Tiger Skins Traded across the Himalayas
Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) recently released video footage in New Delhi putting much light on the ongoing controversies of tiger extinction from the spaces of India. It made public in detail the manner in which wild tiger and leopard skins from India are being openly traded across the markets of China and Tibet Autonomous Region.
The footage demonstrated at length the skin smuggled across the porous borders of the country and how it is used in Tibet and China for ceremonial costumes and events. Investigators who attended horse festivals across the Tibetan plateau found out that many people, including the organisers and officials, were wearing costumes decorated with tiger and leopard skins. As per the conversations with the organisers and the officials the costumes were a recent acquisition. Talk with the traders highlighted that the skins had come from India.
The WPSI-EIA team reported that in the 46 shops surveyed in Lhasa, 54 leopard and 24 tiger skin chubas were openly displayed and seven whole fresh leopard and three tiger skins were presented for sale to investigators posing as potential buyers within the time of 24 hours.
This problem, although has been there for a long time, is exposed for the first time in such scale and seriousness. It is a thriving, uncontrolled market, which may explain the increase in the number of poached tigers in India. Huge criminal gangs manage the whole network under which the skins are sent to Tibet and China through Nepal is what the video footage highlights.
Among the solutions provided by the experts in this connection, blockage of illegal poaching and smuggling of tiger and leopard skin, deployment of additional security forces in protected areas and forests, sealing of all smuggling points along the borders, and setting up of a Wildlife Tribunal with urgent effect deserve special mention.
Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) recently released video footage in New Delhi putting much light on the ongoing controversies of tiger extinction from the spaces of India. It made public in detail the manner in which wild tiger and leopard skins from India are being openly traded across the markets of China and Tibet Autonomous Region.
The footage demonstrated at length the skin smuggled across the porous borders of the country and how it is used in Tibet and China for ceremonial costumes and events. Investigators who attended horse festivals across the Tibetan plateau found out that many people, including the organisers and officials, were wearing costumes decorated with tiger and leopard skins. As per the conversations with the organisers and the officials the costumes were a recent acquisition. Talk with the traders highlighted that the skins had come from India.
The WPSI-EIA team reported that in the 46 shops surveyed in Lhasa, 54 leopard and 24 tiger skin chubas were openly displayed and seven whole fresh leopard and three tiger skins were presented for sale to investigators posing as potential buyers within the time of 24 hours.
This problem, although has been there for a long time, is exposed for the first time in such scale and seriousness. It is a thriving, uncontrolled market, which may explain the increase in the number of poached tigers in India. Huge criminal gangs manage the whole network under which the skins are sent to Tibet and China through Nepal is what the video footage highlights.
Among the solutions provided by the experts in this connection, blockage of illegal poaching and smuggling of tiger and leopard skin, deployment of additional security forces in protected areas and forests, sealing of all smuggling points along the borders, and setting up of a Wildlife Tribunal with urgent effect deserve special mention.
posted by Vimal Khawas at 10:45 AM
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