Source:The Times of India
Nitin Sethi
29 Sep 2007

NEW DELHI: A blueprint to create inviolate critical wildlife habitats (CWHs) across the country has been finalised by the environment and forests ministry. Unlike the existing protected areas — national parks and sanctuaries — the ministry has suggested a set of guidelines based on scientific criteria to establish the habitats.

This is an important step to provide an exclusive space to wildlife when the Forest Rights Act gets operationalised. Under the Act, which is meant to formally recognise rights of forest dwellers, only areas declared as CWHs can be granted inviolate status — sans human presence. Even existing protected areas will have to be re-evaluated under these norms to declare them inviolate if they fall within the set criteria.

Priority has been given to tiger-bearing forests. Within 30 days of the notification of guidelines and formation of state level committees, all regions with a breeding tiger density would be demarcated. The ministry, in consultation with chief wildlife wardens and experts at Wildlife Institute of India, has suggested that for every 20 breeding tigresses, an area of 800-1,000 sq km be maintained as inviolate.

This, the ministry believes, would help maintain an overall population of 70-100 tigers maintainable in the patch along with surrounding buffer areas (where multiple land use is allowed with some regulation on industrial and other activities). Where such large areas cannot be declared inviolate, the attempt shall be to connect small CWHs with bigger ones by blocking connecting land corridors and declaring them inviolate as well. This will ensure the genetic viability and robustness of smaller tiger populations. Only in exceptional cases — where there is not sufficient land to declare as inviolate — shall such inviolate areas be maintained in isolation.

At present, there are 28 tiger reserves (with another eight proposed) and 604 national parks and sanctuaries covering about 24% of the forest area and 4.74% of the total geographic area of the country.

For non-tiger bearing parks and sanctuaries, the ecological space required by other key species — top meat eaters, large-sized herbivores, economically important species, endangered species or migratory animals — will be used to measure how much space should be declared as inviolate.

The CWHs for tigers will be identified by a central committee comprising chief wildlife wardens of states concerned, the director and two scientists of the wildlife institute, field directors of existing tiger reserves, representative of the tribal affairs ministry, a wildlife scientist familiar with the area and the member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

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Dear All,

I know I been neglecting all the tasks that I suppose to do, but for me to read the news on how a poacher or how the people treating tigers make me cry, over and over again. And keep questioning myself why in this world, we human kind could not live together with other living creatures. I do know we are smarter than them, but do we really need to take advantage over that? I bet, sometimes, other living creatures besides us are way smarter than us, is just that they could not talk.

Sometimes, I reluctant to attend any Chinese wedding, because I know their second dish will always come with Shark Fin soup, and yes I refused to have it, but imagine the whole table looking at me, with a weird eyes, weird interpretation. And of course I get overwhelmed if they do not serve the shark fin.

More so, is not easy to convince someone to protect the environment, more to stop eating shark fin, especially in the Chinese society (I know I should not complaint) but is way too difficult. I felt so tortured when I try to say something to them. I appreciate that my eldest cousin do not served shark fin during his wedding, lol seriously I�m very happy. At least he listens to me right, that�s my very first accomplishment, and I think is last or yet to come� � oh and I make a pledge of say no to shark fin lol� I know is not something big, but at least I know what am I doing.

Seriously, I don�t know how to convince them? Like my love for tigers, I don�t think I can describe it in words, is just the feeling that I wanted to protect them and I do not want them to extinct nor stay in captive for the rest of their life. Tigers are meant to be in the wild. Sigh. I faced a very difficult person in my family, I�m not here to convince him but to explain to him, I just talked about how the wild animals should stay in wild, and I do admit my love towards the animals are way exaggerating but he have no rights to insult me.

I said I�m tigers & sharks� person, so of course will concentrate my efforts in these 2 wild animals, but instead of understanding my sentence, he asked me why on earth I want to protect tigers, what about other wild animals in the wild? I said, if I were to concentrate my small amount energy to all the wild animals, ended up the result will be bad. Instead I focus on my strength will do more good than harm. Of course he doesn�t accept my point, and keep insulting me with other things involved with animals. For example, he said he will have tigers� penis to strengthen his ability, or purposely eat shark fin in a weird way to show it to me or whatever way to show he is smarter, high status than me that love wild animals.

Is not one person task to protect this wild animals, but everyone that live in this Earth, I don�t mind you laughing at me, I don�t mind you saying me stupid, or laugh at what I�m telling u, just like years ago, when I did a solo presentation over a flash video by wwf (to share with the), telling my lecturer, and my classmate about how important it is to protect them, the environment, the animals, because we are linked to each other, ended up, they insulted me, by laughing and not paying one single attention (including that lecturer herself). I know I should forget about that, but when I flash back the memories, it causes pain to me, to let me think why we as a human, earth citizen are so selfish� �

Do you really want your future sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, to look at the animals on the 3D projector screen? Everyone have task to do, u might not like tigers, or shark, but maybe u will like other animals, so start from there� �

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Hi all,

im Jolenesiah and this new url was meant for tigers, i wanted to move all the info here so that it is easier for me to organize, and of course if it happen to make any earning, it all goes to funding tigers. :D

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Dear All,

Still remember a post about tiger mosaic that i asked you to send ur photo in? well we have a good news.... :D

Add Your Photo to the Tiger Mosaic

Look at the result...
Source : Save The Tiger Fund
We did it! Breeding tigers for trade soundly rejected

In a major victory for conservation, raising captive tigers for trade in their parts was rejected by members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in The Hague this week.

Parties to the international wildlife convention also urged China to phase out its large-scale commercial tiger farms.

Prior to the decision WWF and other conservation organizations unveiled the massive two-storey-high tiger mosaic, made up of more than 26,000 photos, outside the conference centre urging world leaders to end all trade in tigers. Delegates had to walk past the mosaic on their way to the tiger debate.

4 countries with wild tigers - India, Nepal, Russia and Bhutan - were joined by the United States in advocating for a strong decision for tigers. India called on China to phase out the country’s privately run “tiger farms,” which house nearly 5,000 big cats and are pushing the Chinese government to allow legal trade in tiger parts. With leadership from these countries, the 171 member countries of the CITES convention adopted a strong tiger trade decision by consensus.

China has said that it will not lift its ban without listening to scientific opinion from around the world. The world spoke and urged China not to reopen any trade in tiger parts and to increase protection for tigers in the wild.

This is great news!

Thank you to everyone who took action and added their photo to the tiger mosaic. Without your help this would not have been possible!

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Source: Click Here

Crocodiles scare tiger poachers in India
By DILIP GANGULY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


CALCUTTA, India -- Poachers seeking to bag a Royal Bengal tiger in the Sunderbans reserve are encountering a unique new security measure to keep them away: hundreds of crocodiles that have been released in the mangrove forest.

Originally brought into the reserve in the late 1990s for breeding, the crocodiles are having the unintended beneficial effect of scaring away poachers from the forest - home to the largest wild population of Royal Bengal tigers.

"With tigers on land and the crocodile in water, the fear factor does work," divisional Forest Officer Rathin Banerjee said Tuesday.

During winter months, the crocs often come out of the cold water and lie in the jungle path of the poachers.

Nearly 400 crocodiles, bred in captivity over the years, have been released in the reserve, Banerjee said. A 2004 census said more than 270 tigers were roaming the reserve in West Bengal state, bordering Bangladesh.

"The use of crocodiles is one of the measures to save the wildlife there from poachers," said V.K. Yadav, a forest conservator.

Conservationist Ranjit Mitra said it was difficult to say how many tigers have been killed by poachers in the past five years, "but it will run into dozens."

Another conversationist called the idea of using crocs "novel."

"It is surely a novel idea, but this can be one of the measures to check poaching," said Animesh Basu of the Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation, a local non-governmental organization.

The state Forest Department was assessing the effectiveness of the new measure.

"It is not like you count how many hens you had and how many have been taken away by the jackals at night," Yadav said. "Here the idea is to ensure that there is no unusual change in the demography," Yadav said referring to major species of animals in the Sunderbans.

India's border guards also have set up camps in the area to guard against the poachers.

"We are trying our best," Yadav said.

Preliminary results of a recent exhaustive study of tiger habitats found that the population in some Indian states may be nearly 65 percent smaller than experts had thought.

Conservationists said the early results indicated the most recent tiger census - which found about 3,500 tigers - was far too optimistic. The study was conducted in the past two years by the government-run Wildlife Institute of India.

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Don't u think this is cool? instead of setting up all those high tech protection, crocodiles just get a new job... :D

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SOURCE: International Tiger Coalition
BEIJING, July 27 /PRNewswire- USNewswire/ -- Disturbing new images of tiger carcasses piled up in cold storage at one of China's largest "tiger farms" raise questions about enforcement of tiger trade bans in effect in China and internationally.

The photos were taken by participants invited to a government-sponsored workshop and tour of China's two largest tiger "farms" earlier this month for international observers and scientists. The tour was held on the heels of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) agreeing in June that captive breeding of tigers should be restricted "only to conserving wild tigers."

"What is the point of these stockpiles when tiger trade is banned inside and outside China?" asked Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, who participated in the State Forestry Administration' s tiger farm tour and tiger trade workshop. "The 171 member nations of CITES made it clear last month that 'tigers should not be bred for their parts and derivatives. '"

Among the carcasses piled in a refrigerated building at the tiger farm in Guilin, China, was a tiger that had been skinned and another that had been gutted. CITES officials formally asked China in June to investigate illegal sales of tiger meat at the Guilin farm.

Tiger "farms" in China house nearly 5,000 live tigers, and farm investors are pressuring the government to lift a ban on tiger trade so that they can profit from the sale of skins, bones and other body parts of tigers after they die. The Guilin farm's owner submitted a report to CITES saying he was saving the tigers in cold storage for the day when trade is legalized in China.

"Given that these bodies are commercially valuable and their sale is prohibited by law, they amount to contraband," said Adam Roberts of Born Free Foundation. "Why not burn them the way other illegal wildlife products are burned in China?"

The 35 organizations of the International Tiger Coalition stand ready to offer guidance and technical support to China on shutting down its tiger farms and stepping up law enforcement efforts to stamp out illegal trade of tiger parts. The Coalition encourages China to invest more resources in increasing its wild tiger population, which could rebound quickly with proper protection.

Contacts: Judy Mills, +202/857-5160 International Tiger Coalition
Jan Vertefeuille, +202/492-0597

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Just imagine, a big fridge with dead tigers .... awww i cant imagine it....

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