Tiger found dead in the Sundarbans on 17 July 2009. © WPSI.
Van Gujjar children at the Gaindikhata primary school, February 2009. © WPSI.
In 2009/10, The Rufford Foundation provided a grant of £40,000 to the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI).
Since its inception in 1994, WPSI has spearheaded the fight against poaching and the illegal wildlife trade in India. It does this with intelligence gathering, training, awareness and community support. The Rufford Foundation supports a number of critical activities in our Tiger Protection Programme. These include WPSI’s flagship project, Investigation into Poaching and Illegal Trade in Wild Tigers www.wpsi-india.org/projects/poaching_investigation.php, that provides assistance and information to government enforcement agencies to curb crimes against wild tigers. Despite an estimated population of only 1,400 tigers, their numbers continue to decline. In 2009, WPSI recorded the deaths of 85 wild tigers and provided information and assistance to enforcement authorities in 50 crime cases and a total of 115 alleged wildlife criminals. Major achievements included the arrest of the leader of the gang that killed the last of the Panna tigers, and the arrest of three of the alleged poachers that wiped out the tigers in Sariska Tiger Reserve.
Other important activities supported by the Foundation were 24 anti-poaching training workshops for a total of 1,277 forest and police personnel, and WPSI’s Legal Programme www.wpsi-india.org/projects/public_prosecutors.php, which assists in the prosecution of important wildlife cases. Of particular note for the year was the conviction of two well-known tiger poachers in the states of Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Community support projects include a Tiger Conservation Centre on the edge of Sunderbans Tiger Reserve www.wpsi-india.org/projects/support_sundarban_reserve.php in eastern India, and assistance in the resettlement of Van Gujjars who voluntarily moved out of Rajaji National Park www.wpsi-india.org/projects/resettlement_rajaji.php in northern India.
The Foundation has also given vital infrastructure support to WPSI including a desktop computer to manage a complex documentation management system for our wildlife crime database.
