Tiger body parts sold openly in Indonesia

PmETALING JAYA: Laws protecting the critically endangered Sumatran tiger have failed to prevent tiger body parts from being openly sold in Indonesia, according to a Traffic report released Wednesday.

Tiger body parts, including teeth, claws, skin pieces, whiskers and bones, were on display in 10% of 326 retail outlets surveyed in 2006 in 28 cities and towns across Sumatra. Traffic estimated that 23 tigers were killed to supply the products seen, based on the number of canine teeth on sale in the outlets that included shops selling gold jewellery, souvenirs, traditional Chinese medicine, antiques and precious stones.

“This is down from an estimate of 52 killed per year between 1999 and 2000. The decline in availability appears to be due to the dwindling number of tigers left in the wild,” said Julia Ng, programme officer with Traffic South-East Asia and lead author of The Tiger Trade Revisited in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Surveys by Traffic, a wildlife trade-monitoring programme by IUCN and WWF, indicated the towns of Medan and Pancur Batu to be hubs for the trade in tiger parts.

The report The Tiger Trade Revisited in Sumatra, Indonesia can be downloaded at http://www.traffic.org/species-reports/traffic_species_mammals37.pdf