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'Act now' to save India's tigers


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The European Parliament has called for a new strategy to prevent the tiger from becoming extinct.

The organisation's India delegation is holding a "Tiger Day" at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Indian government figures show the country's tiger population has fallen hugely in the past five years with only 1,411 tigers left in the wild.

Wildlife activists blame poaching and urbanisation for the decline and say the authorities must do more.

"Recent figures show... by 2025 the tiger may be extinct," Neena Gill, president of the European Parliament's India delegation, said.

"India alone cannot tackle this looming extinction. It is time for the European Union to take a stronger role in the international drive to save the tiger," she said.

Ms Gill's office said that one of the chief causes of the declining numbers of tigers is the presence of "tiger trafficking mafias" in Asia who are poaching Indian tigers, trafficking skins and body parts across Nepal and the Himalayan region to China.

China is a big marker for tiger skins and bones which are sold at a profit of 900%.

It says that China is under pressure from its tiger "farmers" to lift its existing ban on the trade in tiger parts and legalise it.

But conservationists say such a move would devastate the wild tiger population by causing an upturn in demand for tiger products and increasing poaching in the wild.

"With the run up to the Beijing Olympics, the world's attention is on China. We must raise this issue with the authorities and ensure they do not lift the ban on trade in tiger products which would prove disastrous to global efforts to save the tiger," says Ms Gill.

"Losing the tiger would be a global tragedy. Therefore, I am calling on the European Union to develop a comprehensive strategy to tackle this issue."
jcwelker

2 responses // 'Act now' to save India's tigers

  • http://www.thefundforthetiger.org
    For many years my wife's good friend, Brian Weirum, has been taking people into Nepal on trips to learn more about Tigers and what we can do to save them before it's too late.

    The atrocities he has witnessed and the stories he has to tell are beyond disturbing. Although the website is a little, ah, uh, ... dated-looking, the information is excellent.
    mintyquinty
  • This is awful, these people care more about skins and money as some kind of 'statement'.

    For his own safety, they are only to be called 'K'. K went under cover with a local lady in Japan into black markets, these are major problems in Japan and China. You can get domestic dog and cats kins, buy endangered red-footed tortoises and more species and the list goes on. All these 'products came from all over the world, who knows how these hundreds up to thousends of individuals all in one market place managed to get these creatures from and in.

    Tiger skin are one of the worst, they're huge for mainly Japanese and other areas of asian 'rebels'. Even though they hide to go into areas while wearing these incredible animals. Theydon't, by the least look good, these poor tigers had been made into tallwird hats aswell as any other kind of clothing. In scarfs the eyes were replced with ugly red and yellow swirls. K was discusted.

    How easily and trajic is it for these sickos to get a hold of these beutiful animals? Even santuaries in India have been broken into after dark to get them, workers like K built in cameras to sense movement and then take pictures to spot them.

    The poachers looked like it was too easy. They hadtorches andwere smiling at eah other as they walked along as if it were some drunk night out in the town.


    How many things can we do?
    steadward

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