Tigers On Track To Be Wiped Out At Half Of Indian Wildlife Reserves - Reuters

[hatrack]

India is a key player in efforts to conserve the dwindling global tiger population, which has plummeted to just a few thousand. Wildlife experts say tigers could be extinct in 20 years. Illegal poaching, fueled by a thriving trade in tiger parts, and natural habitat loss drove down numbers in India from about 40,000 a century ago to 1,411 at the last count in 2008.

Ramesh said out of 38 government-monitored tiger reserves, 12 were in good condition and nine were satisfactory. Seventeen are in a very, very, very precarious state," he said. He did not specify how many tigers were at risk. "You could have a Panna or a Sariska in any of these 17 at any point of time," he said, referring to two well-known reserves which lost their tiger populations.

A special panel set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in 2006 thousands of villagers inside India's reserves would have to be relocated to protect tigers from poachers and smugglers.

Poaching is very profitable and poor villagers often help poachers in return for much-needed cash, while villagers also often cut down forests where tigers live to use as farmland.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B81OX20091209?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+(News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment)

[marmar]

1. Sad.....The thought of a world without this most magnificent of animals roaming free.

[Blue Owl]

2. A Tiger story worth caring about

K&R

[guardian]

3. How you can do your part: to help

Below is a link to an organization that helps raise money to save tigers:

http://www.forevertigers.com/

Mission Statement: Forever Tigers Inc., a 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation, is dedicated to educating the public about the plight of tigers in the wild and about efforts to protect them both in situ, and through captive breeding programs. We place a special emphasis on outreach -- in a culturally sensitive and respectful manner -- to the Asian community in the U.S. and around the world, and in particular to practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Asian folk medicine, as the use of tiger parts and tiger derived medicines is the primary impetus for poaching, and the most significant factor in the tiger's demise. It is our hope that by informing the public about the extreme urgency of the crises afflicting every tiger subspecies, in every remaining habitat, and by offering information about alternatives to tiger derived medicines, (both within TCM itself and in Western medicine) we can help avert what now seems almost unavoidable and save the wild tiger.


Buy a t-shirt from their store for a Christmas gift and help save the tigers.

[Laura902]

4. great idea

:D National Geographic just had a wonderful article on the trade of endangered species and how zoo owners in Asia raise and buy animals only to end up waiting for them to die or killing them and selling their dead bodies, its disgusting!....................................... The human race is the worst thing to happen to almost every other living animal species