Australians to train Indians in tracking down poachers

NEW DELHI: Australian customs has joined the fight to save the Indian tiger. Its officers will soon impart specialised intelligence training to custom officers in India and other tiger range states in an attempt to crack down on the criminal networks trading illegally in big cat skins and body parts.

The decision, taken at the just concluded standing committee meeting of UN's Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Geneva, has been welcomed by campaign groups who hope new skills in intelligence gathering will help enforcement officials curb the trade.

"This is a real step forward. Targeting the individuals who control the trade, the money and contacts, is key to the future of wild tigers, snow leopards and leopards,'' said Debbie Banks, senior campaigner with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Funding for the training has been pledged by the US and EU though its timing and duration are yet to be decided.

Campaigners also point out that pro-active and coordinated efforts to target the key individuals behind the trafficking can be more effective than the reactive approach. "It's not just about making seizures and confiscating parts and derivatives of tigers and other Asian big cats, and it's not just about detaining the couriers who are paid a fee to move the contraband. It's about conducting investigations to work out how the networks between source, transit and destination countries work," said Banks.

A recent undercover operation by EIA had revealed that tiger parts were freely available in China despite a ban by the Chinese government. The operation also showed that Asian big cat skins are sourced from countries like India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and Vietnam. India has the largest number of wild tigers (1,411) while China has some 50 wild tigers and more than 5,000 tigers in captivity.

China has the biggest market for illegal wildlife products and investigations have revealed that more than 95% of poached Indian tigers end up in China. China wants CITES nod to revoke the ban on tiger farming so that tiger products can be legally made available. India, which has opposed this, used the recent CITES meeting to renew its call to stop the controversial practice of tiger farming for trade.

"Chinese tiger farms are a major threat to wild tigers as their products will ignite a huge demand. After all, once tiger parts are allowed to be used in medicine, one can't tell whether they came from a wild tiger or a farmed one," said Ashok Kumar of Wildlife Trust of India.