NEW DELHI: The tiger, which tops the list of the world’s most endangered species this year, is likely to be the next focus of discord in the tense relationship between India and China. As India aims to move on a war footing to reverse the rapidly dwindling numbers of its national animal, New Delhi’s relations with Beijing could take a hit with China set to celebrate its year of the tiger.

After India and China bonded at Copenhagen last month to ensure that no binding emission commitments were imposed on developing countries, conservationists in India and across world hope the battle to save the tiger will be joined by the Chinese, whose insatiable demand for tiger body parts has fuelled tiger poaching particularly in India. Many Chinese consider tiger body parts to have healing properties - a traditional view that is disputed by medical scientists.

Despite the Indian government declaring 2010 as the year for conserving the tiger, there have already been three reported tiger fatalities in India in the first week of this

year, raising concern about the way forward. Close to 90

tigers died across Indian wildlife sanctuaries in 2009, the highest in a decade.

The strategy for tiger conservation in India revolves around the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Between the mid 1970’s and mid-1980’s, many protected areas (66 national parks and 421 wildlife sanctuaries) were set aside, including large tracts of tiger habitat. They were later increased to 96 national parks, 510 wildlife sanctuaries and 3 conservation reserves and 2 community reserves. This resulted in an increase in tiger densities at many locations.

Unfortunately, these conservation successes were short lived. Rampant poaching for the trade in tiger parts - all destined for markets outside India’s borders - now threatens the tiger’s very existence. India holds over half the world’s tiger population in the wild, estimated at around 3,200. According to the last tiger census report released on February 12, 2008 by the Indian National Tiger Conservation Authority, the current tiger population stands at 1,411

(ranging between a minimum of 1,165 to a maximum of 1,657). The Indian government aims to introduce a Wildlife Conservation and Management Amendment Bill in the next session of Parliament (in February) to ensure stringent punishment against law breakers, including poachers, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

“The bill will have strict punishment measures equivalent to the money laundering and foreign exchange law,” Ramesh explained. With 17 of India’s 38 tiger reserves in a “precarious” condition, Ramesh said a task force had been set up to recommend ways to improve the endangered tiger’s habitat. He also said there was need to strengthen policing across international borders with Nepal and Myanmar to check tiger poaching. Poachers use the porous borders to smuggle lucrative tiger parts across to China, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Indian government’s National Tiger Conservation Authority, headed by the Prime Minister, decided on Wednesday not to accept the World Bank’s aid for the tiger conservation programme. According to Ramesh, he was keen on accepting the aid, but conservationists were against the move. The aid was to be given for improving livelihood security particularly for villagers living near wildlife sanctuaries in some states.

“Why do we need the help of the (World) Bank, which has ripped apart our natural resources by supporting projects for dams and mining at

the cost of conservation,” said PK Sen, former director of

the government’s flagship ‘Project Tiger’ launched in

1973, and a leading tiger conservation expert. According to experts, prevailing conservation efforts are not geared towards, nor have they adequately addressed, the new threats with new protection strategies like better law enforcement, training and support. Improved new tiger protection measures have been proposed but not implemented and little effective action has been taken in the field. Few of the tiger reserves have an established intelligence network and nearly 80% of India’s tiger reserves do not have an armed strike force or basic infrastructure and equipment to combat poaching.

The forest guards are often out-gunned and out-manned by poachers. The battle to save the tiger from extinction is set to be scaled up this year after the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) placed the Asian big cat at the top of its list of the most endangered species. India is facing pressure to raise the profile of the animal’s plight as China celebrates 2010 as the Year of the Tiger.

‘There is particular importance in selecting a creature such as the tiger for special attention. To save the tiger, we have to save its habitat - which is also home to many other threatened species,’ said Diane Walkington, head of species programme for the WWF in Britain. ‘So if we get things right and save the tiger, we will also save many other species at the same time.’ ‘This year will also be the Chinese Year of the Tiger, and so we have put it at the top of our list,” Walkington said.”It will have special iconic importance.”

With the world population of tigers having fallen by 40 percent in the past decade, the WWF said it hopes to increase patrols and work with politicians to eradicate poaching and thwart illegal trade of tiger skins and body parts.

On the WWF’s top 10 endangered list are: Tiger, Polar Bear, Pacific Walrus, Magellanic Penguin, Leatherback Turtle, Bluefin Tuna, Mountain Gorilla, Monarch Butterfly, Javanese Rhino and Giant Panda.