Friday, March 20, 2009

Tiger numbers diminishing rapidly

Tendulkar dedicates ton to tiger conservation

Hamilton (PTI): Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar today dedicated his 42nd Test hundred, which put India in command against New Zealand, to the cause of tiger conservation.

"I would very much like to like to dedicate this hundred to tiger conservation because that is what right from the start of this tour the whole team had decided. I have given couple of messages as well in this regard. So I would dedicate this one to tiger conservation," said Tendulkar, who smashed a sublime 160 at the Seddon Park.

On the eve of the first Test, Tendulkar had supported the cause, expressing his concerns at the dwindling numbers of tigers in India.

"At the start of the century, there were nearly 40,000 tigers in India. Today, that number has shrunk to 1,700 and we are losing at least one tiger a month. The rate at which the tiger is being hunted down is alarming," Tendulkar had said.


Tendulkar has got the rate of 1 tiger loss per month wrong. There were 40000 tigers at the start of his century and by the end of it, there were only 1700. So, that would be a loss of 13.82 tigers every 1 second.

That's a truly staggering rate of decline.

P.S. I am just kidding of course, Tendulkar's concerns are well-placed.

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