Illegal trading threatens endangered tigers, push them towards extinction
Tiger, the very term conjures up the image of a majestic beast, and rightly so! Unfortunately, the numbers of these royal beasts have taken a toll due to overhunting, poaching, illegal trading and trafficking. In fact, global seizures of big cats and their body parts have led to further reduction in their population (150 per year on an average, over the past two decades). This means that despite continuous conservation efforts, these already endangered animals in the wild are slowly moving towards extinction.
To put things in perspective, as many as 3377 big cats (alive, dead or in parts) were confiscated in between January 2000 and June 2022 across 50 countries, as revealed recently by a global wildlife trade monitoring group called TRAFFIC. Sadly, majority of these seizures happened in 13 countries (including India) where tigers are still largely found in the wild.
For those unaware, India, that is currently home to half of the world’s remaining wild tigers, is also the country with maximum numbers of confiscated tigers, a news that’s no less than alarming! China, Indonesia, Thailand and Russia were next in line. In fact, Indonesia, that is home to the critically endangered Sumatran tiger saw seizure of 18 tigers in only the first half of 2022, the number that is two more than the entire 2021’s confiscations. China, on the other hand, has been indulging in unlawful poaching. Turns out, this is because tiger parts are in high demand there as people believe that consuming them will cure diseases and even improve their strength and virility.
Taking this into account, TRAFFIC has warned against the impact on these big cats and has even concluded that this was the result of trafficking-induced illegal trading. However, they have also said that the nature of true criminality can’t really be put into numbers.
To make matters worse, the latest evidence reveals that such illegal trade and poaching are neither new nor temporary threats. So, it’s the need of the hour to take immediate and proper action to curb such practices and in turn make the conservation efforts a priority.
TRAFFIC has also suggested that 2022, that was supposed to be the Year of the Tiger (as per the lunar calendar), ironically saw fall in their numbers, rather than a rise; all because of poachers being in “relentless pursuit of the world’s remaining wild tigers.”
The number of big cats in the wild that was more than a lakh in 1900 thus stand at only a few thousand, thanks to hunting, trafficking and destruction of their habitats. Not only that, the population that was earlier widespread in Asia is now only restricted to parts of South East Asia and far eastern Russia. Apart from wild tigers, confiscated ones were also traced back to captive sources such as zoos or breeding farms, especially in Thailand and Vietnam.
Interestingly, TRAFFIC’s report has identified nearly 675 Facebook profiles in six separate Southeast Asian countries that were involved in all kinds of illegal practices related to tigers. These accounts were directly linked to the illegal sale of other animal parts, such as ivory, bear parts and rhino horn.
By now you have been wondering how to save tigers from being trafficked once and for all. It seems rather difficult. However, for starters, several conservation groups have suggested stricter universal laws to be implemented soon. Intelligence-based investigations have also been suggested to overthrow all criminal networks and in turn prosecute them, to make a strong and lasting impact. Another measure that has been mentioned so far is the immediate closure of illegal markets (both online and offline).