By Praveen Bhalla
In spite of a decade of hard work dedicated to halting the tiger's slide
towards extinction, the numbers of these magnificent animals have
continued to fall. Now, in the new Chinese year that bears its name, the
tiger is at the top of the conservation agenda.
Gland, Switzerland:
The Chinese Year of the Tiger has just begun and,
ironically, it is the year in which last-ditch efforts must be made to save
the world's tigers from extinction.
The tiger today remains as much a symbol of power and beauty as it
was in ancient civilisations, both feared and venerated. But its survival is
now in jeopardy as habitats disappear and animals are killed to supply
the illegal trade in tiger parts for traditional Chinese medicine.
At the turn of the century, there were an estimated 100,000 tigers living
in the wild, from the tropical evergreen deciduous forests of southern
Asia to the coniferous woodlands of Siberia. Today, there are
5,000-7,500, with half of these in India. Three of the eight known
subspecies are already extinct - the Caspian, Bali, and Javan tigers -
and the chances of recovery for the South China tiger are very slim.
Siberian and Sumatran tiger populations are also dangerously low. The
Indo-Chinese and Bengal tiger populations are so low in some areas that
there are fears of inbreeding, with subsequent genetic deterioration and
small litters.
India first drew attention to the plight of tigers more than 20 years ago,
and is still at the forefront of tiger conservation, having had the animals
listed by the IUCN-World Conservation Union as an endangered species.
India was also one of the first countries to ban tiger hunting.
A 1972 census revealed that perhaps fewer than 2,000 tigers were left
in the country - down from an estimated 40,000 at the beginning of the
century. This jolted conservationists into action. WWF-World Wide Fund
For Nature pledged US$1 million for tiger conservation in the country and
the Government of India launched Project Tiger, committing US$16 million
for the first ten years.
This has led to the establishment of 23 tiger reserves so far and others
are planned. Ten years after the launch of Project Tiger, India celebrated
a 50 per cent increase in tiger numbers, reaching 3,015 in 1979. A 1993
census estimated 3,750 tigers, and numbers were also up in Nepal and
stable in Bangladesh.
However, poaching and conflicts between tigers and those living on the
fringes of national parks have halted further recovery and given cause
for concern. The Director of Project Tiger recently announced that there
may be no more than 2,500 left in India with animals dying at the rate of
one a day. Most of the tiger range countries have high population
densities, which puts pressure on tiger habitats. Another threat comes
from fragmentation, degradation and loss of forest and grassland
habitats.
Forest loss from 1990-1995 has occurred in almost every tiger range
state, particularly in Indochina. In some states in India, the loss of forest
cover has led to a 40 per cent decline in tigers outside protected areas.
Today, all the subspecies, except the Siberian tigers, stand little chance
of survival unless they live in protected areas.
Perhaps the greatest threat to tigers' survival today is illegal killing and
poaching which is driven by the demand for tiger parts used in traditional
Chinese medicine. This continues, despite the international ban imposed
by the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), and legislation in the tiger range
states prohibiting such trade.
South Korea alone imported more than six tonnes of tiger bone between
1975 and 1992, before the trade was banned, which represents up to
1000 tigers. In 1993, TRAFFIC India, a wildlife trade monitoring
programme of WWF and IUCN, found a massive cache of 500kg of tiger
bones in Delhi. Two years later, additional seizures were made and illicit
trade routes discovered between India, Nepal, Bhutan and East Asia.
Similar smuggling takes place in Russia, where a wave of poaching is
blamed for reducing the tiger population in the region by half within a
decade.
So in this Year of the Tiger, WWF will work with other organizations,
governments and local communities in a supreme effort to save this
majestic animal. Attention will focus on stopping poachers and
supporting national park guards. The TRAFFIC network will be helped to
investigate illegal markets Asia, Europe and North America, and to train
customs officials to detect illegal imports. Equally important will be
negotiations aimed at resolving the conflict of interest between
conservationists and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. In the
Russian Far East, WWF is part of a concerted drive by local authorities
and other conservation groups to halt poaching. Eight anti-poaching
brigades have managed to reduce poaching from 40-70 tigers killed a
year in the early 90s to 13 and 18 killed in 1995 and 1996.
As for habitat protection, WWF has a long history of helping park
management and eco-development projects in India, Nepal, Bhutan,
Indonesia, and Malaysia. Apart from supporting tiger and tiger prey
surveys and habitat conservation, the work involves seeking to establish
a balance between people and animals in the fringe areas of the parks.
Tigers are often driven to killing livestock because of the scarcity of their
prey resulting in retaliatory killings of these tigers by villagers,
systems of protection such as electric fences are provided for village animals. At the
same time, alternative sources of income - fish farming, animal
husbandry, and orchards - are introduced to offset the communities'
reliance on natural resources in the parks.
During this year of the tiger, WWF-India, is undertaking what is perhaps
the most heavily-funded campaign ever by a non-governmental
organisation to save a single species. Its new Tiger Conservation
Programme will create Conservation Units in ten new protected areas
where intervention is likely to yield the best results in habitat
improvement, an increase in prey species and subsequent growth in
tiger populations.
WWF's International Tiger Action Plan for the Year of the Tiger sets new
and urgent priorities - including a Rapid Response Emergency Fund -
aimed at bringing the tiger back from the edge of the precipice. With luck
- and the combined efforts of WWF and its partners - tigers will thrive
long after the next Year of the Tiger in 2010
*Praveen Bhalla is a consultant for WWF International based in
Switzerland.