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    November 03, 2011

Interpol Joins Push to Save Asian Tigers

   VOA News
   A Royal Bengal tiger roars at the Dhaka zoo at Mirpur district in
   Dhaka, Bangladesh (2003 file photo)
   Photo: AP
   A Royal Bengal tiger roars at the Dhaka zoo at Mirpur district in
   Dhaka, Bangladesh (2003 file photo)

   The International Police Organization has launched a campaign to help
   save the world's last surviving tigers in 13 Asian countries where the
   giant cats still exist.
   Interpol said the project will link international wildlife officials
   with customs and law enforcement officers in Russia, China, Southeast
   Asia and the Indian subcontinent to combat poaching and smuggling of
   tiger parts used in expensive traditional medicines.
   The initiative, Project Predator, was unveiled this week at an annual
   Interpol conference, held this year in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.
   Experts say the global tiger population has declined from about 100,000
   at the dawn of the 20th century to fewer than 3,500 today. The decline
   has been attributed to both poaching and loss of habitat.
   The tiger campaign announcement follows reports last week that the
   critically endangered Javan rhinoceros population has been wiped out in
   Vietnam, after the last surviving one was found dead at a national park
   with its horn cut off.
   The only remaining such population - some 50 Javan rhinos - is found in
   a remote part of Indonesia.
   Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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