India WWF report says four leopards killed every week

At least four leopards are poached every week in India, according to a new study by a group of conservationists.

The report by Traffic documented 420 seizures of leopard skins, bones and body parts between 2001 and 2010.

It says the northern state of Uttarakhand is the biggest source for leopard parts, while Delhi is the hub of illegal trade.

Leopards are a protected species in India and all international commercial trade in their body parts is banned.

Wildlife experts say there are no reliable population estimates of these big cats in India, but according to rough estimates, there are about 10,000 leopards in the country.

The report - Illuminating the Blind Spot: A study on illegal trade in Leopard parts in India - which was released on Friday, estimates that around 2,294 leopards have been trafficked in India during the 10-year span.

The study says that most of the leopard parts are smuggled to Asian countries like China, Burma and Laos through India's porous border with Nepal.


Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19754587

The buck stops here: Proof that deer and birds live on Delhi land will save it from development Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2110142/Real-estate-Proof-deer-birds-live-Delhi-land.html#ixzz1oGZXNKUo

The call to take ravenous land demons by the horns in the Bil Akbarpur wetland in Greater Noida's Dadri area received a convincing push from its permanent residents - endangered deer species and birds. 

Sighting of blackbucks, blue bulls, chinkara and the four-horned antelope could save the wetland from becoming a concrete jungle - a money-spinning conspiracy between callous forest officials and rapacious real estate developers. 

The district forest department has long been denying the presence of wildlife in the area. It has claimed that a few species sometimes stray into the area, but were not permanent inhabitants.

But photographic evidence of wild deer foraging in the wetland had given a new impetus to the cry for conservation of the ecologically-important wetland, about 40 km from Okhla. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2110142/Real-estate-Proof-deer-birds-live-Delhi-land.html#ixzz1oGZdfxOS