By Dominick Mezzapesa - Wildlife Planet News
New Delhi: The mystery of the seven-year-old tiger named Jai came to the forefront once again when two MPs asked the Union environment minister to start an investigation into finding out what happened to the famous tiger who six-months ago vanished from a Maharashtra sanctuary. Vinayak Bhaurao Raut of the Shiv Sena from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg and Nanabhau Falgunrao Patole, the Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Bhandara-Gondiya, raised the issue of finding Jai who was named after superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s character in the film Sholay. While there has been no proof that Jai, Maharashtra’s biggest and most-famous tiger, is dead. The lack of proof that Jai is alive makes the possibility very real that poachers may have killed him. “It is true that Jai has been missing since last six months. But I want to say that a tiger’s area is 100 sq.km. In such a huge area, which is a dense forest, we are trying to find him. We still have not declared him dead. He can be alive. It was getting difficult for us to find him during monsoon,” the minister replied. “But since the rainy season is now over, we are still trying to find him,” Dave added. Patole expressed concern over smuggling of tigers to countries like China and reminded Dave that he had promised to seek Interpol’s help to check this. Patole said he believes Jai has been poached and body parts sent to China. In April 2016 by WWF and Global Tiger Forum revealed that globally, the number of tigers in the wild has increased to 3,890. India is home to nearly 60% of the total tiger population of the world with about 2,226 of them across 50 tiger reserves. Wildlife Planet believes The WWF/Global Tiger Forum report to be factually incorrect and the report certainly lacked verifiable evidence that their count was accurate. Wildlife Planet is in lock step with the 'Statement of Concern by Tiger Biologists' where they outline the concerns they had with the WWF. This WWF/Global Tiger Forum report seems to have been produced with the hope of creating positive headlines that will fuel the WWF donation drives. On it's face the report's premise of an increase in Tiger population goes against every other species numbers and trends for the past few years that poachers have been targeting. Rhino Horn and Tiger Parts are key ingrediants that poachers have been targeting to supply China's 'Traditional Chinese Medicine' Industry. |
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