The Fund for the Tiger

Newsletter Number 10

Summer, 2006

 

Brian's Tiger

Tibetan Awareness Campaign

Bandhavgarh

Corbett Tiger Reserve

Wildlife Crime Nepal

Nepal and Chitwan National Park

 

A Postscript from an old Newsletter

Poached Poachers

The Meaning of Jai Bagh

Gratitudes

How to Help

Contributors

 

Dear Friends

 

The world of wildlife conservation is often full of bad news and depressing reports. Positive stories, like in the nightly news, are often ignored. When the big “tiger bone crisis” appeared in the early 1990’s, some were saying that wild tigers might not last into the next century. Here it is, 2006, the “skin trade crisis” is upon us, and as this Newsletter will show, there are positive stories to report, significant arrests are being made, and people ARE making a difference. As long as people and organizations are out there working against all odds, often at their own peril, to protect the endangered species of South Asia and their habitat, The Fund For the Tiger is determined to help.

In India, we have since 1996, been supporting the aggressive efforts of The Wildlife Protection Society of India  (WPSI) under the inspired guidance of Belinda Wright. In Nepal, our funding goes into the field via the International Trust for Nature Conservation under the supervision of Nepal’s pre-eminent tiger expert, Dr. Charles McDougal.

Tibetan Awareness Campaign:

The Tibetan connection to the wildlife crime trade became shockingly apparent when Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India and investigators from the London based Environmental Investigative Agency visited China and Tibet in August of 2006 and documented on a BBC special the extent of the current trade in endangered species. Shops openly displayed tiger and leopard skins for sale. Festivals featured teachers and school children wearing tiger and leopard skins as part of their colorful attire. Investigations showed that the skins came from India via Nepal. In Lhasa, 46 shops were surveyed finding 54 leopard skin chubas and 24 tiger skin chubas. Chubas are the traditional wrap-around garments worn by most Tibetans. 7 fresh leopard skins and 3 fresh tiger skins were offered for sale within a 24-hour period. On one street in Linxia, China, 60 snow leopards and 160 leopard skins were openly on display. I was able to see Belinda’s video when I was in India in March. One incredible segment was taken with her in full local disguise, shooting from a camera hidden in her shoulder bag, inside a small shop lined wall to wall with snow leopard pelts.

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over Tibetans being involved in smuggling and trading of wildlife skins and at a massive gathering of nearly 100,000 Tibetans known as the Kalachakra this past January in India, appealed to his people to refrain from using pelts of endangered species. The Dalai Lama said he was “ashamed” to see images of Tibetans decorating themselves with endangered skins and furs. “When you go back to your respective places, remember what I had said earlier and never use, sell, or buy wild animals, their products or derivatives,” he said to the pilgrims.

At the Kalachakra, many conservation groups were involved in an educational campaign to alert the Tibetans to the plight of endangered species. The Wildlife Protection Society of India set up a booth with a photo exhibit showing the horrific death of tigers and leopards and their skins being paraded as fashion and style at the summer festivals in Tibet. There were calendars and bookmarkers in Tibetan. The Fund for The Tiger was pleased to wire funds to pay for a brochure and a tape cassette of the Dalal Lama’s speech exhorting his people to stop indulging in the illicit wildlife trade and to stop wearing the skins of endangered animals.

The Tibetan Awareness Campaign has turned out to be a major success. By early February, reports started coming in that Tibetans were responding to the Dalai Lama’s plea... “following strong statements by the Dalai Lama about the importance of wildlife conservation and compassion towards animals, Tibetans were burning skins of endangered animals worth thousands of yuan in a bid to preserve wildlife.”

Wildlife Protection Society of India operatives in Lhasa reported in February that shops in the old sector, the Barkhor, were virtually empty of endangered animal skins and people burning them had been given ceremonial scarves known as khattas as tokens of respect for both themselves and the animals. Belinda wrote to me...“this is the best thing that could have happened for India’s tigers. All power to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people.”

The wildlife awareness campaign is ongoing today but not without problems. By March, Chinese officials in Tibet began ordering a crackdown on these demonstrations as being carried out by the ‘splittist factions’ in Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama’s home-in-exile. Then in late April, reports were coming out ot Amdo, Tibet, that Tibetan TV personalities were now being required by the government to wear tiger and leopard chubas and would be given funds to purchase them. Tigers and leopards are now being used as political pawns. Government officials declared that this was a ‘political issue’ -clearly aimed at subverting any influence the Dalai Lama may have on his people.

At the official level, talks of co-operation between India, Nepal, and China to combat the illicit trade of wildlife have taken place and the Chinese government has passed a law prohibiting international trade in endangered species. I don’t think it’s overly cynical to observe that what the government of China says in Beijing is one thing, what it does in Tibet, is quite another!

Beginning in April of this year, we’ve increased our support to the WPSI to include two Tibetan field operatives working on wildlife crime workshops, wildlife awareness campaigns in Tibetan communities throughout NW India, and monitoring sensitive trade routes along the Indian Himalaya. Recent reports indicate that sporadic burnings and ceremonies are continuing and that they are having great success with the educational campaigns.

Bandhavgarh:

In March, at Bandhavgarh National Park in Central India, I met with the WPSI main operative for Central India and the WPSI local based field operative whom we’ve been supporting since 2001. They confirmed to me that:

In the past 6 months, our field operative has uncovered poaching gangs operating in and around the park on 5 different occasions. In two instances traps had been set to kill tigers, and in all cases, authorities were alerted and the gangs were either arrested or chased off.

For those of you who have been to Bandhavgarh, I am happy to report that the tigers continue to flourish in the core area. The two grand matriarchs from the final 1996 litter of the legendary Sita and Charger are still there and producing gorgeous tigers. The last litter of the Chakhadara tigress produced 2 males and 2 females. We saw the 15-month-old sub adults several times over the course of 4 days, once on their first-ever kill without the mother. Another memorable sighting was of the big dominant male known as B-2, or Banda, coming down a rocky mountainside in the late afternoon sun, out of the trees onto a rocky terrace near the Sita Mandap waterhole.

Corbett Tiger Reserve:

The lovely elephant we helped donate to Corbett National Park in 1998 is doing well. A recent email from Brijendra Singh, Honorary Warden at Corbett, says that Sonakali has been busy this monsoon season ferrying supplies to various forest posts across the swollen rivers. Soon Sonakali will be used in patrols throughout the entire Sonanadhi Sanctuary adjacent to Corbett. Brij writes that the tiger population is doing well.

Wildlife Crime Nepal

We continue to support the comprehensive Poaching and Trade investigative project operating throughout India by the WPSI and for the past two years have funded a new program with the WPSI aimed at monitoring wildlife crime in Nepal and providing information to assist in arrests and enforcement efforts. Currently this is in support of the aggressive non-governmental organization, Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN).

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Nepal and Chitwan National Park

We’ve increased our support for Bhim Gurung’s “tiger watchers” project which is now concentrating on the Madi Valley, buffer zones adjacent to Royal Chitwan National Park and the hills connecting India to the south.

One report last Spring found tiger pug marks all over the place. If ever there could be a link proven and protected between the tigers of Chitwan and the tigers of Dudhwa in India, this would be significant. We’ve provided motorbike support and the expenses for his two main trackers and this Fall will provide 4 new sets of camera traps to monitor the tigers. In addition to monitoring tigers, the project assesses the health of the habitat and prey species, documents livestock kills, local attitudes about wildlife conservation, and any human/tiger conflicts in the all-important buffer zones. The buffer zones are created to provide forest resources for local villagers without their going into the protected forests but also become natural dispersal areas for the tigers. Conflict and death does occur. Chuck McDougal writes that...“Bhim’s work is the most important tiger conservation work going on in Nepal at the moment.”

We are still committed to supporting anti-poaching work at Sukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve in Far Western Nepal. Funds remain in our account with the International Trust for Nature Conservation  in Kathmandu until connections with the new Warden can be up and running.

This past March, McDougal and I had a dinner meeting with the Chief Warden at Chitwan, Tikaram Adhikari. Reflecting the political turmoil in Nepal at the time, it was a bit surreal. The Warden arrived for dinner accompanied by the Army Chief of Security for Chitwan and armed bodyguards. The countryside was still wracked by the Maoist insurgency. Guard posts within the parks had been abandoned both for protection and pursuit of the Maoists, leaving vast areas of national park land unprotected. It seems the tigers have fared the best through all of this but the rhinos continue to slaughtered.

Tikaram arrived with a report and request for funds, showing me a list of 118 known poachers he was keen to go after. We agreed wholeheartedly to support this and money was wired as soon as I arrived home to be used for information-gathering and anti-poaching patrols.

In early April the tension was increasing in Nepal. Everything was about to change. By mid-April the country was wracked with massive protests demanding that King Gyanendra restore the parliament, political parties, and basic democratic rights that he had suspended in a royal coup two years before, accusing the government and politicians of being incapable of dealing with the Maoist insurgency. He had fared no better. Ultimately avoiding a bloodbath, the King acceded to the forces of democracy and now there is a cease-fire between the government and the Maoist. By mid-April the town of Bharatpur had declared itself The Republic of Chitwan. The Maoists and their leaders have been brought into the mainstream of politics and government. The King has been marginalized and the future of the monarchy remains in doubt- as does the role of the Army.

In the last week of August there was a conference in Chitwan called the Rhino Conservation Coordination Committee featuring Maoist organizations, hotel groups, wildlife conservation officers, WWF Nepal, and others, all calling for a joint effort to help save the rhino.

It’s a bizarre and fluid time in Nepal with no certain outcome. One winner at the moment is that peace has come to the forests and jungles. Perhaps those who are dedicated to preserving and protecting the tiger, leopards, and rhinos and their habitat, can now do so without fearing for their lives from their own countrymen.

From an old Newsletter and still true today:

It has been clear for years that Nepal lies on the smuggling route to extinction for many endangered animals and the center of this trade is Kathmandu. Nepal’s open border with India to the south and the geographical complexities of the Himalayan mountain range to the north, make control, monitoring, and policing of this illegal trade extremely difficult. Tiger, leopard, and rhino products head north into Tibet and on to the Far East or Middle East via Kathmandu or the isolated mountain trade routes.

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Poached Poachers - Notes from the Jailhouse

 

At Bodnath, Kathmandu, in December of 2005: Tashi Tsering a.k.a. Tsewang, Chewang, Tshewang, was arrested in a joint effort with local police, The Wildlife Trust of India, and Wildlife Conservation Nepal. He is linked to major wildlife crimes over the years and faces up to 15 years in prison. There is hard evidence linking him to the skin seizure of 3 tigers and 50 leopards in Siliguri in 1999 and the September 2005 seizure of the skins of 5 tigers, 36 leopards, 238 otters and 103 pieces of tiger bone near Lantang National Park in Nepal. Both consignments were headed for trade routes to Tibet. Ashok Kumar of W.T.I. has been after this guy for years. Good work!

The notorious Sansar Chand remains in jail in India. He is probably responsible for more tiger deaths than any living person in India and has been linked directly to the disappearing tigers of Sariska. Though arrested in the Summer of 2005, a February 2006 news article reveals his extensive network of contacts and implicates Nepal heavily in wildlife crime trade, particularly the above-mentioned Tashi Tsering.

A June 5 press release announces the arrest of Jagdish Lodha, believed to be the kingpin of a major network of poachers and dealers operating across India and Nepal. Lodha was captured under citizens arrest by Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN) and handed over to Kathmandu Police. 7 of Lodha’s associates are currently behind bars having been caught red-handed with two tiger skins, four leopard skins and 40 kg. of tiger bone in two separate incidents in April of 2006. Lodha is said to manage 50 families of Bawaria poachers now living along the porous Nepal-India border. Lodha is reported to have sold over 30 tiger skins in the last 10 years to dealers in Nepal to supply the lucrative markets in Tibet and Western China. Prasanna Yonzon, CEO of WCN, cited information from the Wildlife Protection Society of India and the arrest warrant from park authorities in Chitwan as key to this action.

On June 15th a news story appeared regarding a notorious poacher from Nepal being held in India. Acting on a tip from Nepal forest guards, Babu Lal arrested Mangal Mahato. Mahato was formerly a forest guard in Chitwan who was arrested for poaching in 2002, sentenced to 15 years in jail, but escaped police custody.

With information provided by Wildlife Conservation Nepal in co-operation with authorities at Chitwan National Park, Gyalbo Gurung was arrested on August 27. Gurung is believed to have financed the deaths of 25 rhinos from Chitwan over the last two years.

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Gratitudes:

 

 

JAIBAGH- the email address of The Fund For The Tiger, means “long live the tiger” in the Nepali language.

 

 

If you wish to help, please send your contribution to The Fund For The Tiger at P. O. Box 2, Woodacre, California, 94973. The Fund For The Tiger is a non-profit tax exempt public charity registered in the State of California. Your contribution is deductible for tax purposes within the limits of the law.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Brian K. Weirum

Chairman

The Fund For The Tiger

 

 

Contributors

 

The Fund For The Tiger would like to thank all those listed below who have made contributions in 2005and through July of 2006. Your support is greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

Page last updated September 9, 2006

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