vIndianz.com (1 Nov, 2009) — In another 2 decades, tiger shall become extinct in the forests and can no longer been seen in the wild. If the world doesn’t wake up to the present crisis and take efforts to stop the diminishing population, according to Wildlife experts.
Just about 3,500 tigers are anticipated to be roaming freely in the wild in about 12 Asian nations and Russia as compared to about 100,000 over a century ago, experts and conversationalists supposed.
Tigers have been a potential target of poachers and are being illegally poached and hunted for their body parts and Asia is increasingly becoming a hotspot for carrying out illegal wildlife trade which the International Police Organization Interpol anticipates to be worth over $20 billion annually.
Skins of these poor animals are sold as rugs and cloaks in the black market and about every skin could easily fetch up to $20,000 in nations including China.
Destruction of their natural habitat and depletion of prey base for these animals are amongst the other dangers being faced by the “Asian Heritage”, conversationalists stated.
“A business as usual advance in tiger conservation will end the tiger population in the next 15 to 20 years,” Mahendra Shrestha, programme director of the Washington-based Save the Tiger Fund told Reuters on the sidelines of a discussion on tiger conservation.
He said law enforcement, patrols to discontinue poaching and the conservation of left over habitat would develop the situation.
“There is expectation. We can do it. It is not rocket science. It does not need a lot of latest activities,” Shrestha said.
“But there has to be strong political will to conserve tigers and also strong global international support for the activities of the tiger range countries.”
Tigers still roam terrain in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
John Seidensticker, chief scientist at the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Conservation Ecology Center, said tiger habitat had declined by 40 percent in the previous decade due to destruction of forests.
“Our challenge is to make landscapes with tigers alive worth more than landscapes where tigers have been killed,” Seidensticker said. “I think we have a decade from where we will slip from being caretakers to undertakers.”
Photo credit: digitalART2
Further Reading- Govt approves IG posts for NTCA HQ, regional offices – Times of India
- Tracking Sher Khan – The Hindu
- GolfChannel: Injuries cast more doubts about Tiger – msnbc.com
- Justin Verlander pitches surging Tigers past Mariners – USA Today
- PM leaves for Kazakhstan after China visit – All India Radio
- WikiLeaks cables, day 4: summary of today’s key points – The Guardian
- More tigers may be on prowl in state forests – Times of India
- More tigers may be on prowl in state forests – Times of India
- Jim Northrup: 1939-2011 – msnbc.com
- Russia to buy two warships in deal with France – Washington Post
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