Sumatran tigers may be gone from the wild in two years
Sumatran tigers may be gone from the wild in two years
By Marjeni Rokcalva
PADANG, West Sumatra (AFP): At least 14 rare Sumatran tigers have been slaughtered by poachers in the past three months, and the species faced extinction within two years, Indonesian environmentalists have warned.
Only about 400 of the tigers remained and they were being targeted by rampant hunters, said Rahmadi, the head of the Indonesian Wildlife Forum (Walhi) chapter in Padang.
At least 50 of the tigers are known to have been killed in the past decade, he told AFP, adding there was a growing blackmarket demand for the skin and meat.
Most of the killings had taken place at the Kerinci Seblat national park -- a vast protected wildlife area of 1.3 million hectares covering Jambi, Bengkulu, Riau and West Sumatra provinces.
Walhi had gathered evidence to show 14 Sumatran tigers were either poisoned or shot by poachers between August and November and then sold on the black market for between five million and 7.5 million rupiah ($740 to $1,111).
"If there is no serious effort to stop the killings ... this animal will vanish in two years," Rahmadi said.
He charged, without producing evidence that information from his sources pointed to "personnel from the Indonesian military" taking part in the illegal trade as were police in the Sarolangun Bangko district in Jambi province.
"This has been going on for a long time, and their (the police) modus operandi is to purchase the whole skin of the tiger ... and the animal's body parts such as the skull and bones," Rahmadi said.
Data compiled by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) indicated that apart from hunting being a threat to the Sumatran tigers, their habitat was also shrinking which contributed to their decreasing numbers.
A WWF report showed that the tigers have began roaming on the perimeter of their protected areas, such as Muko-Muko in Bengkulu, Kerinci in Jambi and Pesisir Selatan in West Sumatra -- all of which are easily accessible to poachers.
An official of the West Sumatra chapter of the state Natural Resources Conservation Unit, Djoko Suhardjo, had confirmed that poachers were using firearms to hunt the tigers, Rahmadi said.
He said the unit's park rangers had found bullet holes in carcasses.
In Asia and increasingly in the West the body parts of Sumatran tigers, the "panthers tigris sumatrae", are said to have healing powers and are also prized as male vertility stimulants. There is also a high demand for their skins.