Professor GD Aggarwal and Anna Hazare both do it - the former for saving the Ganges from pollution and the latter for cleaning up the Government high offices from corruption. But for the first time, Gandhigiri is being resorted to create awareness against poaching of tigers. Wildlife activist Bandu Dhotre, founder of Indian wildlife group from Maharashtra, embarked on an indefinite fast on Monday outside Van Bhavan in Nagpur to protect the tigers of the country. He is being supported by other wildlife NGOs and his brigade of wildlife volunteers, some of whom he claims were former poachers themselves. “The recent spurt in tiger poaching cases is alarming,” said Dhotre. According to him, the so-called measures announced by the Government to save tigers are just cosmetic. “The Government is beating around the bush and is treating the symptoms instead of the cause-as the real trouble lies outside”. According to him, tigers can be protected effectively if the buffer/ territorial forests around the tiger reserves are treated at par with the latter, in terms of monitoring and protection mechanism. He pointed out that at a time when the tiger population is increasing and habitat shrinking, its protection can not be simply limited to the reserve area. As per the latest census report there are many more big cats in the unprotected buffer and territorial forests and that is where the poachers get a free hand to kill them,” he asserted. Pointing to the case of Tadoba, he said the core area is spread over 624 sq km, while the buffer and the territorial forests have an area of 1,100 sq km. “But the Tadoba tigers get VIP treatment while those outside live ‘below poverty line’”, he said. He has a list of 16 other demands to ensure the better protection of the tigers. Apart from the merger of territorial / buffer forest areas and reserves it also includes better monitoring systems such as the electronic eye system presently being used in the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand. Three years ago, Dhotre had undertaken a similar fast against the allotment of coal blocks to Adani in Lohara, falling in the buffer area of Tadoba--- that threatened to destroy the wildlife corridors. That fast had lasted for 14 days.