The Sunday Express
New Delhi, September 13, 2009

Excerpt from the visit of the Minister of Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, to the Express newspaper for an 'Idea Exchange':

NEHA SINHA: You were recently in China to discuss cooperation on Himalayan glaciers and on tiger conservation. You have said that our tigers are being poached to fuel Chinese demand. How optimistic are you about the two countries working together?
JAIRAM RAMESH: I had an interesting discussion with the Chinese on tigers. I asked them to help us conserve tigers and pointed out they were the largest market for tigers. They said that the demand or shahtoosh in India is killing off the Tibetan antelope and the antelope is to China what tigers are to India. I said you can't compare the two; we don't have an Indian system of medicine which uses antelope parts as they do with tigers. But if tigers re being smuggled across the border, the responsibility is India's. We can't blame the Chinese, If we take tough action against our poachers, the message will go out. However, the Chinese can cooperate with us in terms of policing and intelligence and, more importantly, in phasing out the tiger farms which is a requirement under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. To their credit, the Chinese have enforced a trade ban on tiger parts.