Tigers and Leopards are Beautiful Animals - Will Tigers be Extinct Soon?

Statesman News Service, GUWAHATI, Feb. 17. —– The appeal made by some leading Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Wednesday calling on India, China and Nepal to gear up efforts to nab smuggling networks involved in the international illegal trade of tiger and leopard skins has raised hopes for conservation activists here.

Dr Bibhab Talukdar, secretary general of Aaranyak, a society for biodiversity conservation, working in North-east India to reduce wildlife trade in Eastern Himalaya and South and South-east Asia, hoped that the call given by the MEPs would help enhance protection for tigers in South Asia. He said that illegal killing of tiger was a smooth and silent process and in most cases nothing could be detected as in reality nothing remained to be discovered once a tiger was killed. From skins to bones of the animal, everything is sold in the international market. More stringent monitoring of tiger poaching in North East India is needed. The recent recovery of tiger skins and bones in Dhekiajuli and Dhemaji in northern Assam bordering Arunachal Pradesh was a reminder about thriving tiger poaching in the area.
In a written declaration, put down in the European Parliament, the MEPs expressed concern over the role of organised criminal networks engaged in trafficking tiger and leopard skins from India into China via Nepal, and have called on EU members to offer assistance to these countries to facilitate improved enforcement. The MEPs are of the opinion that the only way to stop criminal gangs killing tigers and leopards is by a joint, concerted government action by China, Nepal and India.

Investigators from the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) recently uncovered the huge market for skins in China and Tibet, an important reason for continued poaching. Costumes decorated with great swathes of tiger and leopard skin are worn at festivals across the Tibetan Plateau region. EIA and WPSI witnessed hundreds of people at these festivals wearing costumes decorated with Tiger skins. They also brought back startling images of tiger and leopard skins being openly sold in shops and markets in Tibet and surrounding Chinese Provinces.

Mrs Belinda Wright, WPSI Executive Director, stated: ‘We are delighted that this written declaration has been put forward in the European Parliament. It sends out a clear message to China, India and Nepal that the EU is concerned about the trade in tiger and leopard skins. Illegal trade is currently the biggest threat to the survival of India’s wild tigers and if no action is taken, it will mark the end of the species.”

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Comment from Sherry: How can the rest of us help to save the tigers? Has anyone seen products made from tiger and leopard skins being sold in the USA?