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Protect the tiger

the World Wide Fund (wwf for Nature has declared 1998 as the year for the tiger. It has also chalked out plans to counter increasing cases of poaching and illegal trade in major tiger range countries such as India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Thailand. Recently, the wwf has planned to set up an emergency rapid response fund for tiger conservation.

According to Jean Pierre d'Huart, manager of wwf 's species conservation unit, the fund would be crucial element in the battle to save tigers as it would provide flexible and transparent mechanism for an effective deployment of resources where they are most critically needed. The wwf has undertaken a us $1.5 million tiger conservation project in India. There are nearly 60 per cent of world's tiger population in the country.

In its 'Tiger Status Report', wwf has cautioned that unless a series of immediate and long-term actions are taken to protect the existing populations, very few of these magnificent felines would be left by the year 2010. The report confirms a 95 per cent fall in tiger numbers in the past century.

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