Explained: Why is India planning to send tigers to Cambodia?

India is considering sending tigers to Cambodia, where the big cat was declared extinct in 2016. India has reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to assist the Southeast Asian country with its tiger reintroduction efforts. What has India said about the translocation plans? How did tigers go extinct in Cambodia? What are experts saying about the proposal? Let’s take a closer look. India’s tigers India accounts for 70 per cent of the global wild tiger population. This is increasing at an annual rate of six per cent.

As per the last tiger census, India is home to 2,967 tigers.

In 2010, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam had decided to double their tiger population by 2022. India achieved this goal in 2018, four years before the deadline. On 9 April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a three-day international summit to mark 50 years of ‘Project Tiger’ at Mysuru in poll-bound Karnataka. Launched in 1973 at the Jim Corbett National Park, the project aimed at enhancing tiger conservation. When the project began, India had nine tiger reserves spread over 18,278 sq km. Presently, the country has 53 tiger reserves spanning over 75,000 sq km, as per PTI. [caption id=“attachment_12360522” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] As per the last tiger census, India is home to 2,967 tigers. Reuters File Photo[/caption] Modi will also announce the much-awaited tiger census of 2022 which is expected to be more than 3,500, reported Deccan Herald. India may send tigers to Cambodia India is expected to translocate its tigers to Cambodia by the end of this year, as per an Independent report. Last November, India signed an MoU with Cambodia promising to provide “all technical details and knowledge’’ regarding the reintroduction of tigers in the nation. “The translocation of our tigers to Cambodia is under consideration. This has never been done in India before, although we have been translocating tigers within the country as and when it has been required. For instance, we will be translocating tigers from Corbett (Uttarakhand), which has the largest tiger population in India, to Rajaji National Park in the same state. If we finally decide on translocating tigers to Cambodia, it will be done based on IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) protocol,’’ SP Yadav, member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), was quoted as saying by Indian Express. Yadav also revealed that a delegation from Cambodia has been to India and vice versa to discuss the issue. “Discussions are underway on how we can support them," the member secretary added. He further declared that a call regarding the translocation of the big cats would be taken only after Cambodia meets all the requirements. “We must find out the cause of tiger disappearance there and ensure that all factors responsible for it such as prey base, poaching, patrolling, infrastructure… are taken care of”. “If Cambodia meets all the requirements, we have already provided a checklist, then only we will go ahead,” Yadav said, as per PTI. As per the non-profit Wildlife Alliance, Cambodia has taken measures to reintroduce tigers in the country, including carrying out multiple tiger prey base surveys, “finding good tiger prey density”, deploying more patrol rangers “strategically situated around the Tiger Core Zone” to prevent poaching, as well as engaging the local communities in the conservation efforts. ALSO READ: 12 South African cheetahs arrive at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park How did tigers go extinct in Cambodia?  Poaching and loss of natural habitat led to the extinction of tigers in Cambodia. As per the Indian Express report, tigers require large habitats for movement and a significant prey base for hunting. However, as forests were reduced and trees cut for development activities, it threatened tigers’ habitat, the report added. Furthermore, the incessant poaching of highly valuable parts of tigers and their prey – bushmeat – was also a reason for the extinction of the big cats. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), “Every part of the tiger – from whisker to tail –has been found in illegal wildlife markets. A result of persistent demand, their bones, and other body parts are used for modern health tonics and folk remedies, and their skins are sought after as status symbols among some Asian cultures.” [caption id=“attachment_12360532” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Poaching and loss of natural habitat led to the extinction of tigers in Cambodia. Reuters (Representational Image)[/caption] Due to these factors, Cambodia declared tigers were “functionally extinct”, meaning there were no more breeding populations of the big cats left in the nation, in April 2016.

Moreover, it was in 2007 when the last tiger was spotted on a camera trap in the country.

In 2016, Keo Omaliss, Cambodia’s director of the department of wildlife and biodiversity at the Forestry Administration, had said that “we want two male tigers and five to six females tigers for the start”, and that “talks had begun with countries including India, Thailand and Malaysia”, AFP reported then. What do experts say? Wildlife conservations have earlier expressed concerns about the idea of sending tigers to Cambodia. Dr Ullas Karanth, a well-known tiger expert in India, told Mint in 2016, “I have surveyed those habitats in Cambodia two decades ago in Mondulkiri for WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), when the last wild tigers disappeared. I do not think the required 1,000-2,000 sq km area of prey-rich, people-free and livestock-free habitat is available in Cambodia at this time to seed and establish a viable tiger population. Every wild tiger requires 500 large prey animals to sustain it. If they are not there, it will kill livestock and people. “The idea of translocating captive-bred or wild-caught problem tigers from India to Cambodia is bereft of any ecological understanding or even of the Cambodian social context. It will lead to tragic failure, for which the introduced tigers will pay with their lives and local Cambodian communities will also suffer and resent tiger conservation.” Wildlife biologist Dr Raghu Chundawat also cautioned against the plan, saying though it was a “great idea”, Cambodia’s “ability and preparedness” must be considered before the translocation, noted the 2016 Mint report. However, WWF had welcomed India’s decision to help Cambodia with the reintroduction programme. “Tiger reintroduction and translocations have successfully been used to recover tiger populations in India and WWF supports tiger reintroduction into Cambodia’s Eastern Plains Landscape as a technically and ecologically feasible solution”, the organisation said, as per the report. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.