Experts Seek Strategies To Save India’s Tigers from Extinction
5:12 AM | 
Posted by
Arpanjot Singh Chawla
“It’s something that the Indian government and our government are very dedicated to trying to solve, but in a way we are working against a ticking time clock here. With the numbers of tigers that are left in the wild, it is something that we really have to get a solution for very quickly,” said Assistant Secretary of State Claudia McMurray, who attended the three-day workshop at Ranthambore. She urged participants to act before it is too late.Poverty and affluence are intersecting root causes. The demand for tiger parts comes chiefly from manufacturers of traditional Chinese medicines, for which wild tiger parts are prized ingredients. Tiger skins are increasingly popular in Tibet, where they are worn as status symbols. Growing Chinese affluence has resulted in greater demand.
Impoverished poachers in tiger ranges rely on killing tigers for a living. Human population growth in range states and resulting habitat encroachment is another contributing factor.
The workshop, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, was an initiative of Ambassador David C. Mulford. Visits to the historically significant park awakened his interest in tiger conservation.
After reviewing information about Ranthambore poaching rings, he saw a possible solution. “The men understand that they are poaching on a declining population and their future is not at all bright if that population disappears,” he said while in Washington recently.
The workshop was meant to assemble key people to discuss a multifaceted program that could effectively address Ranthambore’s issues.“Really the only way we are going to make progress, is for people to put away their parochial differences and to focus on the one thing that unifies us all … the welfare of the animals themselves,” Kaestner said.The last two days of the workshop were devoted to training forest guards in forensic techniques and other enforcement skills.It was a pivotal decision for tigers,” said Judy Mills, director of the Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking (CATT). “Th
e 171 parties agreed by consensus that tigers should not be bred in captivity for sale of their parts and derivatives.” A farmed tiger costs more than a wild one, and the latter is more coveted for medicinal purposes. Conservation experts think farming will accelerate the extinction of tigers in the wild.Chinese traditional medicine practitioners at CITES testified in favor of maintaining the ban on domestic sale of tiger products, and have embraced alternatives, Mills said, adding that conservationists hope that China will make the ban permanent.The United States has partnered with India on wildlife conservation issues for decades, most recently to establish forensic wildlife laboratories where trafficked animal parts may be identified and traced, and poachers apprehended. A press release on the workshop is available on the State Department Web site.
Source-http://www.america.gov/st/env-english/2007/November/20071116142802mlenuhret0.2053644.html
Ad
save
Tigers
Popular Posts
-
Not only is tiger a beautiful animal but it is also the indicator of the forest's health. Saving the tiger ...
-
Tiger sightings have become quite rare these days in India, reason being the Tiger killings because of its multitude of medicinal or magical... -
Over the past century the number of tigers in India has fallen from about 40,000 to less than 4,000 (and possibly as few as 1,500). Relentle... -
At the turn of the 20th century, according to estimates, India probably had many thousand tigers in the wild. In 2002, based on a census u...
-
The Tiger Reserves in India is one of the projects undertaken by the wildlife lovers to protect the Indian tigers. The Tiger Reserves of I...
Tiger
Tiger
Subscribe To Posts
Posts
Comments
0 comments:
Post a Comment