After tiger victory, India suffers set back for elephants at CITES

New Delhi, Jun 14 (UNI) After scoring a victory over the issue of trade in tiger parts, India today lost the battle for its elephants when much against its stand the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at the Hague allowed four southern African countries to sell stocks of their ivory.

In return, the African countries agreed to a nine-year suspension of ivory trading.

''This is against our basic stand. We are against any ivory trade, even one-off sales,'' a senior official of the Ministry of Environment and Forest told UNI reacting to the news from the Hague.

A 1989 ban on elephant ivory exports will be extended for nine years after one-off sales of stocks by southern African states of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, according to the decision taken at the CITES.

The 171 member countries endorsed a compromise by African ministers, reached last night after much difficulty, on how to curb poaching while letting local people benefit from ivory sales in regions where elephant population was rising, reports from Hague said.

''This is a compromise for us, as India's point was that any kind of trade in ivory would lead to poaching of its elephants,'' the Ministry official said here.

According to wildlife experts, the only thing that would be helpful in the elephant's survival in Africa or Asia was complete worldwide ban on ivory trade and burning of stockpiles.

Since a ban was imposed in 1989, a one-off sale of 50 tonnes of ivory was cleared by CITES in 1997. Another of 60 tonnes was approved to Japan split with 20 tonnes coming from Botswana, 30 tonnes from South Africa and 10 from Namibia. This would become part of the agreed stockpile sale.

India fears that once the sale of African stocks was allowed, it would be very difficult to distinguish it from the ivory in the market obtained through poaching of its elephants.

The Indian elephant is one of three subspecies of the Asian elephant, the largest population of which is found in India. This subspecies is also found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Borneo, Cambodia, China, Laos, mainland Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Sumatra, and Vietnam.

Yesterday, India had scored a major victory when the UN convention passed a resolution endorsing captive breeding of tigers only where they aid conservation.

''Tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts or derivatives,'' said a resolution adopted by the CITES.

The resolution was adopted by consensus even though China argued strongly against it.

UNI