India could play a critical role in preventing the extinction of tigers in the times to come. A new report says that India is home to 18 of the world’s 42 core tiger sites, but doubling funding to $82 million a year to protect these sites is vital.
The study published in American journal PLoS Biology adds that tiger populations are so low in countries like Cambodia, China, Vietnam and North Korea that there is little chance of them recovering to sustainable levels. It recommends abandoning the protection of tigers in the wild and using funds for “ruthless priority setting” to focus on the 42 core sites. Outside of India, these sites are in Russia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos.
Needed: Focus, funds
The report compares tiger conservation with African rhino protection and declares: “Only where protection efforts either were focused on small to medium sized areas (like Kenya’s rhino sanctuaries) or were well financed (like Kruger National Park) did rhinos persist. The immediate priority must be to ensure that the last breeding populations are protected.”
The recommendation will be at the heart of the “tiger summit” in St. Petersburg scheduled for November when leaders of 13 countries come together to discuss how best to allocate resources. “It’s forcing hard decisions,” according to Simon Stuart, a co-author of the report. “There’s no way you can protect them across an entire landscape, because the costs are too high.”
Wild tiger numbers have fallen from more than 40,000 in the 1950s to 7,000 a decade ago and to less than 3,500 currently. According to the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, there are more tigers in captivity in Texas than in the Asian wilderness.
Stuart and his fellow co-authors believe that well-meant but misguided early efforts by conservationists, which led to resources being spread too thinly, may have contributed to the continuing decline of wild tigers. “Beginning in the early 1970s, conservation initiatives helped establish a large number of tiger reserves, particularly in India, Nepal and, to a lesser extent, in Thailand, Indonesia and Russia,” says the report. “Probably the most successful of these, at least initially, was Project Tiger in India, which was launched in 1972 with the support of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“With hindsight, it also became clear that protection and management of many reserves remained inadequate (the extirpation of tiger reserves in the Indian tiger reserves of Sariska reported in 2004, and Panna, reported in 2010, is illustrative).”
Although loss of habitat and over-hunting has played a role, poaching remains a major factor in the tigers’ decline. Chinese medicine values tiger parts so highly that a dead tiger can fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. Tiger eyes are highly prized as a cure for malaria and epilepsy, the tiger penis is used in a soup for virility and its crushed bones are used to treat ulcers, rheumatism and typhoid.
Sourece: The Tribune
Thursday, September 16, 2010
India may hold key to tiger conservation,18 of world’s 42 core tiger sites traced to India
India could play a critical role in preventing the extinction of tigers in the times to come. A new report says that India is home to 18 of the world’s 42 core tiger sites, but doubling funding to $82 million a year to protect these sites is vital.
The study published in American journal PLoS Biology adds that tiger populations are so low in countries like Cambodia, China, Vietnam and North Korea that there is little chance of them recovering to sustainable levels. It recommends abandoning the protection of tigers in the wild and using funds for “ruthless priority setting” to focus on the 42 core sites. Outside of India, these sites are in Russia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos.
Needed: Focus, funds
The report compares tiger conservation with African rhino protection and declares: “Only where protection efforts either were focused on small to medium sized areas (like Kenya’s rhino sanctuaries) or were well financed (like Kruger National Park) did rhinos persist. The immediate priority must be to ensure that the last breeding populations are protected.”
The recommendation will be at the heart of the “tiger summit” in St. Petersburg scheduled for November when leaders of 13 countries come together to discuss how best to allocate resources. “It’s forcing hard decisions,” according to Simon Stuart, a co-author of the report. “There’s no way you can protect them across an entire landscape, because the costs are too high.”
Wild tiger numbers have fallen from more than 40,000 in the 1950s to 7,000 a decade ago and to less than 3,500 currently. According to the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, there are more tigers in captivity in Texas than in the Asian wilderness.
Stuart and his fellow co-authors believe that well-meant but misguided early efforts by conservationists, which led to resources being spread too thinly, may have contributed to the continuing decline of wild tigers. “Beginning in the early 1970s, conservation initiatives helped establish a large number of tiger reserves, particularly in India, Nepal and, to a lesser extent, in Thailand, Indonesia and Russia,” says the report. “Probably the most successful of these, at least initially, was Project Tiger in India, which was launched in 1972 with the support of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“With hindsight, it also became clear that protection and management of many reserves remained inadequate (the extirpation of tiger reserves in the Indian tiger reserves of Sariska reported in 2004, and Panna, reported in 2010, is illustrative).”
Although loss of habitat and over-hunting has played a role, poaching remains a major factor in the tigers’ decline. Chinese medicine values tiger parts so highly that a dead tiger can fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. Tiger eyes are highly prized as a cure for malaria and epilepsy, the tiger penis is used in a soup for virility and its crushed bones are used to treat ulcers, rheumatism and typhoid.
Sourece: The Tribune
The study published in American journal PLoS Biology adds that tiger populations are so low in countries like Cambodia, China, Vietnam and North Korea that there is little chance of them recovering to sustainable levels. It recommends abandoning the protection of tigers in the wild and using funds for “ruthless priority setting” to focus on the 42 core sites. Outside of India, these sites are in Russia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos.
Needed: Focus, funds
The report compares tiger conservation with African rhino protection and declares: “Only where protection efforts either were focused on small to medium sized areas (like Kenya’s rhino sanctuaries) or were well financed (like Kruger National Park) did rhinos persist. The immediate priority must be to ensure that the last breeding populations are protected.”
The recommendation will be at the heart of the “tiger summit” in St. Petersburg scheduled for November when leaders of 13 countries come together to discuss how best to allocate resources. “It’s forcing hard decisions,” according to Simon Stuart, a co-author of the report. “There’s no way you can protect them across an entire landscape, because the costs are too high.”
Wild tiger numbers have fallen from more than 40,000 in the 1950s to 7,000 a decade ago and to less than 3,500 currently. According to the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, there are more tigers in captivity in Texas than in the Asian wilderness.
Stuart and his fellow co-authors believe that well-meant but misguided early efforts by conservationists, which led to resources being spread too thinly, may have contributed to the continuing decline of wild tigers. “Beginning in the early 1970s, conservation initiatives helped establish a large number of tiger reserves, particularly in India, Nepal and, to a lesser extent, in Thailand, Indonesia and Russia,” says the report. “Probably the most successful of these, at least initially, was Project Tiger in India, which was launched in 1972 with the support of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“With hindsight, it also became clear that protection and management of many reserves remained inadequate (the extirpation of tiger reserves in the Indian tiger reserves of Sariska reported in 2004, and Panna, reported in 2010, is illustrative).”
Although loss of habitat and over-hunting has played a role, poaching remains a major factor in the tigers’ decline. Chinese medicine values tiger parts so highly that a dead tiger can fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. Tiger eyes are highly prized as a cure for malaria and epilepsy, the tiger penis is used in a soup for virility and its crushed bones are used to treat ulcers, rheumatism and typhoid.
Sourece: The Tribune
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
On the verge of extinct
I couldn't believe it when I read it, but it's true: wild tigers are on the verge of becoming extinct in the wild - gone forever.
In the past 100 years, 97 percent of the world's wild tiger population has been wiped out, largely due to poaching, prey depletion, and habitat destruction. Worse yet, there are only 1,000 breeding females left.
It's hard to imagine a future without an animal as iconic as the tiger.
In the past 100 years, 97 percent of the world's wild tiger population has been wiped out, largely due to poaching, prey depletion, and habitat destruction. Worse yet, there are only 1,000 breeding females left.
It's hard to imagine a future without an animal as iconic as the tiger.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Two leopards stray into human habitation, captured
Two leopards strayed into human habitation on the outskirts of Shimla town at different locations on Thursday morning. While one was spotted at Poabo near Bharari, another entered a school campus at Mathauli village near Shoghi. Both were captured by the wildlife department without any injury to them or the public.
High drama prevailed over four hours as wildlife officials tried to capture the injured leopard that had strayed into a kitchen shed, constructed to cook mid-day meal at the school in Mathauli. At least 60 students were in their classes when the cook raised an alarm. The wildlife veterinary expert displayed presence of mind and took help of an animal cage, by locking himself inside it, to go near the kitchen shed to tranquilise the animal.
“The cage came to my rescue because as soon as the tranqiliser shot hit the leopard it jumped out of the kitchen shed and pounced directly onto the cage in an attempt to attack me and then in a jiffy vanished into the forest,” said Dr Sandeep Rattan. After a search of two hours, it was captured and brought to the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre at Tutikandi, said Divisional Forest Officer, Wildlife, Nagesh Guleria.
High drama prevailed over four hours as wildlife officials tried to capture the injured leopard that had strayed into a kitchen shed, constructed to cook mid-day meal at the school in Mathauli. At least 60 students were in their classes when the cook raised an alarm. The wildlife veterinary expert displayed presence of mind and took help of an animal cage, by locking himself inside it, to go near the kitchen shed to tranquilise the animal.
“The cage came to my rescue because as soon as the tranqiliser shot hit the leopard it jumped out of the kitchen shed and pounced directly onto the cage in an attempt to attack me and then in a jiffy vanished into the forest,” said Dr Sandeep Rattan. After a search of two hours, it was captured and brought to the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre at Tutikandi, said Divisional Forest Officer, Wildlife, Nagesh Guleria.
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