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Tiger association's plea to India

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

To prevail upon China to keep its ban on tiger trade in place

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Looking for help from India — the largest range state for wild tigers in the world — the International Tiger Coalition, a group of 35 organisations from across the world, has called upon the country to ask China to keep its ban on tiger trade in place. China is now considering lifting a ban it placed on trade in tiger products in 1993.

The International Tiger Coalition is an alliance made up of environmental, zoo and animal protection organisations as well as the traditional Chinese medicine community, which have come together to ask China to keep its ban on tiger trade in place to ensure a future for wild tigers.

A Chinese Government delegation was in India last week to discuss tiger trade with Indian officials though details of the meeting have not been made public. Fearing the worst for tigers, conservationists in the country have called this latest move by China `a disaster' and have urged the Indian Government to ask China to keep the ban on tiger trade.

``We hope that the Indian Government has communicated to the Chinese delegation how important China's 14-year ban on tiger trade has been to the protection of India's treasured wild tiger populations.

The Indian Government should also stress the need for keeping this ban in place in order to secure a future for India's tigers.

There are simply too few tigers left in the wild of Asia to risk re-opening trade of any kind from any source,'' said executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) Belinda Wright. ``We dare not risk an entire species for the financial gain of a handful of investors,'' she added.

There are several tiger farms in China that collectively house about 5,000 live tigers.

Pressure to lift the ban has been building from the investors in these tiger farms, who stand to make enormous profits if China's ban is lifted.

The international coalition has recommended an immediate freeze on breeding at China's tiger farms so that the current population of captive tigers does not grow, It has also demanded eventual closure of all tiger farms.

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