More and more Indian tigers are ending up in soup bowls in Chinese markets and drawing-rooms across Europe through a trade route linking Delhi, Jammu and Let according (o The Hindustan Times.
Wildlife authorities believe that these cities are fast becoming major smuggling centers for tiger skins, bones and other banned wildlife articles.
According to a conservative estimate, about 100 tigers are sacrificed for human avarice every year” This estimate a wildlife trade investigator pointed out, is not based ‘on any data since there is none available, All estimates, therefor are guesstimates. The sketchy figures available on poaching and seizures put the number of urges killed in the last six years at 360.
“It is extremely difficult for any- one to estimate the total number of animal killed for the illegal trades” said Ashok Kumar, director le Traffic-India, part of an international network monitoring poaching and wildlife trade. “It may into thousands. For instance, in north Delhi last year, the police and wildlife authorities seized 287.Kilos of tiger bones, eight tiger skins and over 100 skins of o animals.”
Wildlife investigators say the” trade is carried out meticulously and quite secretively with Delhi the main base and Jammu and being the transit points.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 5, 1994
