India and China trying to protect tigers

Wildlife officials from China and India are working on an agreement to protect India’s dwindling Bengal tiger population, which activists say can only be saved by a complete clamp down on the illicit trade in skins and parts of big cats killed by poachers.

“India has been working closely with China and Nepal on ways to curb the tiger trade,” and officials from Beijing and New Delhi held talks on the matter last week in the Indian capital, said Kalpana Palkhiwala, the spokeswoman of India’s ministry of environment and forests.

She said the proposed agreement would call for greater vigilance along the India-China border, sharing information on the illegal trade in tiger skins and body parts and stringent action against those involved in the trade.

Wildlife experts in New Delhi were sceptical, saying both countries had to show greater commitment to saving the tiger and in enforcing existing wildlife laws.

“India and China have been talking for far too long, but have very little to show on the ground,” said Ashok Kumar of the New Delhi-based Wildlife Trust of India.

Kumar said the two countries had signed a protocol on saving the tiger more than a decade ago, but “have not acted on it".