India at the forefront in the battle to save the tiger.
whereas in France, some breeders want to exterminate the wolves, the Indians are willing to save their tigers ...
A Bengal tiger in a zoo in New Delhi, January 28, 2006 Manan Vatsyayana afp.com
The success of efforts to save wild tigers, the theme of a summit in Russia, will largely depend on the effectiveness of measures taken in India to protect this iconic animal threatened with extinction , according to experts.
India is home to over half the world population of tigers but the protection program initiated by New Delhi has failed to stem the rapid decline of this great beast.
In this country which inspired Rudyard Kipling's legendary Jungle Book and its cruel tiger Shere Khan, the authorities risk losing their fight against poachers and human pressure on the environment.
And the situation is not better in other Asian countries where the cat is on the brink of extinction.
"Despite all our efforts, we still face challenges to stop poaching problems," acknowledged the recent Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
The population of tigers in India has dropped to about 3,700 today against 1411 in 2002 and 40,000 in 1947, when independence.
"In addition to poaching, the tiger in India is facing new threats, destruction of natural habitat wake of industrial development, mining projects and dam construction near protected reserves," said the minister.
The Indian federal government in 2007 launched a program to protect the tiger multi-million dollar deal with urgent measures to stop poaching.
The authorities moved in particular villages in the reserves and transferred felines.
According to a recent report by the NGO Traffic International, more than 1,000 tigers were killed over the past decade in Asia.
"The tiger skins sell for around 11,000 to 21,000 dollars and the bones around 1,000 dollars in China," said Rajesh Gopal, president of the National Authority for Protection of the tiger. "There is a huge demand in China for these songs and poachers take all the risks for big profits." According
Red List 2009 of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there are 70 tigers in Bhutan, between 10 and 50 in Cambodia, about 40 in China, 300 in Malaysia, 100 in Myanmar, 350 Russia, 250 in Thailand and less than 100 in Vietnam.
"There is barely 3,200 tigers in the world. It is a frightening figure," the minister Ramesh alarmed.
Belinda Wright, director of the Protection of Wildlife in India, said he was skeptical about the stated goal of the summit in St. Petersburg, double the number of tigers in the world by 2020.
"It sounds very ambitious and positive to have 6,000 tigers in two decades, but how will they do when we get there is not even able to save those that exist," she said to AFP, citing a "collective guilt" of the countries concerned.
The road passes traffickers from India to China where various tiger parts are worth a lot of money, used in traditional medicine and for their supposed aphrodisiac qualities.
Nepal, which has just 121 Bengal tigers, pledged this year to double the number of tigers living on its territory but according to the program, funds are lacking.
In Bangladesh, the program manager for the protection of wildlife Tapan Kumar Dey, ensures that the number of tigers, estimated at 440, is on the rise, many experts disagree.
But "we can not extend the mangrove ecosystem unique natural habitat of the tiger, to increase the number and moreover, there is not enough food - deer - to allow an increase in tiger population, "says Dey.
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