In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
CHINA -- one of the world's largest markets for tiger and rhinoceros parts -- has imposed a ban on the trade of rhino horns and tiger bones. These substances are no longer to be used in medicines, though the ban will be delayed by six months to allow liquidation of …
FREE trade in ivory may not be environment-friendly, but neither is a ban, according to a research paper published by economist Timothy Swanson in Economic Policy. He argues that though bans may effectively protect oceanic species, they do not work in the case of elephants. Swanson explains this is because …
THE TIGER census has been used for long as a convenient official yardstick to measure the success of national park management. But a dispute on the exact tiger population has set a census under way in Ranthambore national park that has the authorities on edge. Since Project Tiger was launched …
HUGE PROFITS are the main reason for the recent spurt in tiger poaching. A Royal Bengal tiger is a walking goldmine because its skin and bones are worth Rs 4.5 lakh. And, there is money to be made at every stage in the illegal tiger trade. Tiger skins have traditionally …
Why has park protection become so difficult? The government has banned villagers from entering the forest but without giving them an alternative. When they force their way in, claiming it is their right, we are authorised to stop them. But how effective are such powers without weapons? We can arrest …
AFTER a successful swoop on a dusty April afternoon on some poachers in the Keladevi forests near Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR), a posse of nine forest guards in a Jeep found their way blocked by a log. They got out to clear the road and were ambushed by armed members …
The number of one-horned rhinos in the Kaziranga National Park has risen to 1,160 from 1,129 in 1991, Assam state wildlife officials say. But Assam's principal conservator of forests (wildlife) in Assam, K K Baruah, concedes the number of rhinos killed by poachers in Kaziranga has increased greatly in recent …
TWENTY years and crores of rupees after it was begun, the Project Tiger success story is crumbling. Indiscriminate poaching, the disappearance of tigers individually identified by experts and the seizure of tiger bones and skins in metropolitan cities have resulted in this situation. Add to this the resentment of the …
UNTIL recently, indiscriminate hunting and poaching had threatened the survival of elephants in Africa. But the international ban on ivory trade and increased vigilance against poachers have reduced elephant-killing to an extent that their population is increasing annually by 5 per cent in many African countries. As a result, elephants …
The Delhi high court has rejected a petition asking for the ban on ivory trade to be lifted. With this order there is now a total ban on selling and carving in ivory and all stocks of the precious 'white gold' can be confiscated. The petition was filed by the …
