Animal Rights Movement South Asia - ARMSA

Roads, dams, threat to tiger conservation in Asia. Projects in Myanmar and Thailand deemed major threats to survival of tigers across Greater Mekong region, By Lauren Crothers

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has flagged a road project in Myanmar and a proposed dam in Thailand as major threats to the survival of tigers across the Greater Mekong region and its plans to try and double numbers of the big cats over the next six years. WWF cited a new report on the impact of infrastructure on tiger habitats as saying that the proposed “Dawei road project across Myanmar’s Dawna Tenasserim Landscape is one such challenge.”

The landscape, which covers 63,239 square kilometers (24,417 square miles) of Thailand and Myanmar, is a mountainous region which provides the main source for regional rivers and watershed systems. It added that in Thailand, where fewer than 200 tigers remain, “part of their habitat would be destroyed if a proposed dam is built within Mae Wong National Park.”
In Cambodia, tigers are considered functionally extinct.

The last recorded sighting was by camera trap in the Eastern Plains’ Mondolkiri Protected Forest in 2007. In April, the government gave the green light to an ambitious reintroduction plan, which aims to release tigers back into the same area by 2022. But in June, WWF Cambodia announced a “dramatic decline” of certain species in the Eastern Plains, where prey numbers have to be stable in order to even consider reintroducing tigers.

The organization said that the “alarming” development was attributable to poaching and a low ranger numbers in those areas, as well as illegal weapon use. In addition to concerns that were raised by WWF about a proposed road and border crossing project through Mondolkiri province last year, Cambodia is also home to a number of controversial dam projects too.

The new report does not mention these. In a statement, however, WWF Cambodia said that in addition to an anti-logging task force set up in January, the government has “plans for an anti-snaring task force headed by the Ministry of Environment,” which “indicate that the government is taking tiger reintroduction and conservation seriously”.

India prepares to host extinct cheetah once again in its forests, Experts express skepticism at government’s ambitious project to import cheetahs from South Africa to reintroduce them into Indian forests. By Ahmad Adil

As preparations are in full swing in a wildlife resort in central India to host the cheetah – the fastest land animal – once again, many experts have expressed skepticism about this ambitious project. The cheetah was declared officially extinct in India in 1952 due to massive hunting and poaching. After three decades, the cheetah is being reintroduced in the country with 12-14 of them being imported from South Africa, according to an action plan devised by Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Ministry.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Jasbir Singh Chouhan, a top wildlife official in Madhya Pradesh state in central India, which has been identified as one of the sites for reintroducing the cheetah, said preparations are in full swing to welcome the wild animal into the country once again. "Everything is in place, we in Madhya Pradesh have a long history. We have done translocation projects in the past and we have been successful. Field preparation we are doing. All possible things that are expected out of us, we are doing," he said.

He also said that at the beginning there would be less than 10-12 cheetahs and they will be supplemented every year.
The first cheetah in the world to be bred in captivity was in India during the rule of the Mughal emperor Jahangir in the 16th century. According to government officials, the cheetah is the only large carnivore to have become extinct in Independent India, and the only option to introduce them was to procure them from abroad.

Putting horse before the cart: K. Ullas Karanth, leading Indian tiger expert and director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies in southern Bangalore city, told Anadolu Agency that maintaining a viable breeding population of say 100-200 wild cheetahs would require setting aside 5,000-10,000 square kilometers (19,00-3,860 square miles) of habitat. “It needs to be packed with natural prey such as antelopes, and devoid of humans, cattle, dogs, and other major large predators such as wolves, hyenas, and leopards. Trying to introduce a handful of cheetahs, without creating necessary space is an effort doomed to fail," he said.

Karanth said that another potential habitat of a wild cheetah in the western state of Rajasthan is being encroached by wind and solar power projects, besides irrigation systems. "In the best of cheetah habitats in Africa, only 5% of cheetahs survive to establish themselves and reproduce," he said, adding that it was essential to first create the necessary habitat for the wild animal. "Right now, they are putting the cart before the horse in a ride that will go nowhere," he said. Valmik Thapar, an Indian naturalist and conservationist, said that the African cheetah can never be introduced into the wilds of India.