(IN): The Tiger’s Last Sigh

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http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne071109the_tigers.asp

 

 

*The Tiger’s Last Sigh*

 

*If China does not curb its appetite for tiger body parts, the world’s most

majestic animal will soon be relegated to history*

 

*BELINDA WRIGHT*

**

 

THE PRIMARY reason why India continues to lose its tigers is the relentless

demand for tiger parts from China. A depressing new report, released in

Delhi on October 22 by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a

UK-based NGO, illustrates how widespread the sale of tiger skins and bones

is in China.

 

Tigers are critically endangered. The worldwide population of wild tigers

has plummeted to perhaps 3,100, including 1,400 in India and 30 to 50 in

China. We are scraping the barrel; some experts believe that the end of

free-ranging wild tigers is near.

 

You would think that these shocking figures would galvanise the world to

pull out all the stops to save, arguably, the most charismatic mammal on

this planet. No other animal in the world has influenced culture, history or

religion as much as the tiger. It is the national animal of six countries,

including India. There is probably not a child that hasn’t heard of the

tiger – it appears in their comics, games, cereal packets. Indeed, probably

no other animal on our planet deserves more to be respected and saved from

extinction.

 

The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) collaborates closely with

EIA and this is the sixth year that EIA has carried out an investigation

into the illegal tiger trade in China. Each year the findings are given to

the Chinese government and although trade in tiger parts has been banned in

China since 1993, enforcement agencies still continue to turn a blind eye to

the trade. With growing wealth, prices are sky-rocketing: tiger skins are

sold in China for $11,660 to $21,860 and tiger bones for $1,250 per kilo.

 

In just three weeks in July and August this year, EIA’s covert investigation

team was offered four tiger skins, 12 leopard skins, 11 snow leopard skins

and two clouded leopard skins, along with various other pieces of skin,

bones and skulls. At a horse festival in Tibet, they witnessed nine people

wearing tiger skins and 25 people draped in leopard skins, “in full view of

the local authorities”. When asked, the traders said that most of the big

cat skins and bones were smuggled from India

 

I could write reams about the negligence on our home turf; the disastrous

combination of poor management, lax enforcement, poaching, conflict and loss

of tiger prey species and habitat. But India is now committed to playing a

strong role in saving the tiger. The government is pouring funds into tiger

conservation measures; to provide security to wild tigers and the inviolate

space they need to flourish. The objective is not to save tigers in

fenced-in safari parks, but to continue to have wild, freeranging tigers and

to secure the wilderness and complex web of life that the species

represents.

 

The Chinese ‘Year of the Tiger’ starts on February 14, 2010. Is it too much

to hope that China will listen to world opinion and:

 

*•* Cooperate with India and Nepal to curb the illegal trade in big cat

skins

 

*•* Send a strong message to the world, and to consumers in China, that they

are committed to their 1993 ban in tiger and leopard parts

 

*•* Improve enforcement and invest in a dedicated intelligence- led wildlife

enforcement team

 

*•* Fulfill the decision of cites to phase out tiger farms

 

*•* Consolidate and destroy stockpiles of tiger body parts to demonstrate to

the world its commitment to end this illegal trade.

 

In August this year, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh made a bold step in

bringing up the subject with his counterpart in China. But despite worldwide

support to these requests, China remains uncooperative. If China continues

to ignore this growing international pressure, then I believe we will have

lost the battle to save the tiger.

 

*Belinda Wright is a Tiger conservationist and Executive Director of the

Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI)***

 

*WRITER’S EMAIL*

belinda

*From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 44, Dated November 07, 2009*

 

 

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