over the last 14 years, that without education, the poorest children have limited prospects and frequently end up picking tendu leaves, mahua flowers and amla fruit from the forest to sell. Whilst others cut down trees for wood to sell and clear precious forest habitat to create more land for agriculture. Children from the poorest families don’t have access to online learning facilities, as many live without electricity or technology. https://goto.gg/32565

Your support for our work is amazing. We definitely couldn’t keep wild tigers safe without it. We hope that we can provide a brighter future for some of Bandhavgarh’s poorest children and future generations of wild tigers. Please support our education projects in Bandhavgarh by starting a new monthly recurring donation from just £5 (US$8) per month, if you can, your donations will make a huge difference each year: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/education-saves-tigers/?show=recurring.

In Bandhavgarh, for the thousands of young children with no access to schooling, without computers or mobile phones, without electricity in their homes, a bleak future awaits. These are the children who Tigers4Ever has always tried to help with books and basic writing materials to give them hope. With your help we can give them a chance which otherwise they may not have. Remember: when we provide education packs and scholarships for children living with wild tigers, we reduce the risk of future tiger habitat destruction AND ensure that these children will have a chance to become tiger protectors in future.

Thank you for your generosity and support on behalf of the wild tigers, which we are keeping safe; on behalf of the children who we have helped to get an education (and their families who have food because of this help); and on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing books and writing materials for inclusion in the education packs which we distribute; and also the safety education training materials we are using.

Links:

• Tigers4Ever website
• Become a Fundraiser for wild Tigers
• Buy Greetings Cards to help save wild Tigers