Indian State Launching Commando Force to Protect Tigers

The only thing scarier than a tiger is a tiger backed by a dude wielding a rifle.

There are a variety of ways to protect severely endangered species from human encroachment, from setting up wildlife reserves to building up populations in captivity. And now, thanks to the government of the Indian state of Karnataka's efforts to protect the dwindling tiger population, there's another: protecting them with armed commandos. To stave off the poachers and hunters from killing the rest of the state's 300 or so tigers, the Karnataka government is creating the Special Tiger Protection Force, a group of 54 commandos armed with assault rifles who will patrol the wilds of the southern Indian state looking for no-goodniks. Fifty tigers have been illegally killed in the state in the past five years. All told, there are 1,706 tigers still in the wild in India, down from 40,000 in the 1940s. Similar such commando programs will soon be launched at 13 different tiger reserves across the country to prevent any further decline of the giant predator. We guess this is a slightly improved version of our proposal of punishing anyone caught poaching by forcing them into unarmed combat against one of the felines. That, or attaching human-sensing assault rifles to tigers' heads, although there was the concern that the cats would have spent all day chasing the guns' red laser sights. Whatever works, though!