Saving Tigers In Year Of The Tiger

[Kan Win]

Saving Tigers in Year of the Tiger

The conservation group WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) has warned that the tiger population in Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong Region has dwindled more than 70 per cent in 12 years from an estimated 1,200 in 1998 to around 350 today, thanks to the growing demand for tiger body parts used in traditional Chinese medicine, a trend which threatens the region's Indochinese tiger population.

In light of the sharp decline of the tiger population at such an alarming rate, Thailand’s Huai Kha Kheang and Thung Yai wildlife sanctuaries, comprising nearly 6,500 sq km (some 2,500 sq miles) of forests bordering Myanmar, is billed as a remarkable effort to save the big cats.

According to official statistics, there are around 250 Bengal tigers in Thailand, with the number of striped tigers at Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary alone having increased by almost double since 2007.

From an aerial photo survey, around 80 Indochinese tigers are currently found at Huai Kha Khaeng, and another 20 at Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary.

“From the [aerial] survey, we see around almost 10 new-born tigers in both Huai Kha Khaeng and Thung Yai Naresuan every year,” said Dr Anak Pattanawiboon, director of Wildlife Conservation Society (WSC) Thailand Program.

According to Sunthorn Chaiwattana, chief of Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, the decline in the wildlife population is mostly due to hunting by humans, an activity which must be reduced to enhance the quality of wildlife.

By doing so, smart patrols with MIST technology, a spatial management information system from Africa, has been applied at Huai Kha Khaeng sanctuary to drive away poachers and help stabilise the tiger population and other animals.

Strange behaviours of animals and their hunters will be monitored and recorded in the natural landscapes where animals walk past or while they are on the prowl, and where hunters wait to trap the living creatures.

After each patrol, reports are made to a monthly meeting to review for an improvement on further effective prevention on incessant poaching.

As tigers sit at the top of the food chain as the primary predator, the growing tiger population indicates growing numbers of lower species hunted by tigers such as bulls or wild deer, which also signifies the quality of such the environment and its proper habitat maintenance.

Dr Anak, the director of WSC Thailand Program, said it was fortunate officials at Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary took the matter of increasing the tiger population seriously.

“Due to the official seriousness, the outcome of the work is tangible and intense, which can become one of the conservation models for saving tigers,” the director said.

Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary targets its tiger population density to be five tigers per 100 sq km within seven years, from a density of 2.39 tigers at present.

“The tiger population density keeps increasing, from previously we used to have a density of only 1.7 tigers per 100 sq km,” said Saksit Simchareon, head of Bengal tigers research team.

Due to its accomplishment on saving the tigers and to follow the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop last year, Thailand is currently hosting the 1st ASIA Ministerial Conference (AMC) on Tiger Conservation, participated by environment ministers from 13 Asian nations, while it plans to offer its successful smart patrol model to preserve the big cats for other countries to follow.

The conference, held in the Prachuap Khiri Khan resort town of Hua Hin from January 27-30, aims to persuade countries to set tiger population targets, double the animal numbers by 2020 and announce an action plan for a September tiger summit in Russia.

According to WWF, the global wild tiger population now stands at an all-time low of 3,200, down from an estimated 20,000 in the 1980s and 100,000 a century ago. (TNA)

-- TNA http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=13929

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary (Thai: เขตรักษาพันธุ์สัตว์ป่าทุ่งใหญ่นเรศวร) is a protected area in Thailand.

It is located in the northern part of Kanchanaburi province and southern part of Tak province and was created on April 24, 1974. It was later declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1991,together with the adjoining Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. Thungyai was extended in 1991 and stretches now over an area of 364.000 ha.

Combined with Huai Kha Khaeng (257,464 ha), it covers a total area of 622,200ha, forming the second largest protected area in Mainland South-east Asia (the largest currently being the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar).

Sawadee

[MHM]

Maybe we should look closer to home

http://www.tigertempletruths.org/