October, 2009
The Indian government has been so impressed with WWF’s use of metal detectors to locate tiger snares that it is funding them for every tiger reserve in the country.
Once located by the special ‘deep search’ metal detectors, snares can be removed, and possibly used as evidence to prosecute poachers before being destroyed. The new machines can also be used if a dead tiger is found, to establish whether it has been shot. After a recent ministerial demonstration organised by WWF, the government has decided to provide them in good numbers to every tiger reserve in the country.
With your support WWF can continue to fund training in the use of these metal detectors to the now much expanded teams which will operate them. And we can now also turn our attention to the next innovation in tiger protection: dogs that can sniff out big cat poachers and smugglers.
German Shepherds have been intensively prepared for this purpose in India in a similar way to police and rescue dogs are trained here in the UK. Each one costs £750, and another £6,000 for it to complete the nine month programme to bring it into service.
They are able to detect tiger and leopard skins and bones from people’s luggage, and even if they are buried underground in dense forest areas. The dogs can check border areas, bus stations, railway stations and airports much faster and more thoroughly than people can. This is invaluable when dealing with so many travellers and such a large area of countryside.
Heather Sohl, WWF species officer, said: “We are absolutely committed to using whatever means are available to save tigers from extinction. It’s great to see these new innovations going into action. It’s also really heartening to see how quickly the Indian government is getting behind these new developments. The new initiatives are urgently needed, as at least 60 tigers were poached in India in 2009.”