CHANGEMENT DE PIED, CONFIRMATION
LA COUR SUPRÊME INDIENNE ASSOUPLIT SA POSITION SUR LE TOURISME DANS LES RESERVES A TIGRES (The Hindu, il y a deux jours).
Following resistance to the ban on tourism in core areas of tiger reserves by several States, NGOs and interested parties, the Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted the Centre to review existing norms and come up with comprehensive guidelines on ‘Tiger Project’ and ‘sustainable tourism.’
A Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar gave this permission after Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati drew the court’s attention to the objections received and the Centre’s intention to revisit the guidelines framed under the Wildlife (Protection) Act.
Mr. Vahanvati said the Centre wanted to promote responsible tourism in the reserves while ensuring the protection of the big cats.
Justice Swatanter Kumar told the Attorney General: “There seems to be some kind of clash, some kind of difference of opinion between the Centre and the States. Please ensure these are resolved. Also identify which activities shall be allowed and not allowed inside core areas.”
Justice Kumar urged the Centre to also consult experts before submitting the final guidelines to the Ministry for vetting. “Give us definite projections on how you are going to take care of the tigers,” he said. Mr. Vahanvati submitted that tourism “makes for anti-poaching.” “There is always a watch when tourism is allowed,” the Attorney General said.
The Attorney General, on being asked by the Bench if there could be a complete ban on tourism in the core areas of tiger reserves to protect the animals from poachers, said: “There cannot be two sets of guidelines, one to protect tigers and another to promote tourism. We want to make comprehensive guidelines to promote both. Everybody’s interest will be taken care of.”
Regulated tourism
Justice Kumar wanted the government to regulate tourism in these reserves and said it had been “a free-for-all till now.” He gave the example of about 100 vehicles entering a reserve a day and asked: “Is it necessary to take 100 vehicles into the core areas?” He also sought to know whether the government had any plan regarding maintenance of tigers in zoos.
Senior counsel Raj Panjwani, appearing for petitioner Ajay Dubey, at whose instance the court imposed the ban on July 24, argued that for 22 years the government had done nothing. The Bench, however, made it clear that the interim ban order would continue. It asked the Centre to consult all stakeholders — hotel associations affected by the ban, guides and tour operators, and State governments — while framing the revised guidelines. It agreed to take up all issues, including the plea for lifting the ban, for further hearing on September 27.
A RUSSIAN TIGERS' HUNTER IN KOREA
Le plus grand tueur de tigres coréens (considéré même comme le plus grand chasseur de tigres au monde) a probablement été Youri Yankovsky (entre 1922 et 1945).
John Vaillant a évoqué son parcours dans son livre "Tiger. A story of vengeance and survival 2009 (Edition française 2011).
Il avait 98 ans en 2009. Il était alors considéré comme l'un des derniers survivants des camps aurifères de la Kolyma.
http://gulagsurvivor.blogspot.fr/
Ses mémoires ont été publiées en anglais sous le titre "From crusades to Gulag and beyond" (336 pages, 80 photographies).
SEE KOREA TIMES OF 20 JANUARY 2012, ROBERT NEFF.
Korea has long been famed for its tiger hunters but did you know that arguably one of the greatest tiger hunters in Korean history was not a Korean but a Russian by the name of
Yuri (George) M. Yankovsky? Yuri and his family fled Russia just after the Russian Revolution and settled on the east coast of modern North Korea where they built an enclave of hunters known as
Novina – “The New Place.”
Novina and the Yankovsky family were bigger than life – their exploits legendary and, to some degree, exaggerated.
The family was rumored to live on nothing more than “tiger steaks and vodka” and that Yuri had “saved his wife’s life by cutting out her appendix with his hunting-knife.” Even their home was
surrounded by fantastic legends. Some claimed that they lived in a castle perched on the edge of a deep chasm – only a single tree kept their abode from falling into the abyss – and kept a dragon
locked up in its tower.
We do know that the Yankovskys established orchards, fields of vegetables, raised deer and supplemented their diet with the abundance of the wildlife around Novina. Hunting that was the main
source of their income and their greatest joy. According to historian, Donald N. Clark, shortly after they arrived in Korea, Yuri managed to secure a contract with the Japanese government to
supply their military with fresh meat. It was this steady income that enabled the family to build and expand their hunting enclave.
By the 1930s Novina had become quite popular with Russian tourists who made excursions to nearby Mt. Baekdu during the summer and hunted during the fall and winter. Visitors’ accounts and
photographs attest to the abundance of birds, deer, boars, bears and leopards in the region but it was the Manchurian tiger that reigned with a mixture of awe and fear. Like the Yankovsky name,
the Manchurian tiger’s predation upon man became legendary.
The great Manchurian tigers, according to Yuri, owed their existence to a Mongol emperor who had imported tigers from India and created a sanctuary for them in the region where the Chinese,
Russian and North Korean borders meet. Although the Mongol empire eventually fell, the tigers flourished and each of them bore on their foreheads the Chinese character “king.” These monarchs of
the northern forests exacted a huge toll upon their human subjects – taking their livestock and often their lives.
Yuri first felt the urge to hunt tigers at the tender age of six when his favorite pony fell victim to one of these great beasts. It may have started as childish revenge but tiger hunting soon
became his passion and he was so successful that he became known as “Asia’s Mighty Tiger Hunter.”
Although Yuri deplored consigning wild animals to a life of imprisonment in zoos, in the late 1930s or early 1940s he was forced by financial needs to provide two live tiger cubs to the zoo in
Seoul. For this betrayal of his soul he was paid some 1,000 dollars by the Japanese government.
But money couldn’t force the Yankovskys to betray their adopted country. Allegedly, in 1941, Yuri’s son, Valery, was offered 10,000 yen by the Japanese government if he would hunt down the
“tiger” known as Kin Ichi Sei.
Valery turned down the offer claiming the Yankovsky family “only hunts four-legged predators!”
The “tiger” was a young Korean freedom fighter that had harassed the Japanese military in the Mt. Baekdu region. The Yankovskys, at least in spirit, supported the Koreans’ fight for independence
and were unwilling to assist the Japanese – especially if it meant killing one of the movement’s leaders.
Who was Kin Ichi Sei? According to Valery, he was the man now known as Kim Il-sung.
ELEMENTS ADDITIONNELS (TOUJOURS SOUS LA PLUME DE ROBERT NEFF) : LES ATTAQUES DE TIGRES ET DE LEOPARDS ETAIENT CONSIDEREES COMME SI COMMUNES A LA FIN DU XIXEME SIECLE QU'ON DISAIT SPONTANEMENT D'UNE PERSONNE QUI DISPARAISSAIT QU'ELLE AVAIT ETE ENLEVEE PAR UN TIGRE...
/http%3A%2F%2F10mag.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F07%2F11-Tiger-killed-c.jpg "11-Tiger-killed-c")
Tiger killed by Boydell, circa 1914
Robert Neff Nodaji Collection – courtesy of Justine Tweed
Life at the Western gold mines in northern Korea was dangerous both inside and out in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These mines were generally located in sparsely populated mountainous regions and were the favored haunts of Korea’s big cats – Siberian tigers and leopards.
Tiger and, to a lesser degree, leopard attacks were so common in Korea that in 1889, an American newspaper reported:
“So many persons annually disappear in Corea from the ravages of tigers that hopeless debtors and defaulters take advantage of the presumption thus created in case of a mission person to leave their torn garments at the border of some wood and privately decamp. ‘Caught by a tiger’ has come to be equivalent to in Corea to our American phrase ‘escaped to Canada.’”
There are many anecdotes of western miners encountering these feline predators. Justine Tweed, who was born at the French gold mining concession near the Yalu River in the 1930s, recalls that her own father, Guy B. Boydell, nearly met his end this way. It was in 1914, on an intensely cold night, that Boydell was trudging through the deep snow on his way to his quarters when he suddenly felt that he was no longer alone.
“He half expected to feel the tap of a [worker’s]hand upon his shoulder, soliciting monetary help, perhaps for an ailing wife, or sick child, but then the slow but strong sound of breathing warned him not of human interception, but of something far more sinister. He quickened his step, at the same time swinging his lantern behind him. He dared not run. At last, [he reached] the final bend in the path and there ahead a shaft of light from the mess hall [beckoned him] like a welcome beacon.”
Boydell quickly made his way to the building and the following morning organized a search party. They discovered the large Siberian tiger sunning itself on a large rock. With a single shot, Boydell killed the tiger. As evidenced by the photograph, the tiger was transported back to the camp on a sled – the corpse frozen in a standing position.
Boydell was fortunate enough to have reached the sanctuary before the tiger could attack but many miners were not. In the same region, a few years earlier, the “fresh-picked bones of three Korean wayfarers” – victims of a tiger attack – were discovered by Japanese guards at the mine. They had reported seeing five tigers stalking the area.
In the 1930s, John Blain, the son of a gold miner at the American gold mines at Unsan, recalled that searches were made “on several occasions when word came back that one of the miners going home after work form the mine had not shown up.”
“They [the searchers] would go looking for him and they would just find a spot on the trail where there had been a scuffle and I can remember on one occasion when all they found was a hand. In these cases they having [sic] been attacked by tigers. More than likely ones that gotten old and were not able to catch game so the best game they could find was some man that was walking home at night…”
/http%3A%2F%2F10mag.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F07%2F11-tiger-c.jpg "11-tiger-c")
Perhaps one of the best hunters at the gold mines was American Frank A. Smith. Smith claimed to have killed more than 25 tigers and served as guide for Kermit Roosevelt (President Theodore Roosevelt’s son) during his hunting expedition in Korea during the 1920s.
Hunted extensively, the tigers had disappeared from most of Korea by the mid 1930s. Although rumors persist that tigers still haunt the DMZ or the slopes of Mount Paekdu, it is more than likely that the only tigers remaining in Korea today are those found in zoos or in the hearts and memories of the elderly.
INDIAN TIGERS : NOBODY KNOWS
1700, 1200, 670, or something still quite different?
Voir Hindustan Times, il y a 3 jours.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/SC-errs-says-tiger-population-fell-to-1-200/Article1-920816.aspx
CETTE BEAUTE QUI PREND CORPS
LA COREE DANS L'ART TOTAL
Ahn Soo - Gil. Auteur coréen, observateur et illustrateur particulièrement remarquable, il a voué sa vie et son travail au tigre. Auteur, à partir des années 2000, de livres consacrés à l'animal (mangas, documentaires, albums), il a mis l'accent sur le tigre de Corée, officiellement disparu depuis des décennies dans le sud de la péninsule, absence pour lui incompréhensible, et dont il espérait ardemment le retour. Ses illustrations sont proprement merveilleuses, avec un sens peu commun du détail et du mouvement. Il y a du Delacroix chez Ahn Soo - Gil. J'ai pu admirer son ouvrage "Panthera tigris" dont la version française est parue le mois dernier aux Editions Clair de Lune (version originale 2004), non seulement magnifique mais passionnant, évoquant des faits peu connus, dans une tonalité générale fort éloignée des ouvrages "de référence" habituellement publiés. Ses oeuvres de fiction font aussi l'objet d'une traduction. L'une d'entre elles, "Histoire de tigres", en deux tomes, qui relate l'affrontement entre un tigre de Corée et un tigre géant septentrional, est déjà parue. Les autres le seront cette fin d'année et l'année prochaine. Ahn Soo Gil était particulièrement apprécié au Japon. Il est mort le 15 Novembre 2005, à l'âge de 42 ans.
Lim Sun - Nam. Directeur de l'Institut de recherche sur les tigres sauvages coréens,
il a effectué, notamment, des recherches sur la présence éventuelle du tigre dans la DMZ (zone démilitarisée entre Corée du Sud et Corée du Nord), publiées en 2010. Il avait aussi filmé, en 2000,
un tigre qui grimpait dans un arbre à plus de dix mètres de hauteur. Il connaissait bien Ahn Soo - Gil, à qui il a apporté sa caution scientifique et son éclairage particulier sur l'histoire et
les perspectives pour le tigre en Corée. Rappelant notamment que le tigre et l'homme cohabitent en Corée depuis près de 40 000 ans, que l'actuel "Extrême Orient russe" et toute la
Mandchourie furent coréens pendant 1000 ans, il démontre l'intensité unique au monde de la culture coréenne du tigre, et du degré hallucinant de présence de l'animal partout dans la péninsule
jusqu'au début du XXème siècle, y compris à Seoul (tout comme les léopards). Les tigres, bons nageurs, étaient même présents dans les îles de l'extr^me sud ouest de la péninsule (voir détail en
fin de page*).
2012 constitue assurément pour lui un tournant historique. La Corée a lancé un plan de réintroduction
des tigres sauvages dans le Sud de la péninsule. Un couple sera lâché en 2014, l'objectif à terme étant la constitution d'une population d'une trentaine d'individus (voir l'article de Kim Rahn
dans le Korea Times du 16 mars dernier reproduit ci dessous). Une collaboration russo coréenne a été décidée pour ce projet le 18 juillet dernier.
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A couple of Siberian tigers will be released on a mountain range in Bonghwa, North Gyeongsang Province, in 2014 following the opening of an arboretum there. |
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Siberian Tiger Quest
After graduating from Seoul National University in
1990, Sooyong Park worked as a nature documentary Producer and Director for EBS(Educational Broadcasting System) in South Korea from 1991 to 2010. His programs have always focused on the wild
Siberian tiger ‘Panthera tigris altaica’.
As a researcher and documentary film-maker, he has studied Siberian tigers for the past twenty years. His filming projects have covered areas such as the Maritime Province of Russia, Manchuria in China, the North Korean border with China, and Taebaek Mountains range in South Korea.
Sooyong Park has spent many months tracking Siberian tigers but also many months incarcerated in a hide, hoping to catch a glimpse of a tiger. Totally alone in the forests of far-eastern Russia, he has endured temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius and the most basic conditions, in an effort to capture this most elusive tiger on film.
Sooyong Park has recorded every moment of his search on film and shot over 1000 hours of material.
He has recently written a book ‘The Great Soul of Siberia’ about the Siberian tiger and has established his own small non-profit organisation, The Siberian Tiger Protection Society, whose main goal is to protect and conserve the remaining populations of Siberian tiger in far-eastern Russia, Manchuria and the Korean peninsula.
Sooyong Park hopes that his continuing research into tracking and studying these wild populations will give him the evidence he needs to gain greater support and protection for the small population of wild Siberian tigers that still exist.
Film credits:
“The Endangered Emperors of Siberia”
“The Elusive Siberian Tiger”
“The Wild Ussury Tiger”
“The Vanishing Amur Leopard”
“In the Tracks of the Korean Tiger”
“Tigers and Humans in China”
“Udeghe and the tiger, The Silence Trackers”
“Blood Exchange Project of the Isolated Wild Tiger”
Awards:
Du Public, Jules Verns Film Festival, 2006, France
Excellence Prize, The 9th Tokyo Global Environmental Film Festival
The 11th ‘Best Producer of This Year’ in Korea
The Grand Prix, 26th Korean Broadcasting Awards
The Grand Prix, 32th Paek Sang Arts Awards
The Grand Prix, 1st Samsung Media Awards
LE JAPON, UNE AUTRE CULTURE COREENNE
Japon, Corée et tigre sont intimement liés par l'Histoire. Les Japonais actuels sont d'origine coréenne. Les tigres présents au Sud du Japon et disparus à la fin du Pleistocène appartenaient à la souche méridionale, également présente, à la même époque, en Indonésie, à Bornéo et sur l'archipel philippin des Palawan. Mais la culture historique du tigre au Japon est en rapport avec les tigres du Nord, coréens, chinois, mandchous, et de Sakhaline.
Les premières représentations japonaises de tigres (probablement chinois) remontent au 7ème siècle avant notre ère. Le tigre deviendra l'animal référent des samouraïs (il ne s'agit pas de l'animal lui même "Tora" mais de l'esprit du tigre blanc "Bakkio", gardien de l'Occident pour les Chinois, coréens et japonais).
En 1592 - 1594, le Shogun Hiyedoshi envahit la Corée. Il y passe beaucoup de temps à tuer des tigres. Il parvient à en capturer un qu'il ramène vivant à la cour de l'Empereur à Kyoto.
Tigre gardien du temple Kuruma, à Kyoto.
De 1679 à 1875, les japonais occupent le sud de Sakhaline, où vivent des tigres de Sibérie.
Entre 1917 et 1942, les forces d'occupation japonaise abattent une centaine de tigres en Corée. Un dénommé Yamamoto est chargé des expéditions de chasse. A cette époque, il ne reste qu'une trentaine de tigres dans l'Orient russe, alors qu'un millier sont encore présents en Mandchourie et au Bohaï. Il est vraisemblable que ces derniers seront victimes d'abord des japonais dans le Mandchoukouo à partir de 1931, puis des américains et des chinois entre 1948 et 1952, lors de la guerre de Corée, qui ne laissa pas pierre sur pierre au Nord de la péninsule.
4 CULTURES POUR UN GEANT
Le temps n'est plus aux massacres, comme autrefois. Les orientations prises lors du forum de Vladivostok de Juillet dernier pour l'expansion des zones de protection du tigre en Russie, Chine et Corée sont encourageantes. La synergie des approches sibérienne, chinoise, coréenne et japonaise, sont la clef du réépanouissement futur des populations de tigres dans la région Asie Pacifique sans exclusive géographique, à même de reconstruire une typologie animale aujourd'hui disparue. En effet, si le tigre du Nord existe encore aujourd'hui à l'état sauvage, il y a bien longtemps qu'ont disparu des animaux tels que les décrit Nicolas Baïkov au début du siècle dernier, comparables en taille et en puissance aux félins géants préhistoriques. Le dernier fut semble t-il abattu en 1950 dans la cordillère de Sikhote Aline. Il pesait 400 kgs. Ahn Soo - Gil illustre cet évènement saisissant sur une double page dans l'ouvrage que j'ai pu consulter.
Pour un réalisme prospectif, il faut toujours voir grand...
*Densité des tigres en Corée au début du siècle dernier. Le cas de lîle de Jindo (Chin - Do).
“Even on the southern remote islands of the Korean Peninsula were filled with lots of Siberian tigers a century or so ago”, argued Prof. Lee Hang of the Seoul National University in a press release on Feb. 19, 2012.
Prof. Lee heads the Fund for Korean Tigers Conservation.
He showed to the local Korean press two photos of Korean tigers (Siberian or Amur tigers) caught by the hunters as evidences.
The tiger photos were from the article “The Manchurian Tiger” authored by Ford G. Barclay, which were written in a book ”The Big Game of Asia and North America: The Gun at Home and Abroad”.
The book was co-authored by Ford G. Barclay and was published in London in 1915.
“The Manchurian Tiger” shows the details on how the Siberian tigers were populated on the Korean Peninsula and on how they were hunted in early 20th century.
Prof. Lee said that the book showed that there were four tigers on Jindo Island some 500 meters off the south western tip of the Korean Peninsula.
Now, the island is connected to the mainland by the Jindo Bridge.
An English sportsman Ford G. Barclay poses with his local Korean hunters in front of a tiger hunted by them in Mokpo in South Korea’s South Jeolla Province.This undated fild photo was taken in 1903.
“This means that Korean tigers were populated in the peninsula and even on the corners of the isolated islands only a century ago”, Prof. Lee said. “Also this proves that tigers are good swimmers”
According to the book, an adult male and female tigers were hunted by the local hunters on Jindo Island.
Mr. Barclay and the local hunters chased the other two tigers on the island for about 10 days but failed to find them.
On the beach they only found the footsteps of the tigers which were printed toward the mainland.
They thought the tigers fled to the land by crossing the sea, but three weeks later they found the tigers’ footsteps again.
Mr. Barclay’s records also say that legends also depict the popular existence of the tigers on the island and other islands south of the Korean Peninsula some 100 years ago.
Another Seoul National University professor, Kim Dong-Jin, who is a member of the fund, said that tigers were common even in the coastal areas and many islands of Korea.
“History books records a number of cases in which people were attacked by the tigers in the past”, Prof. Kim said.
He said that many national farms had to be moved from the mainland to the island to avoid the danger of tiger attack, but even on the islands tigers appeared frequently.
He argued that the national troops were mobilized
for the tiger hunts on the islands.
In South Korea tigers are extinct. Heavily fortified walls of barbed wires in 4-km-wide demilitarized zone (DMZ) block all wild animals from travelling between South and North Korea.
It was 1922 that the last tiger was seen and hunted on Mt. Daedeuk in Gyeongju, South Korea’s North Gyeongsang Province.
Currently, there remain about 400 Siberian tigers (Koreans call them Korean tigers) mainly in Far Eastern parts of Russia. The Siberian tigers are also called Amur tigers.
Recently, a research team of the Seoul National University released a report saying that Korean tigers have the same DNA with the Siberian tigers.
The Fund for Korean Tigers Conservation (http://koreatiger.org/), established by civilians in 2004, supports Russia’s Phoenix Fund (http://www.phoenix.vl.ru/)
The following story is part of “The Manchurian Tiger” authored by Ford G. Barclay.
My own most successful hunts have been inthe island of Chindo, some thirty miles as the crow flies south-east of the open port of Mokpo, situated at the south-west corner of Korea. It is separated from the mainland by a channel between two and three miles wide, through which the current rushes at such a rate that it is only possible to cross in a large boat for thirty minutes or so at each turn of the tide, and yet tiger most readily face this fierce tide pretty frequently.
The island is about the size of The Isle of Wight, and there being very little cover on it when snow is on the villager that authentic news of fresh tiger tracks will be liberally rewarded. On one visit I was greeted with the intelligence that four tigers were there, a male and female of fair size, and two three-year-old females.
The first two I secured a day or two later, the other two broke back through the beaters in a drive some twelve miles from the nearest part of the channel. The next morning their tracks were reported in the tidal mud, heading across the straits for the mainland, but being still skeptical as to tiger facing such a swim in the depth of winter I continued my hunt for ten days, during which no freshtracks were seen.
Three weeks later news of another pair in the island led me back, but though we jumped one I never actually saw more than the footprints. A week later these two were also tracked over the mud towards the straits and mainland. Early this year (1914) the body of a tiger was washed up on.
CHANGEMENT DE PIED
Un mois après la décision de la Cour Suprême indienne d'interdire le tourisme dans les réserves à tigre, le gouvernement appelle celle ci à réviser sa position du tout au tout. Celle - ci rendra sa décision dans deux jours, le 29 Août. (Source : Hindustan Times, ce jour).
http://travel.hindustantimes.com/travel-stories/india-does-u-turn-on-tiger-tourism-ban.php
L'INACTION EST UNE TERRIBLE VIOLENCE
Le 24 août, dans la Province Maritime, les membres du groupe Arseniev anti trafic ont saisi chez un particulier beaucoup de produits végétaux et animaux, dont 8 peaux de tigres (record pour le 21ème siècle dans la région). Tous les grands félins étaient morts de mort violente, la plupart par balle. Pavel Fomenko constate une nouvelle fois que des belles intentions affichées qui ne peuvent s'appuyer sur une législation claire et forte sont inefficaces (source : WWF Russie, ce jour).
Voir aussi le détail desfaits sur le site du Phoenix Fund :
August 24th 2012
Sources: Komsomolskaya Pravda, PrimaMedia, RIA Novosti
Eight Amur tiger skins were seized from a resident of Arseniev town in Primorsky krai (Russian Far East).
The Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is revered by most people in Primorye as the most beautiful and majestic animal, a symbol of the region. Although there are some people who
consider it just roaming “striped money” and try to get, by fair means or foul, a skin of this rare animal listed as endangered species in Red Books of the Russian Federation and IUCN. Among the
seized skins there were also small ones of 1- or 2-month-old tiger cubs. The specialists think that hunters killed the whole tiger family. The damage caused to nature is huge. For example, about
8-10 adult Amur tigers live in Lazovsky Nature Reserve (120,000 ha), one of the largest nature reserves in Primorye.
“Viktor, a wildlife dealer, is well-known by investigators for his illegal business; he has been buying up illegal wildlife products since the 1990s and was apprehended several times.
Unfortunately, his appetite has significantly increased since then”, Primorsky Police’ press service informed. “Besides tiger skins, the police officers found 230 ginseng roots, 97 bottles of
vodka with ginseng roots, 150 cartridges and about $115,000 in cash. The man allegedly bought up the goods from poachers in order to sell them later on in China”.
The man is now facing a heavy fine or a two-year imprisonment under the article 175 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Acquisition or Sale of Property, Knowingly Obtained in a
Criminal Manner). He will be also punished under the article 222 (Illegal Acquisition, Transfer, Sale, Storage, Transportation, or Bearing of Firearms, Its Basic Parts, Ammunition, Explosives,
and Explosive Devices).
We are thankful to unindifferent people who informed the police about the dealer, and police officers should be applauded for their prompt and successful actions ended up with an arrest of the
dealer and seizure of tiger skins. Now, the specialists must determine the gender and age of killed animals and their range. Judging by the difference of quality the skins were processed, they
are likely to have been bought in different districts of Primorye.
“Despite the fact that after International Tiger Forum in St. Petersburg in 2010 the Russian Government is allocating big money to conserve Amur tigers in protected areas, poaching, however,
continues to be a major hurdle yet. Unfortunately, the government is suffering defeat in its fight with poachers”, says Sergei Bereznuk, Director of the Phoenix Fund. “We have not recovered yet
from the last alarming news about a huge seizure of skins and derivatives of wild animals in April. During a search the police accidentally discovered 148 bear paws, 2 skins of the Himalayan
bear, 3 skins of the brown bear, two skins and 5 tails of Amur tiger and 5 carcasses of a sea eagle. We hope that the arrested men will receive just punishment for their crimes”.
VIDE ABYSSAL
FAUTE DE MÂLES, L'UNE DES PREMIERES RESERVES A TIGRES MISES EN PLACE LORS DU TIGER PROJECT INDIEN EN 1973, PALAMU, N'HEBERGERA PROBABLEMENT PLUS AUCUN GRAND FELIN DANS UN AVENIR PROCHE (Hindustan Times, hier).
Yet another tiger habitat --- Palamu in Jharkhand --- is moving towards losing its native tiger population as happened in Panna and Sariska years ago. Sariska in Rajasthan was the first tiger reserve to lose its native population by 2004 because of poaching and human-animal conflict. Five years later the same story was repeated in Panna about 500 kms south-east, in northern Madhya Pradesh.
Now, Palamu --- among the first reserves to be notified when Project Tiger came into being in 1973 --- is hit by a skewed sex ratio with one male tiger in the six big cats remaining as per the latest official count, latest DNA-scat analysis has revealed. Skewed sex ratio was one of the reasons for Panna losing its tigers.
The problem, according to local forest officials, is that of the remaining population only one is male tiger, who is also aged and incapable of breeding. “The lone tiger is about ten years old,” a senior forest government official said.
An average age of tigers is about 12 years or less and they can breed up to six to seven years. In such a circumstance, the probability of the Palamu’s male tiger copulating with any of the remaining five tigresses is very less. The additional hindrance is that there is no female big cat in Betla forest range, where the lone male tiger was traced. “It is wait and watch situation for us,” the official said, acknowledging the gravity.
Wildlife experts say population in Palamu may be lesser than estimated because two-third of the 414 sq km reserve is under control of Naxals and out of bound for the forest department officials.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had estimated 10 tigers in Palamu in 2010 without having even a single picture of a tiger. “The estimation was based on presence of (very low)
prey population,” said a scientist at Dehradun based Wildlife Institute of India, which finalized the estimation. Recent attempt of the forest department to capture pictures of the tigers was
foiled with Naxals taking away the camera traps resulting in an eye of suspicion over estimation.
An official said that “nobody wants to work here because of the fear of Naxals” and monitoring is being done with by “just 30 % of the required frontline staff”. The forest department is,
however, convinced of low tiger density because of the falling prey population --- an indicator used to estimate tiger population.
The possible way-out --- relocation of a young male tigers to copulate with the female tigresses to preserve native tiger population --- is also not easy. Reason: Jharkhand does not have any other source of tigers within the state from relocation as Sariska and Panna had. Palamu will have to get the animal from neighbouring states such as Bihar (13 tigers), Orissa (32 tigers) or Madhya Pradesh (257 tigers). Getting approval of another state government will not be easy.
Although the situation is said to be grave in Palamu, where tiger population had come down from 44 in 1997 to six, the state forest department is yet to take a call on next possible action. “There is no proposal for relocation from Jharkhand,” a NTCA official said.
FAMINE
LES TIGRES DES MANGROVES SUNDARBANS SUBISSENT LA FAMINE, FAUTE DE PROIES (China Daily, il y a deux jours).
KOLKATA, India, August 18 (Xinhua) -- Many world famous Royal Bengal tigers in the mangroves on Sunderbans are suffering from starvation, an Alipore zoo official in this capital of Indian's eastern state of West Bengal said Saturday.
This came to light when a seven-year-old tiger had strayed into a village recently from the jungles and had to be captured by the state forest department officials and brought to the zoo for treatment of his weak hind leg.
The zoo official said the tiger's blood and liver function test reports have shown indication of prolonged starvation. The weak hind portion of the tiger is also a cause for concern.
This tiger's case, state forest department officials, apprehended, was an indication that many other tigers are not getting their prey and suffering from starvation which was a matter of grave concern.
Zoo veterinary surgeon, Dr. D. N. Banerjee, said the liver function and blood tests were done from private as well as government labs.
He said, "the reports arrived late last week. We compared both the reports and found that there is indication of prolonged starvation in the tiger. There is discrepancy in the blood, urea and nitrogen (BUN) ratio too. This shows that the kidney was not doing the filtering work properly."
However, he said no decision has been taken yet on whether an X- ray would be conducted to find out if the big cat has any internal injury.
Meanwhile, Wildlife Institute of India's (WII) scientist Y. V. Jhala said repeated incidents of tigers coming out of the jungles call for a study to find out whether there is any disease outbreak.
He said, "this is not a new phenomenon. In 2009-2010 when canine distemper plagued the Siberian tigers, the big cats started wandering near the Russian towns in search of easy prey. They either died or had to be put down. Later, it was found the tigers were infected with canine distemper." He felt low prey density can also be a cause for the starvation.
The tiger has already been put under power diet and vitamins, so that it can recover fast.
Dr. Banerjee said, "we have raised the quantity of beef, offered to it in the evening, to six kilos. Morning diet consists of a full chicken."
EXPERIENCE CROISEE
APRES LES SUCCES ENREGISTRES DANS LE REPEUPLEMENT DES RESERVES DE SARISKA (RAJASTHAN) ET PANNA (MADYA PRADESH), DES ZOOTECHNICIENS INDIENS SE RENDRONT LE MOIS PROCHAIN EN RUSSIE POUR
DEFINIR AVEC LEURS COLLEGUES RUSSES LES PROTOCOLES DE TRANSLOCATION LES PLUS APPROPRIES POUR LES TIGRES DE L'AMOUR (source : Hindustan Times, hier).
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Russia-Cambodia-to-replicate-India-s-tiger-story/Article1-913112.aspx
CHINESE REWILDING
J'avais indiqué (dans "Rewilding methodology" du 30 Juillet), que les fermes à tigre devaient en toute bonne logique engager des plans de retour à l'état sauvage pour une partie de leurs pensionnaires.
Le premier d'entre eux a été annoncé au début de ce mois (voir China Daily du 3 août).
HARBIN - Zoologists at a North China breeding center announced on Friday the beginning of a wilderness training program for Siberian tigers.
Seven Siberian tigers are participating in the program and the figure is expected to rise to 11 by the end of the year, said sources with the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Garden, the world's largest breeding center for Siberian tigers.
Participating tigers must be cubs born within the breeding center, said chief engineer Liu Dan, adding that they will be sent to demarcated areas within the center's reserve accompanied by their mothers.
"It's an arduous experiment," Liu said, adding that the cubs must be three months or older in order to endure the wilderness.
Siberian tigers are one of the world's rarest animal species. Only 300 are believed to be living in the wild, with 20 in northeast China.
China has been trying to save the species through active breeding programs. The Heilongjiang center has bred over 1,000 Siberian tigers since opening in 1996, when it had just eight of the large cats.
