M A I N   N E W S

Summit aims to double tiger numbers by 2022
* Never-before convention opens in Russia
* 13 countries, including India, meet to save the big cat
* Only 3,200 tigers left in the wild

Posters of the International Tiger Forum outside the conference hall in St Petersburg on Sunday. — AFP

Moscow, November 21
Russia today called for global efforts to avert extinction of tigers as wildlife activists and officials from 13 countries, including India, opened a summit today in St Petersburg to discuss ways to double the population of the endangered animal from the existing 3,200.

Addressing the summit, Russia's Environment and Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnyev said the population of the wild has dropped by 30 times over a century. “The population of tigers is being exhausted both quantitatively and qualitatively. As many as three out of eight tiger subspecies have become extinct,” Trutnyev said adding that global efforts were needed to avert extinction of tigers.

Due to decades of poaching and habitat destruction, there are currently only 3,200 tigers living in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as against 1 lakh a century ago. WWF director general James Leape recognised India's role in tiger conservation. “About 40 years ago, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi showed what political commitment can accomplish. It was her act of courage, her leadership in recognising the importance of tigers to India,” Leape said.

“Three subspecies have already disappeared and none of the other six are secure,” says a draft declaration that is due to be adopted by the heads of government at the summit. The November 21-24 summit intends to approve a wide-ranging programme with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022. The summit also will be seeking donor commitments to buttress expenditures by each of the country's governments.

Russia is the only country to have seen its tiger population increase in the past years, from 80-100 in the 1960s to around 500 now, and experts have hailed animal lover Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for taking an active role in saving the tiger. Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are scheduled to attend the special session of the Tiger Summit on Tuesday to adopt a global appeal to preserve tigers. According to the organisers Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also invited for the summit. However, India, which plays key role in the tiger conservation, is represented at the bureaucratic level.

Along with Russia and India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam -- home to wild tigers -- are taking part in the summit. Simultaneously, a Youth Tiger Summit opened in Vladivostok on Russia's Pacific coast, which is expected to adopt an appeal to the leaders of their countries to take active steps in tiger conservation. — PTI