The Pioneer, Saturday, September 18, 2004

Correspondent : Prema Singh Bindra

Two decades from now, Amitav Ghosh could not have authored The Hungry Tide, or he would have had to shift venue to a fancy aquarium in some safari park, not in the immense archipelago islands of SunderbansNo reflection on the writer's talent, just that the main characters of the book around which the plot is woven, the endangered Irrawady dolphins, is a species with a doubtful future. The book is based on the tide country of Sunderbans in West Bengal and is told from the perspective of its two main characters, Kanai Dutt, a Delhi businessman, and Piya Roy, an American scientist who has come to study the dolphin (Orcaellabrevirostris) which lives in the rivers of the tide countryThe dolphin has been listed as the ten most wanted species by World-Wide Fund for Nature. Figuring on the list is not a proud hat to wear, just a macabre run down on the world's most in-demand species bought, sold, smuggled, killed or captured for the global market place. If the animal finds a place in the list, it can be safely assumed that it is on its march towards extinction. The biggest threat to this rare Asian dolphin is entanglement in fishing nets and injury from explosives used for dynamite fishing. Equally threatening is the live trade of the Irrawady dolphin for display in zoos and aquariums. In fact, they are almost locally extinct from the river, Irrawaddy in Myanmar (formerly Burma) from which it takes its name. The list has been released just prior to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), to be held in Bangkok in October, where delegates from 166 countries will congregate. It is hoped that the inclusion of Irrawaddy Dolphin will help draw attention to its fragile status and will earn it the protection as a critically endangered species by the World Conservation UnionThe tiger also features on the list. India has nearly 60 per cent of the world's wild tigers. Among the biggest threats to the tiger are poaching for trade in tiger skins, and bone for traditional Chinese medicines, as well as poaching of its prey species and degraded and fragmented habitat. The 35,000-odd Asian elephants are severely threatened by the booming ivory market. Yew Trees, also found in the upper reaches of Himalayas in India, are unsustainably harvested for their bark and needles, which contain a chemical used in the cancer medication Taxol. Says Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of the WWF Global Species Programme, "Although trade must be banned for some well-known endangered species, other more obscure species also suffer from unregulated trade.WWF is asking for lesser-known wildlife like the humphead wrasse, a fascinating tropical fish whose lips have spawned a dining trend, to be regulated to ensure it does not join the ranks of the magnificent tiger and Asian elephant, both on the verge of extinction." Other 'wanted' species are the Ramin, a tropical hardwood from Indonesia and Malaysia used to make mass-produced pool cues, doors and picture frames; Great White Sharks, poached for its fins, teeth and other parts, leaf-tailed Geckos, pig-nosed turtles and yellow-crested cockatoosThese species have been chosen to reflect the diversity and geographical range of wild species affected by uncontrolled or unregulated international trade

SOURCE : The Pioneer,Saturday, September 18, 2004