India, Aug. 17 -- It's just over 20 years now. In August of 2005, we handed over the Tiger Task Force report to the then prime minister, Manmohan Singh. His government had asked me to chair this committee and draw up an agenda for the conservation of this flagship species. This came on the heels of an investigation by intrepid journalist Joydev Majumdar, who had broken the story that the last tiger had disappeared from Sariska National Park in Rajasthan. The government, faced with public outrage, did not do the usual-deny, obfuscate or set up a closed committee to produce recommendations that would invariably be buried. Instead, the committee comprised stellar conservationists and scientists with expertise, independence and divergent view...