When I first decided to get involved in tiger conservation, back in the early 1990’s, one of the first essays I wrote was titled “Tiger Bone Wine.”  It seems almost incomprehensible to me that today, 15 years later, the biggest story in tiger conservation is the issue of legalizing the tiger trade in China due to the increasing demand for tiger products for use in traditional medicines, the most popular being, tiger bone wine.

In 1993, China joined the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) that banned all trade in tiger parts and outlawed domestic tiger trade as well.  A recent investigative report by the South China Morning Post (April 22, 2007) documents that the Chinese are farming tigers for slaughter to meet the demand for traditional medicinal products.  There are now thought to be between 4000 and 5000 farm-raised tigers in China.  At an undisclosed factory location, one reporter found 600 tiger skeletons being steeped in alcohol to produce 200,000 bottles of wine.  “We’ve got to expand,” says the factory manager.  “Demand just keeps rising, especially in the past two years.”  The sales manager at the Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Park, Xhao Runghui, is quoted as saying,  “We can’t advertise our tiger wine in Beijing at the moment because the Olympics are coming up.  When the Olympics are over, we will have more freedom to market our wine.  Foreigners just don’t understand.  Chinese people know that tiger is the best medicine in the world.  It cures so many things.  It makes you strong.  It makes a man more virile.  It makes you live longer.”  At an April tiger forum in Kathmandu, DNA tests were introduced that proved tiger meat was being served at the restaurant that adjoins the Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Park.  I personally have seen video footage of the cages and enclosures that house the tigers and the vats in which tiger bone wine is being made.

In June of 2007, the 171 members of CITES, led by India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia and the United States, adopted a resolution opposing the resumption of trade in tigers and mandated that China phase out their tiger farms.  There is a very powerful movement within China to legalize trade in tigers and some officials are already saying that the ban on trade cannot last.  One argument for this is that by farming tigers for market, wild tigers will be saved in their natural habitat.  Indeed, some misguided conservationists in South Asia have been touting the theory, “Save The Tiger- Sell It!”  This must not happen because:

1. Money.  Big money!  Depending on what chart you see, the international trade of endangered species worldwide is either the second or third biggest source of illicit money.  Organized wildlife crime syndicates operate from Southern India up through Nepal into Tibet and on to the markets in the Far East as well as in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and across all the tiger range states.  Tiger skins sell for up to $10,000 in Lhasa.   Are we to think that these syndicates will shut down their business networks and close their bank accounts because some farm wants to breed tigers in China? 

2. Tiger conservation experts worldwide agree that legalizing trade in China will open the floodgates of slaughter of the remaining wild tigers because there will be no way to determine if the tiger bones came from a farm in China or a forest in Central India. 

3. This perpetuates a myth.  Is there any scientific or medicinal proof that tiger bone wine is better for arthritis than ibuprofen?  Or that tiger penis soup is a better aphrodisiac than viagra?  A medical book abstract titled Chinese Materia Medica claims that tiger bone medicines...“remove all kinds of evil influences and calm fright.  Placed on the roof it can keep devils away and cure nightmares.  For rheumatic pain in the joints and muscles and to impart courage...”.  The South China Morning Post story concludes that...“As the mainland modernizes, belief in traditional medicine appears to be accelerating rather than declining as more people acquire the financial means to spend on treatments and buy an exotic and increasingly exclusive alleged safeguard against old age.”  Centuries of beliefs and customs empowered by myth die hard.  It is believed that to ingest the tiger is to gain some of its mythical strength and powers.  To the true believer, therefore, would not wild tigers always be preferable to farmed tigers? 

4.  And there is a final argument on the moral issue of right or wrong.  This will, of course, be lost on anyone who would farm a tiger for slaughter.  Since 1994, I have taken 120 people to see wild tigers in their natural habitat in India and Nepal.  I have seen the wide and teary-eyed expressions of awe after the first wild tiger sighting.  And just last February I saw the faces of sadness and repulsion as we watched video footage of the tiger farms and wine vats.  Some would say that looking into the face of a tiger is like looking into the face of God.  Could this end really be God’s intended fate for this magnificent animal?

As good as the news was out of The Hague, caution and vigilance must prevail.  There are now more farm-raised tigers in China than there are in the wild.  There will be tremendous financial pressure to realize this business potential.  Farmers have admitted stockpiling tiger carcasses in the hope that the trade will again be legalized.  After the international eye is off of China, post 2008 Olympics, China may well go against the wishes of CITES or at least not be diligent in preventing the resumption of the tiger trade.  It may come down to this question:  Will any government be willing to impose sanctions on China over the tiger?

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India:

    The tiger news out of India continues to be distressing.  Latest census reports from the Wildlife Institute of India indicate that there may be only 1300 wild tigers left.  That is a precipitous drop of 2342 from the estimated 3642 tigers enumerated in the 2001-2002 census.  Poaching and the insidious wildlife crime trade, population pressures and a shrinking viable habitat are all part of the problem but the real stumbling block is the lack of political will within the government to take drastic action to stem this tide.  The Wildlife Protection Society of India  [WPSI] under Belinda Wright continues to wage war on this battlefront and as long as they are willing to put up the fight, all is not lost, and The Fund For The Tiger is anxious and pleased to help.

Bandhavgarh 

In February of 2007, I met with the WPSI main operative for Central India, Nitin Desai, and the local-based field operative whom we’ve been supporting since 2001.  With our support they have launched a new “ring of protection” reward scheme.  Any information gathered about poaching activity will be rewarded quickly and anonymously.  The Chief Wildlife Warden of Madhya Pradesh is keenly in favor of this effort.  The Bandhavgarh Park core area is 105 sq. km.  The greater Bandhavgarh “protected” area is 1100 sq.km. in which there are 62 villages.  There are at least 14 known tigers in the core area at the critical dispersal age of 2 plus years.  The idea is to try to protect these tigers, gather information about their dispersal, and, over time, sow the seeds for a valuable information network.

Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary

The Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary in Orissa was declared a new tiger reserve by the Indian Government in March of 2007.  We have begun assisting the W.P.S.I. in a new project in support of 15 new field staff and a local NGO to cover intelligence gathering and conservation awareness in the local villages.  

Corbett Tiger Reserve

 The lovely elephant we helped donate to Corbett in 1998 is doing well and her mahout is recovering nicely from heart problems.  An email from Brijendra Singh confirms that the Park Director is using Sonakali for patrols in the Khinnanauli area.

Poaching and Trade

 In 1996 we helped the Wildlife Protection Society of India launch its comprehensive Poaching and Trade Investigative Project.  Statistics show that this project has documented and investigated the deaths of 791 tigers and 2801 leopards since1996.  And this may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Tibetan Skin Trade

            Last year our report carried the big story of the exposure of the Tibetan tiger and leopard skin trade and the Dalai Lama’s exhortation to his people to stop wearing the skins at Summer festivals.  WPSI investigators this year have found that the skins were being worn by wealthy elite at the Lhosar (New Year) Festival and by public figures on TV, but not by the general public, and the market is still dry in the old sector of Lhasa, the Barkhor.  Tibetan dealers confirmed to investigators that the skins came from India via Nepal