Fake skins are being marketed. 17 leopard skins were also seized in the same period. In the last few days' reports of three more seizures of 7 tiger skins have been received. In 1998 a pledge was made by the Indian Home Minister to set up a Directorate for Enforcement of Wildlife Crimes. We have written to the Home Minister to offer our support, along with others, for the urgent setting up of this Ministry.
Tiger hunting is now illegal everywhere.
Nevertheless, habitat destruction continues at a rapid pace, live tigers enter the illegal exotic pet trade, tiger skins are bought and sold, and tiger parts are sought for presumed health benefits. On 31st January 2000 the team arrived in Japan, the only country in Asia that still permits the legal sale of tiger parts. If the Japanese government can strengthen its domestic controls on the sale of tiger parts and derivatives, this will cut back and eliminate the demand in this key market thereby helping to reduce the incentive for poaching in the range states. In a most welcome decision, the Election Commissioner of India exempted from being requisitioned for election duty all the vehicles and staff of Protected Areas. The challenge to save India's Forests and Wildlife in the new millennium has been thrown down by Valmik Thapar, one of India's well-known tiger conservationists and one of GTP's advisors.