The Hindu : New Delhi News : Law on trade in tiger parts opposed

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Sunday, Aug 05, 2007
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Law on trade in tiger parts opposed

Staff Reporter

“Urgent steps needed to tackle crisis”

Dialogue with China needs to begin: Belinda Wright
Biggest problem is Tribal Bill, says tiger expert

NEW DELHI: Indian members of the International Tiger Coalition, conservation organisations and concerned individuals have opposed the legalisation of trade in tiger parts, as a measure to protect the endangered animal.

“The growing demand for tigers in China has fuelled a steep decline of the species in India through poaching. China has repeatedly said that it wants to open tiger trade and promote tiger farming but this we fear will not help in conserving the species as it is cheaper to poach tigers than rear them. People anyway prefer wildlife species for medicinal purposes as they are considered to be more potent,” said wildlife activist Belinda Wright here over the weekend at World Wildlife Fund for Nature-India, while releasing a compilation of the debate on tigers — The roar of the tigers.

Ms. Wright said the declining tiger population in China in the 1990s had led to smugglers and poachers eyeing the Indian tigers and this has resulted in a drastic drop in the number of tigers inIndia.

“India needs to take urgent steps to tackle the crisis on the tiger front and work at enforcing strengthened anti-poaching laws. There is also a need to initiate the process of continuous dialogue with China on the issue, both bilaterally and multilaterally, and oppose any rethink on their domestic ban on tiger derivatives and parts,” she said.

Also present on the occasion was leading tiger expert Valmik Thapar who said: “our biggest problem is not from poachers but from the Tribal Bill. This Bill, designed to restore land rights to tribal people in India, is one of the biggest dangers facing India’s wild tigers, threatening to destroy their last remaining habitats. ”

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