The Fund for the Tiger
Annual Year End Newsletter
December, 2001
Dear Online Friends:
I hope this letter finds you
all in good health during the Holiday Season. The Fund For The Tiger The Fund For The Tiger has now been
operating for six years and I am pleased to be able to send out
this brief report on the tiger conservation projects we are
supporting..
India
The Fund continues to support
various projects being conducted by the Wildlife Protection
Society of India [WPSI] headed by Belinda Wright. Funds committed
into the year 2002 will assist the following efforts:
- Perhaps the most important
project that we have helped fund over the past six years
is their Tiger Poaching and Trade investigation project.
Using a widespread network of informants and undercover
work, intelligence is gathered to locate poachers and
wildlife criminals who trade in tiger parts a nd other
endangered species. Every wildlife crime is thoroughly
investigated and vigorously pursued in the legal process.
- Funds continue to be used
at Corbett Tiger Reserve and Sonanadi Sanctuary on
intelligence gathering, enforcement and patrolling, as
well as the continued care and maintenance of Sona Kali,
the elephant we helped donate for anti-poaching work. Our
colleague in Corbett reported to me last month that Sona
Kali is in excellent care and our contributions are being
well utilized.
- In January we sponsored a
wildlife enforcement/anti-poaching workshop with the WPSI
at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Central India. A
permanent representative has been hired with our funding
to assist in tiger conservation awareness, liase with
local officials about poaching information, and to
monitor important cases in the courts pertinent to
wildlife crimes. Recent seizures and arrests in
neighboring cities show that there is an active criminal
element at work around Bandhavgarh with links to
organized wildlife crime in Delhi..
Nepal
Our funding in Nepal goes via
the International Trust for Nature Conservation and it’s
Trustee, the internationally recognized tiger expert, Dr. Charles
McDougal.
- The most important project
we are funding in Nepal is the anti-poaching work run by
Tika Ram Adhikari in the area around Royal Chitwan
National Park and Parsa Tiger Reserve. Tika Ram is now
the Warden at Parsa and co-ordinates anti-poaching work
throughout the region with existing anti-poaching
patrols. This is the very heart of tiger habitat in Nepal
and his work is as critical as it is brave and dangerous.
And he’s getting some good results. This man
deserves all the support he needs.
- We continue to fund an
anti-poaching unit at Royal Sukla Phanta National Park.
- We have assisted in tiger
habitat surveys in Nepal for the past five years and will
continue to support those co-ordinated by McDougal and
his staff of tiger trackers. These surveys have taken on
a new format co-ordinated throughout Nepal. The emphasis
is on camera traps supplemented with foot patrols. An
email from McDougal in November indicates that the camera
trapping is garnering excellent results, particularly in
the Chitwan area where the tiger population is stable.
- Funds are also going to
support a network of ‘citizen rangers’ who
report on the health of tiger habitat and it’s
periphery throughout the breadth of southern Nepal..
Comments
I fully understand that the
world has changed a great deal for all of us since I last wrote
to you. What had not changed is the fact that the tiger, an
animal as important to the ecological balance of the forests of
Asia as it is magnificent to behold, continues to need help and
protection. If you can assist in any way, your contribution is
deductible within the limits of the law.
Warm regards and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!.
Sincerely,
Brian K. Weirum
Chairman
The Fund
For The Tiger
How
to Help
If you can help in any way please send your
contribution to The
Fund For The Tiger at P. O.
Box 2, Woodacre, California, 94973. Contributions are deductible
for tax purposes within the limits of the law.
Page last updated December 21, 2001
Back to the Fund for the
Tiger Home Page