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Poachers are killing off India's wild tigers
In this story:
July 16, 1997
- 'Huge money is involved'
- Success story has crumbled
- 'We have re-jiggered ourselves'
- Related stories and sites
Web posted at: 1:43 a.m. EDT (0543 GMT)From Correspondent Gary Streiker
RANTHAMBORE NATIONAL PARK, India (CNN) -- Wild tigers, which are being killed at the rate of one a day in India, are on the brink of extinction.
Every four years, Indian wildlife authorities carry out a sort of census to track the animals' dwingling numbers.
In Renthambore National Park, they count the tigers by tracing their tracks, known as pug marks, on paper. They cast them in plaster to prove the tiger population is getting smaller.
CNN's Gary Strieker reports from Ranthambore Natl. Park, India
Lately, the news has been bad -- very bad. In 1989, there were about 45 tigers in Renthambore. Four year later, there are half as many.
Across India in the same period, about one-third of the tiger population has been wiped out, mainly by poachers who, experts say, kill at a rate of one a day.
They are supplying the profitable trade in tiger bones and other body parts used to make traditional Chinese medicines, which are high demand throughout the Far East.
'Huge money is involved'
"They are consuming tiger parts to such an extent that tigers are threatened because huge money is involved," said P.K. Sen, director of Project Tiger, a government program launched 25 years ago to preserve the animals.
Project Tiger, which has international support, has raised millions of dollars for the cause.
The government established 23 tiger reserves and, by 1989, reported that the campaign had been so successful that India's tiger population had doubled to more than 4,000 animals.
Success story has crumbled
But that success has been eroded.
"Possibly we became a bit complacent. Possibly we lost the political support we had, and suddenly we discovered we're in the middle of a mess," S. Deb Roy of the Corbett Foundation said.
Tiger poachers have increased their activities. Wildlife laws are not properly enforced. Demoralized field staff in parks and reserves are poorly equipped and supplied. And tiger counts have been exaggerated.
The government denies Project Tiger is failing, but says its strategy is changing to focus on the front lines.
"We are concentrating more on the poaching and killing of tigers," Sen said. "I can't deny it's not happening in protected areas."
The Worldwide Fund for Nature, closely associated with Project Tiger, is doing the same thing.
'We have re-jiggered ourselves'
"We have re-jiggered ourselves, regeared for a new and stronger attempt at tiger conservation, a more effective field-based tiger conservation program," Thomas Mathew of the Worldwide Fund said.
Whatever they feel about success or failure, experts agree the threat of poaching is growing even more ominous. And Project Tiger is still the last chance to save the tiger from extinction in the wild.
About 60 percent of the world's wild tigers are in India. The rest, scattered among 11 other Asian countries, face even greater threats to their survival.
In the forests of Ranthambore and across India, the tiger is trying to stand its ground.
Related sites:
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- Lestat's Tiger Page - Project Tiger
- World Wildlife Foundation
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