
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Save Tigers Now, a global campaign backed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is currently trying to increase the amount of wild tigers by 2022, exactly on the year of the tiger according to the Chinese calendar.
"A century ago there were 100,000 tigers roaming the forests, swamps, and tundra of Asia. Today, there are as few as 3,200 left in the wild. Only seven percent of historic tiger habitat still contains tigers," says Save Tigers Now on its official website.
The organization projects that at this rate tigers will be extinct in just a few decades.
The high demand for tiger parts poses the largest threat to the mammal. Tigers are hunted down until near extinction by poachers for their skin, bones, teeth and claws, which are considered of high value as traditional Asian medicine.
Traffic, a wildlife trade network, discovered that from 2010 to 2012, Asian law enforcers managed to intercept the smuggling of parts from at least 200 tigers per year. In the decade, over 1,000 tigers were slaughtered to fulfill the demands of Asian consumers.
SYAIPUL BAKHORI | WWF