CONSERVATION OF TIGERS

It is a widely known fact that the Tiger (Panthera tigris) is India's national animal, due to its colours (orange and white skin, and its green forest habitat) that also appear in the national flag. In that case, it should also be the most populated animal in the country as well. Well, that is how it was for a very long time. Over the past century, these majestic creatures have been hunted down - from about 100,000 to a few thousand as of 2013. Despite all conservation efforts, the population continues to decline. Some extinct subspecies of  tigers are the Caspian, Javan and Bali tigers. There are only a few hundred living Sumatran tigers, which is listed as "critically endangered" by the IUCN.

As we all know, the main causes for the tiger's population decline includes habitat destruction and poaching, as their body parts like their claws, teeth and skin sell well in the black market. Even worse, some sadistic people during the British Raj hunted and murdered tigers for years just as a sport, or because they considered them malicious. The creatures also reproduce extremely slowly and attempts to mate have often proven disastrous, with the tigers sometimes killing each other, increasing the chance of extinction. Sometimes the parent tigers "accidentally" kill their offsprings by gnawing them when they mean to lift them, or by rolling over them. It is sad that tigers, despite having good intelligence, fail to realise that they are endangered.

Not only do the tiger's skin colours represent the Republic of India, but even because the creature's strength, majestic and courageous character. An example comes in the film Life of Pi, where Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) was so closely attached to the tiger Richard Parker despite its ferocious characteristics, he preferred it over the less ferocious hyena that also appears in the film. In fact, he loved the tiger, which is what kept him alive for the 227 days he spent stranded on the boat at sea.

When people refuse to believe Pi's story with the tiger, he narrates a different story which involves him and humans instead of animals, in the form of a Buddhist sailor, his mother and a cruel cook. The cook symbolises the hyena by killing the sailor and Pi's mother (who represent the zebra and orangutan that accompanied Pi in the boat, before being killed by the hyena), and Pi symbolises the tiger by killing the cook (mirroring the tiger killing the hyena). Thus, Pi compares himself to a tiger.

So if tiger hunting is as illegal as possession of narcotics, it is better they be left alone or be protected as long as they are alive, for killing a tiger is like killing the pride of the nation.

ANIMATED STARS SANS DIALOGUES

If an animated character becomes very popular, usually he/she receives praise for the voice acting, with which even the voice actor becomes very popular. Take for example, Mark Hamill was amazing when he voiced the Joker in Batman the Animated Series, and its subsequent follow-ups like The New Batman Adventures and Justice League the Animated Series. In my view, Kevin Conroy (who voiced Batman in the same shows) is also the perfect voice for the Dark Knight, and both Conroy and Hamill have reprised their roles for the Batman: Arkham games. But what if a character becomes very popular, but has no on-screen dialogue? Wouldn't it therefore look like no-one "acted" as the character, because no dialogue means no voice-acting? Here's a list of some of my favourite animated characters, who are predominantly silent/without dialogues:

Scrat: My most favourite character in the Ice Age franchise, I could call this sabre-toothed squirrel a breakout character for his franchise, despite following his own stories in the films outside the main plot. An impressive fact about Scrat is his obsession with acorns, and no matter how dangerous the situation, he has never shown any signs of serious injury so far, and always manages to save his acorn (Well, only till the end of each film). He does not have any spoken dialogue, but his shrieks and screams are all the voice effects of Chris Wedge. Still as those cannot count as dialogues, I cannot count Scrat as having been voiced by anyone.


Dumbo: The titular character of the 1941 Disney film, he is a baby circus elephant. Unlike the other circus elephants in the film, he does not talk and is mocked at because his ears are very large (just wait till you see how useful they become for him later in the film). His sound effects, such as the sneezes, hiccups and weeps have no significance, therefore we can conclude that no-one voiced Dumbo.

Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner: The former is the main antagonist of the cartoons featuring him and the Roadrunner, I can also call him the true star of all those cartoons as he has the most screen time, despite all of them being publicised as "Roadrunner" cartoons. Coyote never speaks a word or screams even when injured by boulders and trucks, and defies physics in every cartoon he appears, which makes him a favourite. I also like the nearly "immortal" and "invincible" Roadrunner, as he too defies physics and is never attacked by the Coyote and easily escapes all the traps meant to kill him. Like Coyote, Roadrunner too has no dialogues, and although Coyote is completely mute the whole time, Roadrunner iconically says "Beep! Beep!" (voiced by Mel Blanc) the whole time, which is also his most powerful weapon to defeat his rival.


Tom and Jerry: My most favourite pair of characters in animation, the majority of their cartoons feature them silent and lacking dialogues, which makes their cartoons universally understandable and accessible. Though Tom is often popularly shown to scream whenever he is attacked or injured in a slapstick manner, these do not count as dialogues and there have been only a few cartoons where he speaks even briefly. At the same time, Jerry has almost never even spoken (maybe you can exclude cartoons like The Lonesome Mouse and The Zoot Cat)

Pluto the Dog: Probably the only member of Disney's "sensational six" (others are Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck) who is not anthropomorphic and is treated as a pet. Despite this, he is still sentient and can understand human speech. Just like Tom and Jerry, the majority of cartoons featuring Pluto as the star have no dialogues by any of the characters involved, and so the cartoons rely on physical humour, making them understandable to the common man, regardless of the languages he knows. Today however, the internet sees Pluto as retarded, because Goofy is human-like and can talk, despite both of them being Disney dogs.

Pink Panther: The title character in the opening and closing credit sequences of every film in the Pink Panther film series, he became popular enough to become the star of his own self-titled theatrical cartoons. These cartoons successfully emulate silent era cartoons despite having colour and smooth animation, and though most of them follow the same concept - the Panther fighting with an egg-shaped white man, the music, setting and silence of the cartoons and the Panther's performance make both the Panther and his series a favourite of mine. Although "all" the Pink Panther theatrical cartoons feature the titular character silent, two exceptions can be noted in the form of Sink Pink and Pink Ice (both were released in 1965).


Nani the Fly: The main protagonist of the 2012 Tamil film Naan Ee, Nani was a young and energetic man who was ruthlessly murdered, and reincarnated as a housefly seeking to avenge his murder. The film is probably one of the most innovative and unusual reincarnation-themed films I've ever seen, without a dominant human protagonist. Actor Nani who plays the same-named hero in human form, does not dub the voice for his character's 3D animated fly incarnation which is mute, making it clear that the star of the film is not portrayed by anyone. The "fly" however acted amazingly well, and could be deemed as one of the best animal actors in India, along with the elephant that played Ramu in Haathi Mere Saathi (1971) and the snake that appeared in Neeya (1979).


Perry the Platypus: What appears to be the quadrupedal mindless and domesticated pet of Phineas and Ferb, can actually (but in secret) stand on two feet and lives a double life as a crime-fighting secret agent working for the "Organization Without a Cool Acronym"/The OWCA, going by the codename "Agent P." Though almost perfectly anthropomorphic, he is still as tall as a typical platypus and cannot talk. However, that does not stop Perry from being among my most favourite animated characters sans dialogues.