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Losing hope for India's tigers

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 28, 2006

NEW DELHI - Two environmental groups accused India and China in a stinging indictment Wednesday of doing almost nothing to stem the rapid decline of tigers in the wild, saying the big cats will likely vanish completely within a few years without government intervention.

Trade in poached Indian tigers is flourishing in Chinese-controlled Tibet, where they are sold for use in traditional medicines, ceremonial clothing and as souvenirs, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency, a nonprofit British group, and the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

"In China, the police have decided to turn a blind eye to the slaughter of tigers in India," despite tough laws against trading in endangered animals, said Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. She said India has not put together an effective force to combat poaching after 12 years of talking about it.

The Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests, which is responsible for tiger conservation, had no comment, and Chinese officials could not be immediately reached.

Last year, Indian officials admitted that poachers had wiped out every tiger in one of India's premier reserves and that Indian wildlife officials had long exaggerated the number of tigers across the country.

The U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Save the Tiger Fund estimates there are 3,000 to 5,000 tigers in the world, said Judy Mills, director of its Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking. But conservationists believe the figure may be closer to 2,000 or several hundred.

"We need to start imagining a world without the great predators," Wright said. "It is about to become a reality."

[Last modified September 28, 2006, 01:03:26]