December, 1998
Dear Friends:
December, 1998
As we enter this busy Holiday Season, 1998-The Year of the Tiger, is rapidly coming to a close. Most of you have recently received our annual Newsletter but I would like to take this opportunity to bring you up to date on the commitments and projects being funded by The Fund For The Tiger into 1999.
INDIA
We look forward to continuing our support for The Wildlife Protection Society of India under the direction of Belinda Wright and Ashok Kumar, and their aggressive and ambitious project which is attempting to shut down the poaching and trade of wild tigers in India. This project supports a vast network of informants throughout India; seeks to investigate every wildlife crime; works with local governments to identify wildlife criminals and smuggling trade routes; and recommends improved wildlife management and protection measures. They have also become aggressive in the legal system, hiring lawyers to see that the often well connected wildlife criminals actually get their day in court.
In a letter of thanks, Ashok Kumar of the WPSI writes "Your previouscontributions have enabled us to collect valuable information on the clandestine trade in tiger parts. Using this information we were able to carry out a number of undercover operations in collaboration with enforcement authorities during which wildlife traders were apprehended and tiger parts and other wildlife items seized. We look forward to your continued support in our efforts to protect the wild tigers of India."
NEPAL
The Fund For The Tiger is committed into 1999 to continuing to fund the two anti-poaching patrols (APU'S) we helped establish last year. One is at the Parsa Wildlife Reserve adjacent to Royal Chitwan National Park and the other at Royal Sukla Phanta National Park. We are also funding a tiger survey at Sukla Phanta this December and January and will be helping to fund work by Bhim Gurung in the Spring of 1999 attempting to set up a scientific monitoring program for the whole of the Nepal Terai so that the process of tiger monitoring can be institutionalized.
Sukla Phanta is in the remote southwestern corner of Nepal contiguous to a tract of hills running into India. The APU we fund is at Hirapor in the northwestern corner of the park closest to a possible link in the tiger populations of Nepal and India. As tigers require a certain amount of space, both for the adults to flourish and for the young to disperse, if there is a continuous tiger population connecting Nepal and India, protection at Sukla Phanta is imperative. I quote an October 28th letter from Dr. Charles McDougal, resident tiger expert of Nepal, "Mahendra will be doing a survey at Suklaphanta and will definitely be working in the Hirapor area. Hirapor is a northern extension of the reserve to connect the main area with the forest along the foothills. We have high hopes that there is a connection with India westward through the forests and across the Sarda River north of Tanakpur. If so, Hirapor is absolutely critical."
As required in all wildlife conservation work in Nepal, these patrols and projects are established by, and with the approval of, Nepal's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. Our funds go to via the International Trust for Nature Conservation (ITNC) in Kathmandu and the ITNC's Dr. Charles McDougal works with the Director General of the DNPWC to help sustain these tiger conservation efforts. I have mentioned in the past the lack of political will to save the tiger in many Asian countries but this is certainly not the case in Nepal. Against the demands of economic development, increasing population pressure on tiger habitat, and increasing political instability in Nepal, the Director General's Office of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation continues to be aggressive and dedicated to saving the tiger in Nepal. The Fund For The Tiger is pleased to be able to help.
If you can help in anyway, please send your tax deductible contribution to
The Fund For The Tiger
P. O. Box 2
Woodacre, California 94973
To those of you who responded to the September Newsletter with a donation, I am very grateful.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Sincerely,
Brian K. Weirum
Chairman
The Fund For The Tiger
Page last updated February 7, 1999
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