WWF launches 'Now or Never' campaign for tiger

New Delhi, July 19 (UNI) The World Widlife Fund(WWF) today started a campaign to drive home the point that 'it could be now or never for the Indian tiger'.

It is a signature campaign aimed at reaching out to the multitude of tiger and nature lovers in the country and apprising the people of the plight of the big cat battling for its survival.

A recent report of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun that tiger numbers had gone down in various reserves and sanctuaries of the country had hightened the concern of nature lovers and brought pressure on the government to act on a war footing to save the majestic animal.

Referring to the recent decision at CITES(Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

not to allow trade in tiger parts, WWF Secretray General Ravi Singh said that while efforts at the naitonal and international level were on to save the tiger, people too must do their bit to spread the word and save the threatened animal.

The guest of honour for the event were frontline staff of the forest department who patrol protected areas with minimal equipoment.

Expressing their views on the occasion , they said the reason for weak monitoring of the crimes against tigers was the large number of vacancies of forest guards.

''Saving the tiger, and other endangered species was directly related to the protection and conservaion of the environment itself, because for saving these animals, we would have to save our forest and conserve other natural resources,'' said a forest guard of Dudhwa National Park.

Participaing in the event were a large number of tiger lovers, eminent conservationaist, members of the International Tiger Coalition-an alliance of 35 bodies representing more than 100 organisations across the globe united under the common aim of sopping trade in tiger parts and products from all sources.

WWF-India also exhibited a global tiger mosaic, a six foo by six foot product of an international campaign that ran on websites, prior to the meeting of the CITES.

Having received over 20,000 pictures from over 150 countries--of which India was amongst the top ten contributors--the mosaic symbolised the global concern for the tiger.

UNI