This is heartbreaking! Seeing the tigers of Ranthbhore was one of the
highlights of my life. I wonder how many are left.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/03/18/india.tigers.reut/index.html
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- Alarmed by reports of a rapid fall in
tiger numbers, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ordered a
police investigation and created a new taskforce to save the endangered
species.
Environment and Forests Department spokesman Amit Singhal said a
clearer picture of the decline in the tiger population across India
would come in April when an expert panel finishes its own
investigation.
"Only then can we say conclusively whether the number of tigers has
gone up or down," he said on Friday. "The problem is there in some
reserves, but in certain reserves sightings have really gone up."
Indian media and wildlife activists have reported a dramatic drop in
the number of tigers and an increase in poaching.
On Thursday, Singh chaired a meeting of the national wildlife board --
it's first in 17 months -- and ordered a new taskforce of forest
officials, wildlife experts and community leaders to report on the
status of Project Tiger and the tiger population.
He also banned giving tigers to foreign dignitaries and established a
powerful wildlife crime prevention bureau.
Officials say tigers may have been wiped out entirely in the Sariska
sanctuary in the desert state of Rajasthan -- where the Project Tiger
conservation program began in 1973 and where there were as many as
16-18 big cats a year ago.
Activists fear the story may be the same in sanctuaries across India,
which has almost half the world's surviving tigers.
"It's probably the biggest conservation scandal in modern times,"
Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society
of India, said.
"There are some parks with none or so few tigers it's not a viable
population. Sariska has been an incredible wakeup call."
Detectives from the Central Bureau of Investigation are due in Sariska
on Friday as part of the police probe.
Trade in dead tigers is illegal, but a single one can fetch up to
$50,000 on the international market. Organs and body parts are popular
in Chinese medicine. Bones are worth about $400 a kilogram, a penis
almost $850, a tooth $120 and a claw just $10.
A century ago, there were an estimated 40,000 tigers in India. Now,
some wildlife experts say there are barely 2,000 and the official
government census about 3,700.
Exact figures are almost impossible because of the shy nature of the
big cats. The government keeps no detailed records on poaching, most of
which goes unreported anyway.
In Sariska, about 900 vehicles enter the reserve on some days, about 25
times the recommended 35-40 vehicles a day, driving any remaining
animals deeper into the forest.
For decades, hunting tigers was a popular sport with British colonial
rulers and Indian maharajas. In some areas, tigers were once so common
they posed a serious threat to villagers and explorers and people
rarely ventured out in the evening unarmed.
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