climate change
The largest population of tigers reside in the Sundarbans –a large mangrove forest area that is shared by India and Bangladesh on the northern coast of the Indian Ocean. This area is home to the most abundant subspecies of tigers, the Bengal tiger, and protects the coastal habitat from storm surges and wind damage. However, recently the enormous amount of greenhouse gases polluted into the atmosphere every year is causing the climate around the world to become hotter. This is due to the immense build-up of greenhouse gases which trap the sun’s rays from getting out. The increase in temperature causes the ice in both the North and South Pole to melt, and as a result the sea level rises. These rising sea levels threaten to wipe out these mangrove forests and the remaining habitat of the tiger population. Without a place to live and hunt the tigers would die from starvation and are easy targets for poachers. In Figure 2.b, majority of the Sundarban area is in red, indicating that the area is in extreme risk of flooding which would wipe out the whole habitat of thousands of Bengal tigers. According to a WWF study, without mitigation efforts, projected sea level rise—nearly a foot by 2070—could destroy nearly the entire Sundarbans tiger habitat.
|