India's Tiger Poaching Crisis
Until
recently, habitat loss was thought to be the largest single threat to
the future of wild tigers in India. It has now been established that
the trade in tiger bones, destined for use in Oriental medicine outside
India's borders, is posing an even larger threat. Having decimated
their own sources, Far Eastern traditional medicine manufacturers are
now targeting India for their supply of tiger bones. Poaching of tigers
for the traditional Chinese medicine industry started in northern India
in the mid-1980's.
Investigations
carried out in 1993-94, during which a total of 36 tiger skins and 667
kilos (1470 pounds) of tiger bones were seized in northern India,
brought to light the severity of the problem. The illegal trade is now
widespread and in the hands of ruthless, sophisticated operators, some
of whom have top level patronage. There is also evidence that profits
from the wildlife trade are increasingly being used to fund armed
insurgency in north-east and north-west India. A tiger can be killed
for as little as just over a dollar for the cost of poison, or $9 for a
steel trap. Much of the tiger poaching is done by tribals who know
their forests well. They are usually paid a meager amount (in a case
near Kanha Tiger Reserve, in May 1994, a trader paid four poachers $15
each for killing a tiger), their hunting talents and knowledge
exploited by greedy traders. It is these traders and the middlemen who
make substantial profits from the illegal trade in tiger parts.
PENALITIES
If
an offence is committed against the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972,
there is a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment or a fine which
may extend to Rs. 25,000 or both.
For an offence against a Schedule I or Schedule II (part 2) animal, or
for an offence committed within a sanctuary or natural park, there is a
mandatory prison term of three years, which may extend to seven years.
There is also a mandatory fine of at least Rs. 10,000. For a subsequent
offence, the mandatory prison remains same, while the mandatory fine is
at least Rs.25, 000.
For an offence committed inside the core area of a Tiger Reserve, there
is a mandatory prison term of three years, extendable to seven years
and a fine of Rs. 50,000 extendable to Rs. 2 lakhs. In case of a
subsequent conviction, there is an imprisonment of at least seven years
and a fine of Rs. 5 lakhs which may extend to Rs. 50 lakhs.
Despite these penalties, the laws are difficult to enforce and to date,
in spite of hundreds of cases, only 16 people have ever been convicted
of killing a tiger.
POACHING METHODS
Poachers use one of the following methods to kill a wild tiger:
Poison
- which is usually placed in the carcasses of domestic buffaloes
and cows. During the dry, hot summer months small forest pools are also
poisoned by poachers, or depressions dug and filled with water for this
purpose. There is a sophisticated and well organised supply route
operated by the major traders, to distribute poison and collect tiger
bones from the remotest villages. .
Steel Traps -
which are made by nomadic blacksmiths. These traps are immensely
strong. In a tiger poaching case near Raipur in 1994, it took six adult
men to open a trap. In one area in central India, investigators found
that so many steel traps had been set that the villagers were fearful
of going into the forest. People have received dreadful injuries from
these traps.
Firearms - are used where hunting can be carried out with little hindrance.
Electrocution - by tapping 230 volts -11KV overhead electrical wires and laying a live wire on animal tracts.
Tiger poaching occurs in all areas
where large number of tigers have been recorded. Poaching is
particularly prevalent in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala,
Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Assam.
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