Mitra goes on to write: “At present there is no incentive for forest dwellers to protect tigers, and so poachers, traffickers and unscrupulous traders prevail. But tiger-breeding facilities will ensure a supply of wildlife at an affordable price, and so eliminate the incentive for poachers and, consequently, the danger for those tigers left in the wild.”

WWF chief scientist Eric Dinerstein countered this claim very effectively: “If China were to lift its 1993 ban on domestic trade in tiger parts, the incentives for poachers would be even greater, as there would be no way to distinguish the bones of ‘farmed’ tigers from those of wild tigers. Poachers could wipe out what remains of wild populations while laundering their goods through legal trade channels. Save the Chinese farms for ducks and pigs. Save the wild lands of Asia for their tigers and the millions of other species protected in tiger reserves.”

I will add only two points to Dinerstein’s. First, there are already more than 15,000 private tigers in the US and China alone. But still the meager global wild stock of less than 5,000 is depleting by the day. Second, it costs a lot to rear a farm tiger till it can be marketed for a reasonable margin. For traders, wild tigers come virtually for free and mean “total profit”.

Mitra, the “pro-people economist”, also argues that tiger farming could potentially break the poverty trap that most forest villagers find themselves in. He wants to recognise “the rights of the local villagers to earn legitimate revenue from wildlife sources” but cites the practice of “selling a limited number of hunting licenses” like they used to do in Zimbabwe.

... contd.