Despite all the nice words that (sometimes) come out of Beijing and Delhi, there is not much lost between the two countries. China believes that the presence of the Dalai Lama in India is a sign of Indian perfidy, and it further views India’s growing relationship with the US with suspicion. For its part, India has never gotten over its defeat by China in a short war in 1962, and is convinced that China seeks to encircle it with military bases and prevent its rise in general.
But there is one area where they can find common ground – callous indifference to the plight of one of nature’s most majestic creatures, the tiger. How ironic then, that this Year of the Tiger may also be its last.
Many Chinese covet tiger bones as an aphrodisiac and China has become an inexhaustable source of demand. Ever sensitive to being shamed by the world, the Chinese have officially banned the trade in tiger parts but in reality have turned a blind eye to this criminal trade. Acknowledging the effective extinction of the wild tiger in China, the Chinese run tiger “farms” where they breed them, grow them, kill them and then grind their bones to produce the natural Viagra they require to increase their virility.
India, for its part, is home to the largest wild tiger population in the world. At one time, the subcontinent was home to over one hundred thousands. Sadly, its tigers have been poached mercilessly by unscrupilous poachers who wish to supply the Chinese market. Shamefully, the Indian authorities have only reacted half heartedly. There are now barely a few thousand left and their extinction is imminent. Obviously neither the Chinese traders nor the Indian poachers have figured out that this lucrative elxir is about to come to an end forever as the wild tiger will soon be extinct.
As the source of the demand for tiger parts and for not doing anything about it, China shares its blame for the end of this majestic animal. For its utter indifference to its responsibility to protect this animal, India deserves even more shame – especially when the tiger is India’s national animal. It makes you wonder just how high some in Delhi regard their own country and heritage.
Welcome to the last Year of the Tiger
