Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 18 • 14th October 2005

India to Talk With China on Illegal Tiger Trade

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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 7 October launched a process to combat illegal trade in tigers and other wildlife products between India and neighbouring China and Nepal. Singh told the Ministry of Environment and Forests to take up the issue diplomatically with Nepalese and Chinese officials. As part of the action plan Environment Minister Namo Narain Meena will soon visit China to advocate for stronger measures against the sale of such products within Chinese borders. China is reportedly considering reopening the domestic trade in tigers and tiger parts, banned there since 1993, but only in the trade of captive-bred tiger bone for traditional medicine from so-called “tiger farms”. TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, said that an end to the ban would threaten the world’s remaining wild tiger populations by making it easier to launder black market tiger parts.

At home, India plans to increase border control and monitoring by providing training for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and customs officers at the China and Nepal borders. Additionally, a proposal for the creation of a National Wildlife Crime Bureau, to investigate poaching cases and catch poachers, will be put before the cabinet of India next week. “We are delighted the Prime Minister is taking a lead role on the international stage and look forward to seeing effective enforcement and co-operation between India, Nepal and China to stop the trade”, Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India said. In August 2005 TRAFFIC investigators found 23 shops in the city’s main square openly selling skins and parts of tigers and leopards in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, evidence that sources suggested spurred the Prime Minister’s actions. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Standing Committee in June 2005 asked all Asian Big Cats range states to report next year on their work in combating illicit trade in specimens of Asian Big Cat species.

“PM gets a pat for save-tiger push,” OUR CORRESPONDENT, 10 October 2005; “Reopening Tiger Trade After a 12-Year Ban; WWF, TRAFFIC Fear Increase in Tiger Poaching,” US NEWSWIRE, 26 September 2005; “India wants Chinese action against wildlife trade,” SILICON INDIA, 7 October 2005.