Dr.
Tiger put me on the first plane to India. He also sent me a digital Tiger
Handbook. "For field info," he explained. "Feel free to
consult it whenever necessary."
He also gave me a few fact sheets about the countries I would be visiting. While flying over the Atlantic Ocean, I read the sheet about India.
India
is the second largest country in Asia in both size and population. It
is home to 952 million people and several thousand Bengal tigers--India's
national symbol. Many people live in rural areas--often near forests where
tigers live. Because of that, there are often conflicts between people
and tigers.
Some people kill tigers to protect their livestock. Others kill tigers for their body parts. Traders pay poachers 2000 rupees (US$56) for a dead tiger. That's almost half of what a typical farmer makes in a year. The traders can then sell the tiger skin for 50,000 to 80,000 rupees (US$1,390 to US$2,220), and the bones for up to 120,000 rupees (US$3,330). Such tiger poaching is one of the gravest threats facing wild tigers today. See the Tiger Handbook for more about poaching.
I shivered with fear and excitement. Dr. Tiger had sent me on the trail of tiger poachers! When I'd been in India fifteen years ago, poaching was rare and tiger populations were well protected. But things had changed since then. Nowadays, it's estimated that one tiger is poached in India every day.
Researching tiger poaching would be a dangerous business. For a moment I wondered if I should...
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