Tags:
Journalism of Courage
India8217;s success in getting China to commit to banning tigers being bred in captivity for trade in body parts addresses key conservation concerns. In The Hague conference of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, China had attempted to keep the ban restricted to international trade in parts and derivatives of such tigers. It was overruled, and now all such trade will be disallowed. In India8217;s fight against poaching, this removes one of the ways the illegal trade found a legitimate outlet. But it would be dangerously complacent to believe that this is enough.
Most of the trade in tiger parts and derivatives is underground and highly criminalised. It is also flourishing, going by the rapidly declining tiger counts in India8217;s reserves. As this newspaper first exposed in 2005, Sariska8217;s entire tiger population disappeared without trace 8212; a clear pointer to the probable cause. That shocking report prompted the prime minister to constitute a Tiger Task Force to investigate the problems associated with tiger conservation and explore solutions. It found two problems. One, the institutional framework was collapsing. This is being sought to be rectified with the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, an autonomous body enabled to direct state governments to take recommended action and not just disburse funds. Two, the incomplete resettlement of families who are living in tiger reserves has led to a situation that can be summarised as 8216;people versus parks8217;, and by extension 8216;people versus tigers8217;.
