India to help Myanmar in tiger conservation

After scripting a success story in tiger conservation at home in the past few years,India is now planning to revive a two-year-old offer to help save the big cat in the worlds largest tiger reserve in Myanmar,which is suffering from dwindling tiger numbers

After scripting a success story in tiger conservation at home in the past few years,India is now planning to revive a two-year-old offer to help save the big cat in the worlds largest tiger reserve in Myanmar,which is suffering from dwindling tiger numbers.

The political reform in the South Asian country during the past few months,giving democratic forces a chance,has made Indian officials optimistic that the offer for collaboration practically locked in the cold storage by Myanmar in the past can be refreshed through diplomatic channels.

Indias offer for collaboration for the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve was sent in 2010 after Myanmar decided to triple the size of the tiger reserves area to close to 21,892 sq km. While officials of Myanmars Ministry of Forestry had in principle agreed to the collaboration,nothing happened on the ground.

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Ever since expanding the tiger reserve,Myanmar has been reportedly facing shortage of officials and technical know-how in managing its conservation efforts. The number of tigers there was as low as 50, said a senior Environment Ministry official.

Officials in New Delhi hope to renew the collaboration in the next three days at an inter-governmental meet of several tiger range countries,including China and Russia,hosted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Global Tiger Initiative. The meet is likely to see India pitching for collaboration and technology transfer in tiger breeding and management to smaller South-Asian countries like Bangladesh,Nepal,Cambodia and Indonesia,among others,after having displayed success in breeding in both captive as well as wild in its own tiger reserves.

Indias tiger census with camera traps and management through real-time remote electronic surveillance of tiger reserves are some of the achievements of Indias efforts in tiger conservation,which,officials feel,can be shared with smaller tiger countries who have shown interest in official-level talks in the past.

One of the key discussions in the meet will be on eliminating the global demand for tiger products,with participation from officials from China.

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The official agenda of the meet also says that governments will discuss actions to ensure that by next year all critical tiger habitats,including corridors,are legally protected and tiger concerns are mainstreamed in developmental sectors and at landscape levels.

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