A ‘Tiger Walk-Shop’

Apr 18 2012

Number of tigers, one of the largest and the most magnificent cats in the world, is dwindling by the year. According to experts it now only found only in Asia. Only eight sub-species roam the earth today. These sub-species are Siberian tiger, Indo-China tiger, Sumatran tiger and Royal Bengal tiger.

To raise Tiger numbers in the country, a five-kilometre ‘Tiger Walk-Shop’ was organised in Jigme Dorji National Park in Thimphu yesterday.

It was aimed to recap Bhutan’s commitment made during the ‘Tiger Summit’ and encourage other range countries. It was also to bring different stakeholders to experience the sights and sound of nature and have successful conservation programme.

According to the Minister for Agriculture and Forests, Pema Gyamtsho, the walk is a reminder to the people who are concerned and wanted to save this iconic animal from extinction.

“Bringing together all the stakeholders to visit the Tiger habitat like the Jigme Dorji National Park area, where we can see the kind of habitat and the kind of food supply and prey base that tiger feeds. And the people will be aware of need to protect these habitats,” said the Minister.

The Conservation Director of World Wildlife Fund, Vijay Moktan, said a need for a unified global initiative was felt crucial to save and recover the dwindling Tiger population in its last remaining ranges.

“So now if we don’t initiate series of work on Tiger we may lose Tigers forever. The WWF is also working on key Tiger landscape and Bhutan is one of them. So our focus is if we protect the key landscape then we might save Tiger for future,” he added.

The Jigme Dorji National Park was the first park to confirm the pictorial evidences of the presence of Tigers as high as 4,670 metres above sea level in the country.