 Burmese
tribesmen poaching tigers in Tibet: Schaller
 New
Delhi: The tiger is being relentlessly poached
in the north-east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh
and in the contiguous forests in the neighbouring
Tibet Autonomous Region of China by poachers from
Burma, renowned biologist George Schaller said.
He said that Lisu and Mishmi tribesmen from the borders
of Arunachal Pradesh in India and Kachin hills in
Burma were constantly moving into India and Tibet
for poaching the remaining populations of the tiger
in that region. The skin and bones and other derivatives
like the penis were then being smuggled into the markets
of south-east Asia. Notably, the region is affected
by insurgency, which has repercussions in both India
and Burma. " I visited Kachin on an invitation
to to help the government of Burma set up wildlife
sanctuaries in that region, I spoke to people there
and saw it happening," he said.
Returning to India on a personal trip after several
years, Dr Schaller was travelling with a group of
keen wildlifers from USA and met Ashok Kumar, Vivek
Menon and Aniruddha Mookerjee of the Wildlife Trust
of India for a discussion on the Indian conservation
scenario on April 16.
"The region has excellent untouched forests
especially in places called Medog in Tibet and Hukong
in Burma and both have noteworthy populations of tigers
and both are under heavy poaching pressure,"
he said. The areas being extremely remote cannot be
effectively patrolled apart from the fact that hunting
is a way of life with the people living in the areas,
he pointed out.
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