NEW DELHI: Two tigers are killed every week on average due to high demand for their body parts in Asian countries, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said Tuesday.
Poaching is the greatest threat to wild tigers today putting them at risk of extinction in certain countries due to lack of accurate information on their population, Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted WWF saying in a statement on Global Tiger Day.
Statistics from wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC showed at least 1,590 tigers were killed between January 2000 and April 2014 but actual poaching levels are likely to be higher.
“It is feared that countries not carrying out national tiger surveys could lose their tigers to poachers without realising it. This may already be the case for some countries,” WWF said.
Tiger population figures are generally up to date in countries like India, Nepal and Russia which conduct regular surveys.
However, records of tiger populations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are not well kept, WWF said.
Global wild tiger population was estimated at around 3,200 in 2010.
“In 2010, many countries had not undertaken systematic national tiger surveys,” said head of WWF Tigers Alive Initiative, Michael Baltzer.
“Today many have or are doing so, but not all, leaving major gaps in our knowledge. Until we know how many tigers we have and where they are, we can’t know how best to protect them,” he said.
–BERNAMA