Tigers of Rajasthan 'disappear'

India has about half the world's tiger population
A massive search for tigers in a wildlife reserve in India's western state of Rajasthan has failed to find firm evidence any of them are alive.
Three hundred forestry workers spent two weeks looking for tiger paw prints in the Sariska reserve - set up in 1979 as part of a tiger conservation scheme.

Environmentalists say 15 tigers counted there last May have disappeared.

India is estimated to have more than 3,000 tigers, accounting for about half the world's tiger population.

Trapping

Forestry officials told the BBC they were hopeful they might still find tigers during a census planned for May.

Since last May's count, traps have been found in the forest.

The environmentalists say mining in the area is also destroying the tigers' habitat.

Prominent social worker Rajendar Singh said conservation measures had increased tiger numbers to 20 by 2001 but said officials had failed to react to the danger of trapping.

Info About Tiger

The tiger, largest of all cats, is one of the most charismatic and evocative species on the Earth; it is also one of the most threatened. Only 6,000 or so remain in the wild, most in isolated pockets spread across increasingly fragmented forests stretching from India to south-eastern China and from the Russian Far East to Indonesia.

Poisoned, electrocuted, trapped, snared, shot, captured...

Across its range, this magnificent animal is being poisoned, electrocuted, blown up by land mines, trapped, snared, shot and captured. The majority of these animals are sought to meet the demands of a continuing illegal wildlife trade.

Hunters, traders, and poor local residents whose main means of subsistence comes from the forest, are wiping out the tiger and the natural prey upon which it depends. While poaching for trade continues to menace the tiger's survival, perhaps the greatest long-term threats are the loss of habitat and the depletion of the tiger's natural prey.

Already 3 tiger subspecies are extinct
In the past century, the world has lost three of the eight tiger subspecies. The Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers have all become extinct, and the South China tiger is facing the same fate.

Seven areas offer the best hope for conservation
WWF's new tiger conservation strategy and action plan - Conserving Tigers in the Wild: A WWF Framework Strategy for Action 2002-2010 - identifies seven focal tiger landscapes where the chances of long-term tiger conservation are best and its involvement will be most valuable. In each of the focal landscapes, WWF aims to establish and manage effective tiger conservation areas, reduce the poaching of tigers and their prey, eliminate the trade in tiger parts and products, create incentives that will encourage local communities and others to support tiger conservation, and build capacity for tiger conservation.



Physical Description
Species Description
The tiger is the largest of the cats and can be found in a wide range of habitats, from the evergreen and monsoon forests of Indo-Malaysia to the mixed coniferous-deciduous woodlands of the Russian Far East and the mangrove swamps of the Sundarbans, shared by India and Bangladesh.

The characteristic stripe patterns differ from one individual to another and from one side of the cat's body to the other. In fact, there are no tigers with identical markings. Males exhibit a characteristic ruff (lengthened hairs around the neck), which is especially marked in the Sumatran tiger.

Tigers are typically solitary hunters and prey mainly on deer and wild ######. Where this prey is in abundance, such as Chitwan National Park in Nepal, territories range from 10 to 20km² for females and 30 to 70km² for males. In Russia, where the density of prey is much lower, territories vary in size from 200 to 400km2 for females and 800 to 1,000km2 for males.

Tigers have dens in caves, tree hollows and dense vegetation. They are mostly nocturnal but in the northern part of its range, the Siberian subspecies may also be active during the day at winter-time. Using their sight and hearing rather than smell, the tiger stalks its prey and once it has reached close proximity, attacks from the side or rear and kills by a bite to the neck or the back of the head. In 90% of cases however, tigers fail to neutralize their prey

Unless they die, tigers are never replaced on their range. Although individuals do not patrol their territories, the range is visited over a period of days or weeks and it is marked with urine and feces.


Size
Body length is 140-280 cm and tail length is 60 to 95 cm.


Colour
The upper part of the animal ranges from reddish orange to ochre, and the under parts are whitish. The body has a series of black striations of black to dark grey colour.



Habitat
Biogeographic realm
Indo-Malayan, Palearctic


Range States
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia (Sumatra), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, North Korea, Russia (Far East), Thailand, Vietnam




Why is this species important?
The tiger is a powerful symbol of reverence among the variety of cultures that live across its range. Wherever tigers live, they command respect, awe or fear from their human neighbours. Even in places where tigers have become extinct or never existed in the wild, they live in myth and legend.

As top predators, they keep populations of wild ungulates in check, thereby maintaining the balance between herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed. In short, when tigers thrive, the ecosystem thrives.



Interesting Facts
A tiger has been reported to cover up to 10 meters in a horizontal leap.

sucks

As long as ignorant people consume tiger products as aphrodisiacs, tigers will continue to get hunted all over the world. Such a sad fate for a majestic animal.

Hey paguma, any info on cheetah population in the subcontinent....

Here are the 5 living tiger species. 3 are already extinct.

Sumatran tiger:



Amur (Siberian) tiger:



Bengal Tiger



Indo-Chinese tiger:



South China tiger:

Cheetah's are extinct from the Sub-continent. Howerver, there are reports of few surviving in Baluchistan (Pakistan) on the border with Iran. There are now only 50-60 Asiatic Cheetahs left, all in Iran.

Recent survey was done in Baluchistan, but none were found. Read the survey report on my website;

Husain, Syed Tasvir. 2001. Survey of the Asiatic Cheetah in Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Part 1 ( final project report to CAT ) (MS WORD)


Husain, Syed Tasvir. 2001. Survey of the Asiatic Cheetah in Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Part 2 ( final project report to CAT ) (MS WORD)

I love these beautiful animals. Im glad the Indian government is doing all it can to stop these animals from disappearing. But I feel more stern measures need to be taken to stop the use of tiger products including heavy prison terms.

The Indian govt isnt doing shit. Thats why they are disappearing.

The south china tiger and sumatran tiger are very close to extinction, soon, they will join the java, bali and caspian tigers. Right now the only tiger subspecies which have reasonable chances of survival are the bengal and indochinese.

Bangladesh's Sunderbans home to world's largest number of tigers

The first-ever census of Royal Bengal Tigers at the world's largest mangrove forests, the Sundarbans, reveals that this Bangladesh sanctuary boasts of around 500 of them, double the number of big cats found anywhere else.

The Sundarbans, declared a World Natural Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is now facing a problem of population pressure, from both tigers and human beings.

With over six million people living in these forests -- 3 million in Bangladesh and 3.5 million in India — the Sundarbans is experiencing economic exploitation that threatens to destroy its biodiversity.

Last week, while disclosing the primary findings of the survey, partly financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Siraj claimed, "From our experience, we can now say the number of tigers in the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans alone will be close to 500."

Bangladesh's area of the Sundarbans extends across 5,770 square kilometers of land and 1,700 sq km of waterways.

In a bid to save the endangered Sundarbans, the Bangladesh government has also taken up a US $70 million biodiversity protection project to develop tourism and set up eco-huts here.

http://www.matamat.com/fullstory.php?gd=50&cd=2004-03-17

http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040311/449_13945.asp

Paguma, today in the evening news, the Rajasthan forest officials claimed that they managed to see few of the Sariska tigers, but they admitted that the tiger population has come down drastically due to poaching. Very sad indeed.

Recent studies indicate there are 6 Tiger species not 5. The new one is Malayan Tiger. Read the report below:


http://www.plosbiology.org/plosonline/?req...al.pbio.0020442

BTW Paguma, the link to the complete mammals checklist on your website does not work.

still working on it dude . Will be up shortly

Paguma,

Tha sad irony is that poaching is fuelled by demand from the markets in the far east. The Chinese think that consuming parts of the the animal makes them super human or something. I have talked to a lot of forest guards about this, the good thing is that in some areas the population is showing an upswing. They are also thinking of moving the asiatic lion from gujrat to other places.

I have some nice pics of tigers that I shot on my trip to India this time. How do I upload them ? They are quite large. Also, you must go to a place called Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh, it is absolutely fabulous for seeing tigers !!!

BTW, what's the fascination with Palm civets ?

regards,

Yeah man, I would love to go to Bandhavgarh. Infact, my list includes, Kanha, Corbet, Ranthambore, Dachigam, Kaziranga, e.t.c. I have visited Royal Chitwan in Nepal. Amazing place. Hopefully, one day I will visit these places

I have my own personal collection of almost 300 wildlife and nature videos/DVD, around 2000 books Watch "India land of the Tiger" and "Silent Roar: Search for the Snow Leopard"

paguma,

My home state is M.P, which houses Kanha and Bandhavgarh, I have been there many times. One of the bedt sightings I have had was a mother and 3 juvenile cubs, playing next a water hole, we stayed there for 2 hours in an open jeep, was breathtaking, to say the least. Kanha is where Kipling wrote the jungle book from.

There is this other place in M.P which has now become a bio-reserve, I cannot recall the name. We went there when it was still open to public, there was an old guide there, with half his face taken of in an encounter with a leopard. Dude had lived there his entire life and could actually smell out a kill, simply amazing.

This time I also saw B-2, who is charger's son. Was walking in front of the jeep for almost half an hour.

Also have seen charger, the bugger was huge.

PM me your email address, I will send you some pics I took this time.

Glad too see another wildlife fanatic here, the state of tigers saddens me to no end. Maybe sometime in the future I can take you to all these places.

I have been to corbett too, though seeing a tiger there is very rare, because of the vegetation. Have read Corbett's books many times over. Another amazing animal is the Indian bison(gaur) . Adult males stand 6 feet high and weigh over a ton. Once out path was blocked by a gaur and it was huge, amazing site.

Always wanted to go to Kaziranga, the home of the one horned rhino. You should make your way to North East India sometime. Lovely place, and nice people. Not to mention beautiful women and amazing wildlife.

Ranthambore was home to a tiger called Sultan, who was adept at hunting in the water. I'm sure you must have seen the documentry. What is the big cat situation in Pakistan ?

take care,

Paguma,

Here is something you will enjoy :

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? And what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

-- William Blake

CAN U GIMME ANY FACTS....Who says that Inde Govt is'nt doing shit. Ever heard of "Project Tiger". The truth is no matter whatever we do the wildlife population has so much dwindled in the last century that its gonna be extremely difficult( I personally think that its impossible) to alter the current status

http://projecttiger.nic.in/
http://www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger/project.html


Another link which explores different side of PT
http://www.primeindia.com/manav/cruel18.html

Hi paguma, another question from me.

Whats the problem in doing captive breeding. Recently I saw a NationalGeographic program which said that american pet breeders were very good at breeding big cats. Infact so good that a tiger cub was selling for only $100
So why cant India or Pak do the same to save their tigers or snow leapords....

Is this the same species as the Pak and Indian cheetas.....

Yes same species. Asiatic Cheetah's are different from African ones. Here is a website:

www.iraniancheetah.org

Captive Breeding is not the answer. Some big cats are very difficult to breed in captivity (e.g. Cheetah). It's easy to captive breed, but very difficult to return them to the wild. Imagine a snow leopard that was born in San Diego Zoo, being returned to live in the high Himalayas. Nearly impossible

Hence the term "asiatic cheetas" , otherwise they would have been knoen as the Iranian cheetas. The last cheeta was shot in India in 1948.

Paguma,

The sundarbans are an interesting place, they are both in west bengal and bangladesh. They are essentialy mangrove forests, sundari being the tree that grows there, Ban is the bengali version of vun, which means forest.

Strangely, this place has a very high instance of man-eaters.

I think way more park rangers should be watching these sanctuaries... and they should have the license to kill any mother f*ckers they see trying to poach these amazing beautiful animals! And ignorance needs to be eliminated... people should be taught that tigers have no medicinal value or mystical value...

Man this is sad... we can't just keep letting them die out!

Reminds me of the two white tigers that are sitting idle in Rawalpindi's Ayub Park... why doesn't the government try using them to breed?

Ok so why cant we get some breeding pairs and release them in the jungles. Since the terrain and climate is similar, the cheetas will probably find it similar to Iran....

Hopefully science can bring back the extinct tigers... I'm pretty sure it is capable of doing so.

This is an universal problem dude. The rangers are always under equipped and over worked. I saw a program about poaching in Angola where the poachers use Ak47 to down Elephants and the rangers are equipped with only bolt action rifles....

I heard that in India the rangers use shotguns while the poachers have SLR.

Probably the only rangers who are well equipped are the SouthAfricans. Infact they have some kind of special forces dedicated to do anti-poaching duties.

Which is my point exactly. They need the latest equipment and there needs to be a lot more of them. I like the South African idea. Of course this would be expensive to have a special force but it's worth it.

Some news about scientists trying to bring back the Tasmanian tigers...


Tiger cloning plan scrapped for now
February 17, 2005 - 10:49AM
Page Tools

* Email to a friend
* Printer format
*
*

The scientist behind an ambitious plan to clone the Tasmanian tiger says it may one day be resurrected with new technology.

The Australian Museum, which has dropped the plan for now, has blamed poor DNA samples and a lack of facilities and skills for its failure to clone the extinct tiger, also known as a thylacine, from a preserved pup.

But Professor Mike Archer, who made worldwide headlines when he instigated the project in 1999, said the project would not die simply because the museum could not proceed.

"The technology to (clone the thylacine) is improving all the time. And I believe science has a duty to continue to assemble the building blocks that will be needed to do it," he told ABC Science Online.

Australian Museum director Frank Howarth did not discount the possibility of revisiting the project, but said there was no point proceeding at this stage.

"It's not dead in the water, but it's pretty close to the waterline," he said.

"It was a really, really ambitious project from the start. It was a seven-stage project. We got to stage three. We always knew there was a very, very crucial milestone at that point, which was whether we could construct an adequate genetic library."

In a statement, the museum said the thylacine DNA was too degraded to even construct a conventional DNA library.

"We have some small fragments of very good DNA, but not nearly enough to make up the whole story and we said at this point, there's no point proceeding," Mr Howarth said.

The decision has appeased many scientists - including Tasmanian thylacine expert Eric Guiler - who described the project as "spectacular science".

Dr Randolph Rose, an associate professor at the University of Tasmania's School of Zoology, said while the idea of cloning an extinct animal was of great interest, money devoted to cloning a thylacine would be better spent on conservation of living species.

He said funds could be allocated to research the facial tumour disease currently decimating the Tasmanian devil population instead of "pie in the sky" science.

Nick Mooney, a wildlife biologist for the nature conservation branch of Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, said the logic of solving extinction rather than preventing it had serious implications.

"To me, this whole project is about people showing off. It was all about showing how clever people are. Maybe very clever but not very smart," Mr Mooney said.

Tasmanian tigers roamed Australia and Papua New Guinea until 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, when the dingo was introduced from Asia. It was then confined to Tasmania.

The Van Diemen's Land Company introduced the first bounty on the thylacine in 1830 and from 1888 to 1909 the Tasmanian government paid more than 2,000 bounties for Tasmanian tiger skins.

The last known living thylacine died in a Hobart zoo in 1936 and the animal was officially declared extinct in 1986.

Mr Howarth said the demise of the thylacine was a lesson in the fragility of the world's ecosystem.

"You can only pull so many rivets out of an aeroplane before it starts to fall apart," he said.

"The big lesson with the thylacines is not so much about trying to resurrect it, but what damage we did when we let it become extinct."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/Breaking-New...l?oneclick=true

Scraped for now... but let's hope they will still continue... but I agree with what one of the scientists said... for now... they should be helping preserve the current tigers alive...

The sunderbun jungle in bangladesh is home to the world's biggest tiger species the bengal tiger. On average , a sunderbun tiger is 9-10 ft long and some big ones are even up to 12 ft long.

biggest tiger species are not Bengal, but Siberian Tigers. Siberian tigers are the biggest of the big cats

I have a question, its a little silly but ive wanted the answer to this for many years so could someone answer it please: Who would win a fight between a tiger and a lion!? And has there ever been an instance where these two animals fought in the wild?

I know this is a serious discussion so im sorry if this is inappropriate.

By the way, the tiger is NOT the largest of all cats!!!
The largest cat in the world is a cross between a lion and a tiger.... A Liger!!!!

I watched a documentary on them once, apparently they are the size of a lion and a tiger COMBINED!!! FUK1N HUGE!!! Here's a pic:





That is what happens when you breed a female tiger with a male lion. If instead you breed a Male tiger and a female lion, you get a tigon (a much smaller cat)

We are not talking about genetic cross breeds here. Liger is not a species or subspecies, its a cross btw a Tiger and Lion hence it has the characteritics of both these two species. When we talk about Big Cats, we only take into account species and sub-species

Sharif,

From what I remember, some lions were introduced into the jungles of MP, but were killed of by male tigers.

Lions are smaller and less powerfull, tigers have the edge in that combat.

regards,

Fresh indications of tigers' presence trekked in sariska:
[India News]: Jaipur, Feb 16 : Fresh indications are available that the big cat may not have disappeared from Rajasthan's Sariska reserve with forest officials coming across excreta and paw scratches of the tiger and recovery of skulls of a cow and a bull, a top wildlife official said today.

Tigers' excreta at 11 places, recovery of two skulls of a gluebull and cow and paw's scractches show that the tiger has not vanished from the reserved forest, the official monitoring the trekking of the animal for the last fortnight told PTI here.

Tigers' visibility however could be delayed due to water spread out and water points filled with rainy waters occurred in February at Sariska in Alwar district but hopefully the wild cat would be sighted, he said.

The Sariska forest was the most disturbed area as there were 23 villages in the sanctuary's core area, 40,000 cattle surviving on its grassland and water points, and biotic interference every Tuesday and Saturday due to local temples in the vicinity where thousands of devotees throng with their vehicles, the official said.

In May 2004, 16 tigers were spotted in the census, he said, adding "we are hopeful that they are still alive there." PTI


KN

We have a skin of tiger in our home in Karachi. This tiger was killed long time ago in LALKUAN(UP INDIA) by some one in our ansistors, this skin is huge and still intact . I'll try to post the picture of that skin.

Assalam-o-Alakum. Salam.

Man, I love Tigers. They're my favorite animals along with Spiders. I love tigers and I hope they don't go extinct.

Thank you.
Bamani Khuda.
Khuda Hafiz.

Ligers and tigons are useless... they can't breed...

Guys... what kinda cats do we have Pakistan? I know there is the snow leopards in the north and I'm pretty sure we have some cheetahs?

what kinda cats do we have in Pakistan? Well, you will be surprised what we have got

Here are all the cats species of Pakistan. 11 out of 36 total wild cat species in teh world :

http://www.wildlifeofpakistan.com/wildcats.html

i didnt know that paguma brov can you confirm please? can they not breed at all? even with other ligers or even with other tigers or lions?

Kaziranga's centenary celebrations

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, north east India
18 feb 2005


Two Britons were the centre of attention at the centenary celebrations of the Kaziranga National Park in India's Assam state, home to a wide variety of endangered wildlife.

The centenary celebrations began with the opening of several fairs and exhibitions that were followed by seminars on conservation.

Guest of Honour for the occasion was Lord Ravensdale, grandson of British Viceroy Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, the man behind Bengal's first partition in 1905.

The viceroy's American-born wife, Mary Curzon, was a great wildlife enthusiast and pushed his officials to declare Kaziranga a forestry reserve in 1905. Later it was upgraded to a game sanctuary and a national wildlife park.

'Big and unmanageable'

"I was surprised to be invited by the Assam government, and I have enjoyed every moment of my stay here," said Lord Ravensdale.

"It is good to see Indians realising my grandfather was no villain, that he was a very sensitive administrator and if he partitioned Bengal, it was for administrative reasons because the province was too big and unmanageable."

But many Bengalis still believe that Lord Curzon - the man who gave Calcutta its famed Victoria Memorial - orchestrated the partition of Bengal to weaken the powerful nationalist movement in the province.

"I don't care whether he cared for rhinos. He wanted to break the nationalist movement in Bengal and drive a wedge between Bengali Hindus and Muslims. That was his motive behind his partitioning of Bengal, nothing else," said Satyeswar Mukhopadhyay, a veteran freedom fighter.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that Lord Ravensdale was invited to formally recognise his grandfather's "pioneering role in setting up Kaziranga". Also invited with the peer was British author Mark Shands.

Legend has it that an Assamese animal spotter, Balaram Hazarika, took Mary Curzon around Kaziranga when she visited the area with her husband in 1904.


Kaziranga is home to a wide variety of wildlife (Images: Kaziranga centenary website


Rampant poaching
Hazarika, also known as Nigana Shikari, is said to have convinced the viceroy's wife that something had to be done to save the rhinos.

At that time there were only about 10 to 20 left due to rampant poaching.

The decision to declare Kaziranga as a reserve forest and later a national park proved life-saving for the rhinos.

By 1966, the population had risen to 366, and the quality of conservation got even better when Kaziranga was declared a national park in 1974.

Now there are more than 1,700 rhinos in the park, despite some casualties due to Assam's devastating floods and poaching.

The state's separatist United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) started "trying" and killing poachers in the 1980s.

The India army has also killed some poachers, mistaking them for insurgents.

"We constructed several high termite mounds to help rhinos to survive during the floods," says Rajendra Prasad Agrawal, chief conservator of forests in Assam.

But though the rhino is the prime tourist and conservationist's attraction at Kaziranga, the park's centenary celebration committee has put the spotlight on other wildlife rarities.

The Asiatic water buffalo, the Royal Bengal tiger, the Asiatic elephant and swamp deer all roam the park. These animals along with the one-horned rhino make the Big Five of Kaziranga.


Kaziranga is described as a nerve centre for unique biodiversity


'Unique biodiversity'

"Kaziranga is globally known as the home of the rhino," said Assam Forest Minister Pradyut Bordoloi.

"But what often escapes notice is the fact that this 450 sq km National Park has the world's highest concentration of Royal Bengal tigers, Asiatic elephants and Asiatic buffalos."

If the Kaziranga rhinos number over 1,700 (according to the 1999 census), the Asiatic water buffalo count is more than 1,500 while the elephants number over 1,048.

The number of Royal Bengal tigers in this World Heritage Site is more than that of Ranthambhore and Kanha tiger parks in north India put together.

Wildlife experts have said the Kaziranga buffaloes are the purest breed anywhere in the world.

The centenary celebrations earlier this month have given the authorities an opportunity to showcase Kaziranga's fauna, too.

Ornithologists have documented over 500 species of birds at Kaziranga, at least a 100 more than India's most renowned bird sanctuary - Bharatpur. It also has a wide range of primates.

Of the 14 species found in India, nine are in Kaziranga and outlying wildlife reserves alone.

Mr Agarwalla may not be exaggerating when he says that Kaziranga is the nerve centre of a unique biodiversity.

BBC



Kazaringa Centenary Website

I'mgenerally not racist against Indians but killing Tigers for sex medicines is the only thing I hate about them. They are not seriously trying to help these cats. What cocaine and drugs is to the American government is what Tiger and wildcat poaching is to the Indian government. America should simply trap all of these animals and put them in artificial habitats to save them. The Siberian Tiget is the largest of all cats followed by the Bengal, then the lion. Tigers are said to be the baddest of them, but there have been cases of Lions fighting Tigers and the Lions won. I will find the post.

i know what you mean

Its not just the Indians. I am afraid that the all across Asia, particularly in Chinese communities, tiger parts are considered an aphrodisiac. I think that the WWF should make a deal with Pfizer and ship Viagra over there. Keep to the chemicals folks and lay off the Tigers.

They can not breed just like a mule can not breed it's a bit further than just hybridation.
Here is the tiger lion fighting information. It goes as far as to say a tiger can kill a brown bear. That is an exaggeration.
http://www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger/conflict.html

Indians do not use "Tigets" as aphrodisiacs, it is the markets in the far east like China. Since the population there is dwindling, they need to source from India, these guys are paid a lot of money for these parts as they are in high demand. There are many people trying to help the cats, but youm ust remember, there are many poor people in India, and people resort to poaching to make ends meet. You and me sitting here can easily complain about it being a heinous act, but to a man who has to make a decision between his children and a tiger, guess which comes first !!!!

I am no way condoning poaching, the tiger is the national animal of India, and it's conservation is very imporant. Having seen many, it will truely bve a sad day for humans of they ever become extinct.

You cannot be racist against Indians, as people of India do not belong to a homogenous race.

What does that mean? We all are a part of some race. I don't think Indians are killing tigers to support their families as there are not enough tigers over their for it to be a thriving market unlike Rhesus monkeys or Cattle. Maybe it's just greed.

Dude,

You are missing the point. The middlemen get the money, and they can be accused of greed. But the actual poachers are displaces farmers etc. There would be no poaching if there was no demand for tiger parts. Unfortunately, demand does exist in the eastern markets especially Chine. That, my friend, is the essence of the problem.


Indians come in many shapes and sizes, and are not of one race. Go to north-east India and you will find people of mongoloid origin. In the northern areas they are almost caucasian. In the south they are slightly darker. Many races.

By the way, what is the origin of your name ?

regards,