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Saturday, 14 March 2009

Leopard Deaths are Uninteresting

How can I say that leopard deaths are uninteresting? Well, to the world at large they are. It is as simple as that. The Times of India reports 69 leopards dead (killed?) in 8 weeks. Just another report. The loses were over wide area so they were not area specific. The reasons for these deaths are various including poisoning (this seems a preferred method as far as I can - see poisoning tigers), traps, accidents etc.

The bottom line, as usual is the underlying cause, which is traditional Asian medicine (the body parts of leopards are a "good substitute" for the harder to get tiger parts) and pelts, the skin of the leopard (the same applies to the tiger of course). Poaching to supply this trade and the authorities charged with protecting the leopard and who turn a blind eye (probably for a share of the profits) is so prevalent and common that it is both utterly predicable and therefore uninteresting or if you prefer devastating.

The tiger is going down the plug hole and so is the leopard and millions has been spent to protect these animals and it just does not work. The program of conservation is clearly failing. The problem is apathy and corruption.

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