The stage is set for the third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation to kick-off from Tuesday with 13 participating tiger range countries. The two-day meeting, that will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, has zero poaching of big cats, trans-boundary cooperation, habitat and corridor management, high on its agenda.
While adopting the best practices in tiger conservation of each other, the participants will take a leaf or two from India’s reintroduction success story in Panna and Sariska. The 13 participating countries, include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
More than 20 organisations/ NGOs working on tiger conservation, from India and other countries in Asia, have called for urgent action to end tiger farming and trade in South-East Asian countries and China. A memorandum undersigned by them says, “Tigers are not just killed for their skins; their bones are used to brew tiger bone wine, their meat is sold as a delicacy and their teeth and claws are sold as charms.”
According to experts and senior officials from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), who are to participate in the meet, the threat of poaching figures highest in the agenda of the meeting. This is due to the flourishing market and demand for tiger body parts and derivatives in other countries.
“We will further explore possibilities of trans-boundary cooperation in this regard, with India set to work out respective strategies with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar,” they said.
Recently, there was a bilateral meeting between Nepal and India that decided to carry out joint operations across the porous borders of its countries. This will involve forest and security officials from both the countries. The meeting according to experts is a good precursor to the forthcoming tiger meet. Further, it comes in the wake of recovery of 14 tiger skins, of which six skins were indentified to be from Nepal and eight were from India.
Further, the success stories of tiger reintroduction programmes in Panna and Sariska will resonate during the meeting, especially when the species has been declared extinct by participating countries as Cambodia. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, had in the past announced “lending” of Indian tigers for their reintroduction in such countries. The Royal Government of Cambodia is particularly keen to get two male tigers and five to six female tigers in this regard.
The meeting will also stress on the means to step up protection mechanisms coupled with imparting of latest training on monitoring of and patrolling to its frontline staffs. Their morale also needs to be boosted from time to time. India’s practices of habitat and corridor management for greater interconnectivity among source populations will also be discussed.
The issue of linear infrastructure passing through protected areas and outside will also figure in the meeting. According to experts, the stress would be to develop smart green systems, whose impacts can be negated. Malaysia has particularly set a good example in this regard, he said that can be emulated by other nations.
India is home to about 70 per cent of the global tiger population, with 2,226 big cats in the wild. Karnataka has the highest number of tigers with 406 big cats.