Entire Tiger Refuge Wiped Out: Indian Govt. Appoints Task Force

:eyes:

NEW DELHI — "India's new tiger task force, set up to review the country's dwindling big cat population, called on Thursday for tougher measures to control poaching of the national animal.

There has been an uproar in India after reports in March that the entire tiger population at a leading sanctuary in western India may have been wiped out by poachers, and the case might be the same in reserves across the country.

"All agree that this reporting is the tip of the iceberg," the tiger task force said, after two days of talks with tiger experts from around the world, who slammed the current efforts of law enforcement agencies to stop poaching. "This highly skilled and organised international crime needs a highly coordinated and skilled response to combat it," the task force said in a statement.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up the task force in April after reports of the disappearance of tigers in the Sariska sanctuary in Rajasthan state. There were an estimated 16-18 tigers a year ago in Sariska. Earlier this week, the environment ministry revealed at least 114 tigers had been killed from 1999-2003 and that 238 seizures of tiger parts such as bones, skin, teeth and nails had been made in the same period."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7778

That's what they do in China.

from the article
"Experts called for a federal agency to save the tiger, whose numbers have fallen to about 3,700 from roughly 40,000 a century ago. But conservationists say the number may be less than 2,000."

LESS THAN 2000 !!! They could go extinct in our lifetime. I can't imagine a world without Tigers. This is horrible.

Insecure males who use tiger penis aprodesiac should have thier dicks cut off.

Maybe someone famous could speak out. LOL, I'm sorry, I'm overtired, and giddy with fatigue. I just pictured a creative MoveOn ad with Lorena, holding a knife, chasing aging men with limp penises, screaming, leave the "real" tigers alone!....


Might actually have an effect, ya think?

on a more serious note: I seem to get frightened when something is in danger of being extinct. It messes up the natural course of life. Whenever that happens, REALLY scary things come out of it.

on edit: I hope I didn't come across, cavalier... when I hear something upsetting, I react with humor.. to deal with it. The penis post before mine, got me goin'.... sorry.

I think a problem is that no one wants lions and tigers living in THEIR neck of the woods. "Poachers" (quite possibly fronting for ranchers and developers) are in the process of wiping out every lion in Nairobi National Park in Kenya. In fact, when I visited in 2004, there were less than 10 left, so they may very well all be gone by now. A local we talked to said that the gov't turned a blind eye because once the glamour species is gone, pressure can be brought to bear to close the park, which is near the capital city of Nairobi, and turn it over to real estate developers and ranches. Sprawl is everywhere.

Consider the hysteria in California when someone spots a lion in their yard. People may want a grizzly bear on the California flag, but they wouldn't tolerate one actually wandering about their county, would they? Think of the children!

I don't see how we can continue to have uncontrolled growth in human populations and also have big predators. Too many safety issues. People will take matters into their own hands. We can't even protect our big predators in the U.S. so I don't know how we can tell other nations what to do.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72