The Fund for the Tiger
Annual Year End Newsletter
How You Can Help
December, 1999
Dear Online Friends:
The Fund For The
Tiger is now
completing its fourth year in operation and I am pleased to be
able to send out this brief year end report on the projects we
are supporting in Asia now and into the year 2000.
India
The Fund continues to support
various projects being conducted by the Wildlife Protection
Society of India [WPSI] headed
by Belinda Wright and Ashok Kumar. Funds committed into the year
2000 will assist the following tiger conservation efforts:
- A new program at
Bandhavgarh National Park has been organized to assist
local park officials in information gathering and
anti-poaching patrols. Tigers are flourishing, at least
in the core area, at Bandhavgarh, and many are at the
critical dispersal age of 24-36 months urgently in need
of protection.
- Continued support for the
WPSI’s aggressive investigation into all wildlife
crimes in India, particularly the killing and illegal
trade of wild tigers.
- Follow-up support for
anti-poaching patrols at Corbett National Park. The Fund For The
Tiger
donated a boat in 1998 for anti-poaching patrols on the
waterways of Corbett and in January of 1999 helped in the
purchase of an elephant for Sonanadi Sanctuary adjacent
to Corbett. There have been increased incidents of
poaching on Corbett’s southern boundaries and
increased boat, foot, and elephant patrols are planned.
And we remain committed to the good care and use of Sona
Kali, the elephant of Sonanadi, as she patrols the
streams and forests of this pristine area.
- Legal support at
Ranthambhore to help prosecute poaching incidents. With
help from our funds the WPSI has engaged a full time
lawyer to assist the Public Prosecutor in cases
pertaining to the seizure of endangered species products.
They have four cases pending at the moment relating to
tiger and leopard bones and skins.
Nepal
All wildlife conservation work
in Nepal must be co-ordinated through, and have the approval of,
Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Conservation [DNPWC]. Our funds for the projects listed below go
via the International Trust for Nature Conservation (ITNC) in
Kathmandu and the ITNC’s Trustee, Dr. Charles McDougal.
McDougal works with the Director General of the DNPWC to help
sustain these tiger conservation efforts.
- Anti-poaching patrols at
Royal Sukla Phanta National Park and Parsa Wildlife
Reserve. Until two years ago there were no patrols at
Sukla Phanta and now there are two. One funded by the
World Wildlife Fund and one by The Fund For The Tiger. In
my letter a year ago I mentioned our support for a survey
being conducted by Mahendra Shrestha. I received a report
from him last month concluding that the tiger numbers
were the same if not up by two (16-18 breeding adults)
since the last survey we funded two years ago. The
anti-poaching patrols are having a positive effect.
- The Fund For
The Tiger has assisted in all tiger habitat surveys in
Nepal over the past four years and we will continue to do
so. One critical project is a survey of the proposed
extension to the East at Royal Bardia National Park. The
on and off again hydroelectric project on the Karnali
River is currently 'on' again. The Karnali forms the
Western boundary of Bardia and if that project ever gets
built the riverine forest with its prime tiger, rhino,
and wild elephant habitat will be finished. The animals
will be forced to disperse North and East. If they move
West into inhabited areas they will surely perish.
Assessing the general health of the forest cover, water
sources, and prey species of proposed extension areas is
critical to the future of Bardia.
Odds
and Ends
The Fund For The
Tiger now has
a web site compliments of Dr. John Mordes and contains all of our
Newsletters and other relevant information. Look for it at: http://www.channel1.com/users/hemlock/tigerfund
Tigers and other endangered
species continue to live a precarious existence. The belief in
the efficacy of animal products for traditional medicine remains
very strong in Asia. In August of this year I led a trek in
Tibet. In the lobby of my hotel in Tsetang was a display case
with brochures from the China Tibet Pharmaceutical Factory
advertising medicines made from rhino horn, musk deer, and bear
gall bladder to treat everything from indigestion, liver
diseases, to ‘calming the body and mind’ to
‘increase circulation’ and ‘invigorate vital
energy’.
There have been some news
articles recently touting the comeback of the tiger from the
brink of extinction. This is good news for all who care about the
tiger and worthy of cautious optimism and hope. It proves that if
left alone with enough land and food, tigers will survive. What
cannot be allowed to happen is the apathy and complacency which
plagued the international conservation community in the
1980’s.
How
to Help
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 tax exempt non profit 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
Page last updated December 19, 2000
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Tiger Home Page