| THE STATE OF THE TIGER | |
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Poaching & Trade - Poaching: who is doing it and why?
The trade in tigers and other wildlife is more organised than ever before, with established dealer networks linking the forests of Madhya Pradesh to Delhi and Bombay and the rest of the world. In a raid in New Delhi in November 1998, police arrested a husband and wife team, with 14 existing charges of wildlife trade between them, when they attempted to sell a tiger skin to foreigners. Locally, the poachers are more diverse. Sometimes they are local criminals, known poachers prepared to flout the law for the promise of high rewards. At other times they are disgruntled locals, fed up with tigers killing their livestock or wild deer eating their crop. Often, the localised bad feelings are fanned by political agitation from groups with their own separate agenda such as wildlife traders and timber traders. Occasionally the poaching of wildlife is carried out by the traders themselves, who enter the parks with vehicles and firearms, giving them a significant advantage over the under-equipped Forest Department staff. Above all, poaching is driven by the continuing global demand for tiger products and the well financed and organised domestic traders. |
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