China’s proposal to legalize trade in tiger parts sends alarm bells ringing in Karnataka

The possibility of China lifting its 14-year-old ban on trade in tiger parts has sent alarm bells ringing in Karnataka, where wildlife enforcement agencies and conservationists are apprehending a threat to the declining tiger population in its forests.

Home to 350-400 tigers, Karnataka’s forests have long been targeted by poachers, who hunt down the big cats not only for their striped skin, but also for the medicinal properties of their bones.

A worried Karnataka Government is planning to knock on the Federal Government’s door to bring pressure on China to drop its proposal to legalize trade in tiger parts, lest it takes a heavy toll on the animal in the state’s forests.

“It is an issue of grave concern. If the demand for tiger parts from China increases, wildlife criminals’ network here would grow stronger and the Central India-based organized criminal gangs may start hunting here”, Karnataka’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) A K Varma said.

Inspector General of Police CID (Forest Cell) K S N Chikkerur is equally concerned. “Legalizing trade in tiger parts in China is like extending an open invitation to wipe out the tiger population here”, he said.

During the last three years, a total of 28 tiger skins had been seized in Karnataka, a majority of which was destined for China. According to Forest Department officials, notorious poachers, who are major suppliers to China, have been trying to poach tigers in the forests of Karnataka.

With environmentalists and wildlife conservationists even in North Indian states sharing Karnataka’s concern over the threat to tiger population, Varma has made out a case for Indian Government along with other tiger-populated countries to prevail upon China to protest the tigers as envisaged in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

The Government of India’s Tiger Task Force report 2005 has estimated at about 500 to 1,000 tigers have been killed in India during the last 25 years.
Though more than 5000 tigers are being bred in farms across China, the huge costs incurred in the rearing of tigers in captivity is understood to be main reason behind China considering a proposal to lift the ban on trade in tiger parts. Also, wild tigers are regarded as more potent sources of medicine that the farm-bred ones.