(IN-CN): 'India's tiger protection plan failing'

[Guest guest]

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 & click_id=143 & art_id=nw20090928072303\

963C906929

 

'India's tiger protection plan failing'*September 28 2009 at 07:33AM*

 

New Delhi - India's efforts to stop poaching of its endangered tigers are

failing despite millions of dollars of funding, a new protection force and

experiments with animal transfers, experts say.

 

The federal government swung into action in 2007 after India's tiger

population plunged to just 1 350 - just over a third of the 3 700 estimated

to be alive in 2002.

 

A new tiger conservation plan chalked out some bold and urgent steps to end

the poaching menace, move forest dwellers away from reserves and transfer

tigers from one reserve to another while monitoring their movements.

 

Wildlife experts and directors of the 38 Indian tiger reserves met in Delhi

last week for a conference on the highly-prized animals which were estimated

to once number about 40 000 before independence from Britain in 1947.

 

" India has framed all the policies and is doling out ample monetary aid to

save the tiger but it is clearly not trickling down, " said Belinda Wright,

director of the Wildlife Protection of India who attended the conference.

 

" Poaching cases are just not stopping. "

 

In the last nine months, 25 tigers have been killed by poachers and another

43 have died due to other causes.

 

On average, poachers kill 30 tigers every year in guarded reserves with

demand driven by China where pelts, claws and bones are prized in

traditional medicine.

 

In August, an Indian delegation in Beijing asked China for full co-operation

for controlling cross-border trafficking of tiger parts and to send a

clearer message to smugglers, but no official agreement was reached.

 

" Every single tiger faces threat. It is a shame that poachers' networks are

not being cracked by the police, " said PK Sen, a retired forest official who

heads a tiger conservation programme in New Delhi.

 

Sen says India should implement all its conservation plans before calling on

China to crack down on the tiger trade.

 

" We have to fix our problems first before telling China what they should

do, " Sen said.

 

Ineffective bureaucracy, corruption, pressure on land for use by developers,

a domestic insurgency and lack of modern equipment are to blame, say

campaigners.

 

Sen said Maoist rebels are active in seven of the 38 tiger reserves

established to protect the animal, meaning no official tiger census has been

conducted since the year 2000.

 

" Forget tiger census and forest management as in the past nine years even

officers avoid entering these Maoist-infested reserves, " said Sen, who

stressed that ending extremist left-wing violence was the key.

 

Tiger hunting is illegal worldwide and the trade in tiger parts is banned

under a treaty binding 167 countries, including India.

 

Experts said the porous border between India and Nepal continues to serve as

a smuggling corridor for the poachers, who bribe poor forest dwellers to

guide them through the dense jungles.

 

Alarmed by the dwindling numbers, the government has recruited retired army

personnel to form a " tiger protection force " to guard sanctuaries.

 

New young field officers have been trained up, cameras have been installed

to guard the reserves and many tigers have been radio-tagged to monitor

their movements.

 

In 2008, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also set up a national

wildlife crime prevention bureau, drawing experts from the police,

environmental agencies and customs in a bid to break up the poaching

network.

 

But the idea of bringing together different arms of the state has been

handicapped by bureaucratic infighting.

 

" The state governments are just not understanding how critical the issue

is, " a senior official at the ministry of forests and environment said.

" Most are very slow in implementing the conservation plan. We are losing the

plot. "

 

India's 29 state governments enjoy independent power on land issues and most

of them continue to sell land around the tiger reserves for development for

hotels, tourist resorts or even mining, he said.

 

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) wants commercial use of

land near the protected forests to be banned and buffer zones created.

 

The NTCA, which has a budget of 125 million dollars for 38 tiger reserves

over four years, has also started moving tigers from one area to another to

help protect numbers.

 

Two tigers have been transferred from reserves in Madhya Pradesh, central

India, to Sariska, a reserve situated in Rajasthan, a western state.

 

The experiment is designed to ensure a wide distribution of tigers and

revive the sanctuary in Rajasthan, but conservationists say success now

depends on the new state protecting them from poachers.

 

" If we don't learn from our mistakes then all experiments will fail and the

tigers could easily be found in the list of extinct animals, " warned NTCA

chief Rajesh Gopal. - AFP

 

--

http://www.stopelephantpolo.com

http://www.freewebs.com/azamsiddiqui