India's population of endangered Bengal tigers could be wiped out in less than a decade unless the government cracks down on the illegal trade in tiger skins, conservationists warned yesterday.
Wildlife groups said they had found scores of shops openly selling tiger, leopard and otter skins during a recent visit to Tibet and others provinces of western China.
Video footage shot by the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Wildlife Protection Society of India showed traders in Lhasa, Tibet, offering fresh Bengal tiger skins and hundreds of leopard skins for sale.
Bengal tigers are mainly found in the Indian subcontinent, and the activists said the traders told them all the skins had been smuggled in from India.
Trading in endangered species, including the Bengal tiger, is banned under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
But the high premium attached to tiger skins, and the use of other tiger body parts in traditional Chinese medicine, have resulted in a thriving illegal trade.
Increasingly, affluent Tibetans are also adorning their traditional robes and capes with tiger and leopard skins, Belinda Wright of the Environmental Investigation Agency said.
"It is a thriving market, which may explain the increased poaching of tigers in India," said Wright.
