WWF-UK: New Tiger Programme in India
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New Tiger Programme in India
Tuesday 29 April 1997
WWF has launched a new tiger conservation programme for India. It is intended to provide practical on-the-ground support for anti-poaching operations in key tiger reserves and is directed by Tom Mathew, one of India's foremost conservationists and a former head of WWF-India.
Recognising the crisis that now confronts the tiger in India, WWF has launched this initiative specifically to reinforce the effectiveness of the national parks and reserves to protect tigers.
The new programme will:
strengthen the anti-poaching work of forest guards and rangers
provide essential equipment and facilities for anti-poaching patrols
re-inforce management of parks and reserves
support voluntary organisations working in local villages around the reserves
WWF's programme is currently supporting seven reserves - Corbett, Dudhwa, Manas, Kasiranga, Palamau, Periyar and Bandhavgarh. Depending upon available funding, we expect to include other reserves whose needs are currently being assessed by field inspections.
In the last three months, WWF has committed a quarter of a million dollars to the seven reserves, and we expect this to increase to nearly half a million by the end of June.
In addition to this direct support for tiger reserves, WWF is also engaged in a wide programme of other activities to save the tiger. They include:
penetrating and exposing the illegal trade in tiger and other wildlife materials
lobbying the government of India to live up to its legal obligations to protect the country's wildlife, including the tiger
prosecutions against poachers and traders, and proceedings against the government for failing to meet its statutory responsibilities for wildlife
international pressure on the government of India
building public awareness through the media about the plight of the tiger
education in schools and wildlife camps about tiger conservation
eco-development projects and incentive schemes in the villages around the reserves to win the support of the local communities
"No other conservation agency has such a major commitment to the tiger" declared Dr Robin Pellew, Director of WWF-UK. "But in the long term, the fate of India's tigers will depend not on anti-poaching measures in reserves, but on reversing the demand for tiger products outside India that is driving the species to the edge of extinction. It is in countries such as China that the fight for the tiger will be won or lost."
That is why WWF's commitment to enforce the law against the illegal use of tiger material in traditional medicines and to introduce harmless alternatives is of such vital importance.
"WWF remains absolutely resolute in its determination to fight the battle to save the tiger - we have done it once before in the early 1970s, and now we must do it again" added Robin Pellew.
The new programme will:
strengthen the anti-poaching work of forest guards and rangers
provide essential equipment and facilities for anti-poaching patrols
re-inforce management of parks and reserves
support voluntary organisations working in local villages around the reserves
WWF's programme is currently supporting seven reserves - Corbett, Dudhwa, Manas, Kasiranga, Palamau, Periyar and Bandhavgarh. Depending upon available funding, we expect to include other reserves whose needs are currently being assessed by field inspections.
In the last three months, WWF has committed a quarter of a million dollars to the seven reserves, and we expect this to increase to nearly half a million by the end of June.
In addition to this direct support for tiger reserves, WWF is also engaged in a wide programme of other activities to save the tiger. They include:
penetrating and exposing the illegal trade in tiger and other wildlife materials
lobbying the government of India to live up to its legal obligations to protect the country's wildlife, including the tiger
prosecutions against poachers and traders, and proceedings against the government for failing to meet its statutory responsibilities for wildlife
international pressure on the government of India
building public awareness through the media about the plight of the tiger
education in schools and wildlife camps about tiger conservation
eco-development projects and incentive schemes in the villages around the reserves to win the support of the local communities
"No other conservation agency has such a major commitment to the tiger" declared Dr Robin Pellew, Director of WWF-UK. "But in the long term, the fate of India's tigers will depend not on anti-poaching measures in reserves, but on reversing the demand for tiger products outside India that is driving the species to the edge of extinction. It is in countries such as China that the fight for the tiger will be won or lost."
That is why WWF's commitment to enforce the law against the illegal use of tiger material in traditional medicines and to introduce harmless alternatives is of such vital importance.
"WWF remains absolutely resolute in its determination to fight the battle to save the tiger - we have done it once before in the early 1970s, and now we must do it again" added Robin Pellew.
