New Delhi: Standing tall at $20 billion annually and still growing, the wildlife trafficking has become the world’s fourth largest illicit trade, said World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Saturday the Global Tiger Day.
The WWF has urged the tiger-range governments, thirteen countries including India, to strengthen anti-poaching efforts and crack down on a severe wildlife snaring crisis that is threatening wildlife across Asia.
At present, India holds over 70 per cent of the world’s free ranging tiger population and the global free ranging or the wild tigers are estimated to be around 3,900.
WWF pointed out that 2016 had been catastrophic for the tigers in India as poaching reached an all time high.
“Illegal wildlife trade is estimated to reach $20 billion per year, which makes wildlife trafficking the world’s fourth largest illicit trade, after narcotics, human trafficking and trade in counterfeit goods,” a WWF statement said.
The IANS managed to piece together information from different independent sources to know that at least 129 tigers and 419 leopards died in 2016 as compared to 91 tigers and 397 leopards in 2015. Of these, at least 50 tigers and 127 leopards were poached, a record in the last 10 years.
The WWF pointed out that easy to make from widely available material such as bicycle cable wires and quick to set up, wire snares are deadly traps that are fast becoming the plague of Asia’s forests.
