One of the best things that the UPA Government has done is focus attention on our vanishing wild animals. In six years - even with a Maneka Gandhi - the NDA did nothing. I hope that soon there will be a system in place to save our wild animals.

The tiger is the apex species. If it is poached, you can infer that every other animal is being poached. You see evidence of that in the bears on the streets, monkeys in laboratories and birds for sale in the bird market. Or in the paint brushes that use mongoose hair, wedding bracelets made from ivory, shatoosh shawls that silly rich women wear.

What you don't see is the underground market of rare animals and plants that go into the perfumery and "herbal/ayurvedic/Tibetan/Chinese" medicine. For instance, Kuwait has a market selling agar wood chips for scenting rooms. Everyday, poachers cut down hundreds of endangered agar trees in Assam and Burma and supply these to the Gulf. The same is true of sandalwood that goes into the religio-cosmetic market.

The musk deer is another species facing extinction. The rate at which it is being poached, the animal will soon be extinct. The musk deer communicate with one another through smell. Male deer have a scent sac or pod which becomes active when they are about two years of age. This sac secretes a substance known as musk. The stag uses it to mark his territory and to attract females. Each musk pod weighs about 15 gm. This tiny pod is what the poacher wants.

The animal is found in 13 countries in Asia and eastern parts of Russia, mainly in mountain forests. Earlier, it was found in the entire upper Himalayan forest region extending from Pakistan to Myanmar through northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. But due to deforestation in the lower regions the deer moved to higher areas. In India, these are now found in parts of Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, northern Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

Your children will, perhaps, never see the musk deer. Thanks to the Japanese, Chinese and French whose demand for musk for use in perfumes and medicines has led to largescale poaching. About 4,000 adult male deer are killed annually. A 1986 census estimated the musk deer population at 30,000. Today, I think there are not more than 5000. The species has disappeared from Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Nepal, the number is declining rapidly. In India, it will become extinct in the next five years. Till the 1980s, the number of musk deer in China was over one million. Now the number has dwindled alarmingly. Same is the case in Myanmar and Bhutan.

Till 1996, the French perfume industry alone used 15 per cent of the world's musk. Today, it is about 10 per cent. A small amount of musk is also used in homoeopathic medicine. But the main killer of these little animals is the Chinese and Korean "magic remedy" industry. More than 398 preparations use musk as sedatives and stimulants. The entire continent of Asia is losing all its wild animals to this nefarious and illegal trade. Wildlife protection laws in the rest of the world are ignored, making a mockery of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The musk deer population in Russia has fallen by 50 per cent in the last 10 years, according to a report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. 400 to 450 kg of raw musk came from Russia in 1999-2000 (derived from about 17,000 to 20,000 deer). The whole supply went to China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

Musk deer hunting was made illegal in Mongolia in 1953, but about 2000 deer were poached annually between 1996 and 2001. Now its musk deer population is 20 per cent of the level in the 1970s. From 1994 to 1996, approximately 60 kg of musk was imported by Germany and re-exported to Hong Kong and Singapore. From 1989-95, Switzerland imported 20 kg of musk and re-exported it to France and South Korea. France imported 97 kg of musk from 1980 to 1995. The Chinese export musk to their medicine shops all over Europe, America and Japan.

Three to five musk deer are trapped and killed for every male deer. Since an average of 40 male deer with sufficiently large glands are necessary to produce one kilogram of musk, this means the killing of about 160 deer. Poaching and smuggling of musk are uncontrolled in India. Since 1970, poachers have been using steel wire snares to trap the deer. These kill musk deer of all age and gender, as well as other species. Poachers cut open the live animal, take the pod out and leave it to die in agony.

There are two ways to save the musk deer: One, we must protect and restore its habitat in the Himalayas by banning tree felling. Two, we must stop using musk altogether. The Chinese, Japanese and French must be stopped through international condemnation. There are synthetic alternatives and plant based labdanum oil. If they don't stop today, they will be forced to do so in five years as there won't be any musk deer left.

In India, we have a pathetic excuse for a musk deer sanctuary in Chamoli, Uttar Pradesh. It is one of the largest protected areas in the country. But, as the Kedarnath temple is located nearby, motels and dhabas and other structures have come up. The local people graze their goats, cattle and sheep in the forest. Also the forest is raided for firewood. Now the medicinal herbs and honey industries ensure that another few thousand people enter the forest everyday. Poaching is rampant.

In 1982, a musk deer breeding centre was set up at Khanchula Kharak on the periphery of the sanctuary. So far it has bred only 10 deer!