03 Feb 2006

Following the tiger's trail [a smuggling route from India to eastern Tibet]
TibetInfoNet - www.tibetinfonet.net, Germany
Self-description: "[...] Tibetinfonet follows the trail of the tiger skins from national parks in India to rural festivals in eastern Tibet, and shows that the major players within the trade are Tibetans on the fringes of the exile communities in Nepal and India, and organisations protected by the Chinese authorities because of past or current political services provided to the regime. We identify some of these groups and show that unless the PRC authorities review their governance and policies towards Tibetans, it is doubtful whether the Indian tiger has any chance of survival. [...] "Official estimates put the population of tigers in the wild in India at 3,500, but many commentators believe that this is an optimistic figure. Whereas figures remain contested, there is a clear consensus among environmentalists that the tiger' s situation is precarious and that the greatest threat they face is being poached to feed the demand for tiger skins and body parts in the PRC. Following the press conference in Delhi, international reports unanimously stated that 'huge seizures of tiger, leopard and otter skins in India and Nepal indicate the existence of highly organised criminal networks behind the skin trade'. However, these reports fall short of providing actual details about these networks. Information received by TibetInfoNet provides a comprehensive overview of the trade, its structure and the groups of people involved in it."

Site contents: * Introduction; * The geography of the trade; * Operators of the trade - 1. Couriers and traders; * Operators of the trade - 2. The syndicates; * 'Prosperity' and the reinvention of traditions; * PR and environmental protection - Is the tiger the winner?; * Footnotes.

[TibetInfoNet Special Report "Following the tiger's trail" (6000 words, and 7 photographs) was released on 31 Jan 2006. Other reports published at www.tibetinfonet.net include: *Mining policies shift in the TAR (Oct 2005, 940 words); *Illiteracy and education levels worsen in the TAR despite development drive (Sep 2005, 1200 words); *Detentions before 40th anniversary of TAR (Sep 2005, 490 words). - ed.]

URL http://www.tibetinfonet.net/updates/2006/3101.htm
Internet Archive (web.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
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* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study
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