tiger

WWF HAS DECLARED 2010 AS THE `INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE TIGER' AND LAUNCHED SPECIAL CAMPAIGN TO DOUBLE THE BIG CAT'S NUMBER BY Get involved to educate, mould public opinion and actively participate to increase forest and arrest deforestation as deforestation and encroachment are major reasons for dwindling tiger population
The year 2010 is the Year o the Tiger according to th Chinese astrology. Conservationists are viewing this as the best chance for the tigers to escape extinction. Coinciding with this Chinese calendar celebration, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched a special campaign declaring 2010 as the `International Year of Tiger' to safeguard this endangered species and double its number by 2022.As per WWF figures, the number of tigers has fallen by almost 95 per cent over the last 100 years, and there are around 3,200 tigers left in the wild in total at present.
A total of 13 tiger range countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam) have pledged collective commitment to save the tigers and double their number by next 12 years. The declaration made at the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation (January 27-29) at Hua Hin, Thailand stated, “With political will and implementation of the needed action, extinction of the wild tigers across much of their range can be averted“.
Illegal trade, poaching, habitat loss and conflict with people have been the major threats to tigers.
A ban on trade in tiger parts was implemented in 1975, marking one of the first initiatives under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). But there are tiger farms, which operate openly in China, and as zoos or sanctuaries elsewhere in Asia. According to experts, these farms produce countless cubs, which are used for fulfilling demand of tiger products.

Over the last three months, 11 rare Siberian tigers have died in a zoo in the North East China due to shortage of food. Despite protests from conservationists and many other countries, China, backed by owners of tiger farms having over 6,000 of the big cats in stock alive or dead in deep freezes, has been trying to get CITES to agree in opening up the market in China for the farmed tigers.
Conservationists also fear that the International Year of Tiger will stir even more interest in the black market for tiger parts. But the agreement of countries to protect core tiger habitats as well as buffer zones and corridors connecting key sanctuaries and national parks can be a positive effort towards saving these big cats. CAT FACTS · For over a million years, tiger were found over a territory stretching from eastern Turkey to the Russian Far East, with their home extending northward to Siberia and southward to Bali. Now they are found in 13 tiger range countries only.
· Amur, Bengal, Indo-Chinese, Malayan, South China and Sumatran are the living subspecies of tigers.
· The Bali, Caspian and Javan tiger subspecies have all become extinct in the last 70 years.
· Tigers survive in 40 per cent less area than they occupied a decade ago. STARING DANGERS Tigers now occupy just seven per cent of their historic range and cent of their historic range and there are as few as 3,200 left in the wild, down from an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. The top 10 hot spots of tigers as enlisted by WWF and the dangers being faced are -1. INDIA: Habitat degradation, loss of connectivity between tiger habitats and conflict with people.

2. BANGLADESH: Rising sea level may destroy the remaining tiger habitat in Bangladesh's Sundarbans mangrove forest by 96 per cent this century.
3. RUSSIA: Loss of habitat of Amur tigers due to destruction of temperate forests to fulfil demand for Korean pine and Mongolian oak.
4. CHINA: Chinese demand for illegal tiger products.
5.VIETNAM: Demand for tiger parts to be used as ingredients for health tonics and some traditional Asian medicine, meat for restaurants and skins for fashion.
6. UNITED STATES: More than 5,000 tigers are alive in captivity in the US. A steady supply of parts from captive-bred tigers has fuelled demand for parts from wild tigers.
7. EUROPE: Rain forests, home to Sumatran and Malayan subspecies, are being destructed for palm oil plantation.
8. NEPAL: Nepal is a major crossroads for illegal trade in tiger parts into Tibet and China.
9. MEKONG REGION: Greater Mekong region (Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) has hundreds of proposed new dams and roads. These dams and roads will damage watersheds, increase access for poachers and fragment large wilderness if not planned properly.
10. INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA: As Sumatra's forests are being cleared fast, the habitat of Sumatran tiger is being lost. THREATS TO TIGERS Courtesy: Choong Jooh / WWF · 1930s: Hunting · Between 1940 and late 1980s: Habitat loss due to human population expansion · Early 1990s: Trade in tiger bone for traditional medicines · Current threats: Poaching, killing, illegal trade of tiger parts and human-tiger conflict, habitat loss and fragmentation However, · All international commercial tiger trade has been banned since 1975, under CITES · National trade in tiger parts is subject to each country's laws · China's tiger trade ban since 1993 has been an overwhelming success in reducing trade and demand