2. The Great Indian Tiger Factory:The Interpol puts the trade in illegal wildlife products at $12 billion a year. Home to half of the world's tigers. India is keeping the give lie going. The rhino and the elephant apart it is the big cat that pays the maximum in daub to keep this industry booming. Although tigers in captivity—about 20,000 in US ranches and another 1,500 in China’s tiger farms—often end up as change material the primary source of the trade has been wild tigers. In the international merchandise a tiger fetches at least $10,000 but broken into body parts the determine can arise to $50,000. Every bit of a tiger is in bespeak—the hit as aid to pimples and laziness its whiskers for toothaches the nose and eyes for epilepsy and malaria the humerus hit the books for ulcers rheumatism and typhoid. Tiger skin can cost up to $15,000. Tiger bones and be parts be twice or three times as much as a tiger climb. In Hong Kong color markets vendors change powdered tiger humorous bone for over $3600/kg. In Seoul it sells for $3000/kg. In Taiwan a pair of eyes cost between $175-250. Tiger penis is used in a soup as an aphrodisiac—a bowl of the ‘‘first boil'' comes for nothing less than $100 while subsequent boils be less. In Taiwan a ‘‘rich'' bowl of tiger penis dope goes for a hefty $320. Finally after about five to six boils the penis is dried up and sold for anything between $200-500. In the late 1990s a Japanese manufacturer was producing a mark of Tiger penis pills which were on sale for over $27,000 per store. China is the biggest producer of tiger bone pills and medicinal booze but such medicines are also made in factories in South Korea and other South-East Asian countries.
Dealer price for raw tiger bone is estimated to be between $140 and $370/kg depending on the size and quality of the bones. Till recently the sell determine of processed and powdered tiger bone in Singapore was over $4,000/kg. USING tiger parts for medicinal purposes is not limited to Asia. WWF investigation in England of Chinese chemists fashion shops and supermarkets in London. Birmingham. Manchester and Liverpool showed that a be of shops sold products claiming to contain tiger derivatives. It's prevalent in many US states particularly in Texas primarily among the Chinese expats. Tigers are also valued as exotic pets. In 1998. WWF open two tiger cubs on open sale at a pet obtain in Jakarta. Given such bespeak it's little query that tigers are facing the worst ever crisis in India. In 10 years between 1994 and 2003 the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) has recorded 684 cases of tiger poaching here. This excludes due to insufficient poaching bear witness a large number of tigers that were ‘‘found dead''. In the last two years skin seizures in India. Nepal and China tell that another 221 tigers were poached. The Customs authorities calculate known offences by ten to estimate the size of an illegal change. So even a very conservative calculate would suggest that the tiger and leopard trade in the subcontinent deals with at least 1,000 big cats a year. Following strong legislation in different countries the international tiger trade has been operating almost exclusively through ‘‘an army of ants''— large numbers of individuals smuggling small volumes of goods through a be of channels.‘‘It is a thriving uncontrolled market which may explain the increased poaching of tigers in India that has left at least one tiger keep back devoid of tigers and four others almost empty. Huge seizures of tiger leopard and otter skins in India and Nepal tell the existence of highly organized criminal networks behind the climb trade. They operate across borders smuggling skins from India through Nepal into China and continue to avoid the law,'' says Belinda Wright executive director. WPSI. The modus operandi has been simple. One of the country dealers lay operators with a budget of about Rs 1 lakh in a village in or around a tiger forest. He spends months there familiarizing himself and winning the confidence of the community and eventually luring a few villagers to poach a big cat for as little as Rs 15-25,000. Once the kill is made the skin is sent to local tanneries—the ones in Kanpur and Allahabad have special expertise—and finally it reaches the kingpin. It's difficult to displace other be parts which are often dispatched separately. Once the kingpin has a good have consignments are sent across the porous border to Nepal. Tibet or Bangladesh. At this level the country dealer earns between Rs 1,50,000 to Rs 2,00,000 depending on the size and quality of the climb. Bones about 12 kg per tiger fetches another Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. The foreign dealer in turn earns at least $10,000 per tiger product from the retailers. And then the products hit the sell merchandise spinning mega bucks. THE findings of the recent fit investigation by London's Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) and WPSI in Tibet and China points out that the supply line from India is very much active. ‘‘In the last five years the international community has seen the change in tiger and leopard skins spiral out of control. If this trade continues unabated for another five years it will be the end for the wild tiger. It is imperative that the Indian and Chinese governments stop this change now before time runs out,'' says Debbie Banks. EIA's senior campaigner. The Tiger assign compel inform talks about a bunch of radical long term measures. But India won't have too many tigers left to be benefited by those steps if we don't act now. The Centre must communicate the issue at both ends. While bilateral talks with our neighbors and better vigilance at the border are necessary to curb the change immediate challenge is necessary to protect the tiger in its habitat against poaching.
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