For centuries, they have been prized by hunters. Cunning and elegant, the tiger was taken to the brink of extinction by British marksmen atop elephants during the heyday of the Raj.
Poachers eager to sell tiger skins to collectors and organs as aphrodisiacs in the Far East further cut the numbers.
There used to be more than 20,000 tigers in India. Now, despite heroic efforts by conservationists to protect the last 3,000 of the great cats still roaming in remote areas, the Indian tiger is facing extinction from an unlikely new threat -- the West's passion for beauty products made from talcum powder.
ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
The white powder, derived from soapstone and marble, is used in many products, such as eye-shadow, lipsticks, deodorants and soaps, in a market that is worth billions to the cosmetic companies.
But we can reveal that the desire for these seemingly harmless products is leading to the destruction of the tigers' last natural habitat -- and, perhaps in less than 10 years, the species will be no more.
Britain's leading cosmetic manufacturer, Unilever, is one of a number of international firms that have been sourcing talc from illegal mining operations in sanctuaries critical to the survival of the tiger. The operations are centred about 250km southwest of Delhi in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The area is home to the Jamwa Ramgarh Wildlife Sanctuary and the neighboring Sariska Tiger Reserve.
Both the sanctuary and the reserve provide an ideal habitat for reviving the tiger population and are supposed to be protected by environmental laws. However, across vast tracts of the wildlife sanctuary, the mining industry has taken root. Using dynamite to blast the area for soapstone, wealthy mine owners are ripping up the habitat with blatant disregard for the surrounding environment and impoverished rural communities that live close by.
Slurries of waste the size of tower blocks litter the landscape. Large areas of forest have been depleted as trees make way for the mining operations. The mining leaves 90m-deep craters where trees once stood.
The impact on the tigers cannot be underestimated -- the loss of habitat and prey means the ecosystem that can sustain a tiger population is destroyed. The territory of a male tiger can range anything up to 100km2 -- it needs cover, food and water.
Valmik Thapar, the renowned tiger expert who presented the BBC's award-winning Land of the Tiger series, has described this region as a "small island of hope" for the endangered species, particularly with so much of India's natural tiger habitat lost for ever.
Thapar has been personally involved in the fight against the illegal mining in Rajasthan's wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves.
He said earlier this month: "In the past, the biggest threat to the tiger has been poachers and bone traders, but now it is the mining which rips apart the habitat of the tiger and violates the forests."
"If we don't do something to stop this, our tiger population has little chance of reviving itself. The Jamwa Ramgarh sanctuary is vital to the future of the Sariska reserve. It is a natural habitat for tigers to spill over and reproduce," he said.
Given the difficulty of counting actual numbers of tigers, conservationists such as Thapar believe it is more important to identify and protect breeding populations, and to calculate how many cubs are raised and disperse successfully.
Tiger cubs spend two-and-a-half years with their mother before finding a territory of their own.
The destruction of the forest, the pollution and the lowering of the water table, all caused by the mining, destroy ideal breeding grounds for young tigers. It is estimated that India is losing one tiger a day due in part to the loss of reproductive habitats.
Talc has several different grades and qualities. Its high thermal and electrical resistance means it is used in the production of paper and tiles, and as coating in the motor industry for dashboards and bumpers.
But it is the cosmetic industry that values its softness, purity and natural whiteness the most. It is used in practically every make-up or soap, including mascara, face powders, lipsticks and body lotions. In colored make-up such as eye shadow, talc can account for up to 80 percent of the ingredients.
One mine operating in the region is the huge Dagota Jhanra soapstone mine at the village of Dagota. The powder produced there is some of the finest anywhere and its soapstone mine is thought to be the largest. The mine has helped make its owner, the Golcha Group, one of the largest and richest firms in India.
However, the impact on local people, as well as tigers, has proved devastating. Locals from the village are paid 50 rupees a day for extracting and sorting the stone. Talc -- a magnesium silicate -- is produced by crushing giant soapstone boulders that lie beneath the earth's surface. The boulders are extracted like any other mineral.
Large pits are dug and the soapstone is blown from the ground with huge dynamite blasts that fill the air with powder.
Like many rural communities in this part of India, Dagota's residents have suffered five years of chronic water shortages that have hit their health and their farming. Desperately poor, many villagers have been forced to work in the mine to survive. They are given minimal protection and inhale the fine particles of talc, a mineral that some medical experts believe shares similar carcinogenic properties to asbestos and is thought to cause tumors in the ovaries and lungs.
The Jamwa Ramgarh Wildlife Sanctuary and the Sariska Tiger Reserve are supposed to be protected under environmental law that prohibits any non-forest activities such as mining from taking place.
With so much of India's forest region under threat from illegal hunting and logging, these laws were intended to save a habitat vital to the tiger and other wildlife.
However, such is the quality of the talc from these illegal mines that some of the world's best-known cosmetic companies have been using it in their products.
Unilever, one of Britain's largest companies, has confirmed that it has been buying talc from Dagota, although it will not reveal which products it puts it in. Unilever uses talc in some of its best-known brands -- Dove, Pears, Ponds, Sure, Impulse and Lynx. But it is not just Unilever. Golcha boasts that Johnson & Johnson uses its talc for its baby powder and lotion. Another customer is Revlon, the US cosmetics giant. Even the Avon lady has used Dagota's finest.
The Environmental Investigation Agency, a British group, was the first to expose the problems caused by illegal mining in the wildlife sanctuaries. It believes that unless drastic action is taken to stop the mining, India's tiger population could be wiped out.
Earlier this year, the agency published a report in Delhi entitled Undermined: destruction of tiger habitat in India. When the report appeared in India, the country's Supreme Court decided to investigate.
A powerful body called the Central Empowered Committee began to look into the mining operations in the sanctuary. At the end of last month it ordered the immediate closure of all the mines in the area, including Golcha's soapstone mine in Dagota. The committee had no doubts about the illegality of these mining operations. Crucially, it discovered that when Golcha was granted a mining lease in 1981 the company had not obtained prior approval from the relevant environmental authorities, as it should have done under the Forest Conservation Act.
In the past two weeks, we have contacted the firms known to have used talc from this mine. Unilever claims it did not know anything about the legal problems until recently. A spokesman described the situation as a "legal quagmire." He said it has since suspended buying talc from this source and is investigating the situation.
For campaigners, this is too little, too late. They point to Unilever's Web site, which trumpets the company's environmental concern.
Unilever states: "We are part of society and aspire to be good corporate citizens in everything we do."
Johnson & Johnson's Web site boasts of similar environmental concern. It states: "We must maintain in good order the property we are privileged to use, protecting the environment and natural resources."
Yet the firm declined to respond to our questions, as did Revlon. Avon said it was unaware of the issue and would now investigate, although it did not think it sourced talc from India any more.
So if these companies were not aware of the problems, should they have been?
Debbie Banks, the senior campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency in Britain, said: "What is going on inside the wildlife sanctuaries is obvious to anybody who visits the area. It is impossible to miss the environmental destruction these mining operations are causing and the damage they are inflicting on the local communities. Responsible corporations, particularly those who boast about their environmental concerns, have a duty to ensure their resources are extracted in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner."
While the Supreme Court ruling has meant that some of the illegal mining has temporarily stopped, not all of it has. The mining industry is powerful in India and is fighting for the ban to be overturned.
Companies such as Golcha have the support of the state government of Rajasthan, which argues that the mines are important employers and bring valuable funds to the state. Golcha is pressing the local authorities for a renewal of its lease in an even larger area of forest land.
Local press reports suggest the regional authorities are considering redrawing the boundaries of the wildlife sanctuary to ensure the soapstone and marble mines fall outside the protected region.
A spokesman for Golcha said he believed the court's decision was based on a "misunderstanding" of the facts. He denied the talc mining in Dagota was illegal, claiming it had been given a lease to mine in the area in 1981 and if there was a problem it should have been sorted out then.
Golcha hopes to have its mine reopened soon. It defends its position, arguing that mining enables the state of Rajasthan to benefit from natural resources.
Some locals have undoubtedly benefited. On the road back to Jaipur from the Jamwa Ramgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, a blue, palatial mansion stands out among the rows of dusty huts and tiny, dilapidated houses. It is owned by the man who sells explosives to the mining companies.
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