International Tiger Day: Challenging Star Darshan says ‘Save forests to save tigers’

Challenging Star Darshan’s favourite pastime is spending time out in the wild and indulging his passion of wildlife photography as well. The superstar has been a wildlife conservation ambassador for the Karnataka State Forest Department for many years and never misses out on an opportunity to give society a pertinent message about safeguarding not only wild animals, but their habitats as well. Earlier today, on the occasion of International Tiger Day, celebrated on July 29, Darshan had yet another hard-hitting message.

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Taking to social media with a video of him talking about the necessity of saving forests to save tigers, with visuals of him on his wildlife photography safaris, the actor said, “In the forest, a single tiger requires a 15-16 square kilometre radius territory, which, over the years has reduced to 5-6 square kilometres. As a result of this, tigers are in close proximity to each other and fighting for territory, which in turn ends in grievous injury and even death to the animals. On this International Tiger Day, if you really wish to save tigers, humans should not foray into the forest, as that then causes the animals to stray into ‘human habitat’. Save the forests to really save tigers.”

The Tiger Day message is, incidentally, a continuation of what Darshan had said earlier this year for World Forest Day, when he had urged his followers to help conserve forests. The actor stated that forests not only prevent soil erosion, but also attract more rainfall, which in turn is beneficial for the farmers of the state. Prior to that, on World Wildlife Day, Darshan had said that the only way animals ought to be shot are with cameras and had shared a bunch of his best shots.