Kolkata campaigns to save tigers

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-India and the Centre for Ecological Movement (CEMO) staged a procession in Kolkata on Friday to educate people about the need to preserve the home to wildlife.

Kolkata, Apr 26 : The World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-India and the Centre for Ecological Movement (CEMO) staged a procession in Kolkata on Friday to educate people about the need to preserve the home to wildlife.

Several school children and citizens of Kolkata joined the procession that started from Shahid Minar and went up to Elliot Park.

The participants said it was necessary for common man to understand the importance of saving the tiger population in India.

"The number of tigers is going down day by day. So, our demand is to bring the forests and food for the tiger back," said Saswati Sen, State Director, WWF-India.

The participants said it was necessary to stop the illegal killing or poaching of tigers and to preserve the habitat of the tiger.

"We want the Government to be little more stringent with the people who are doing a lot of illegal killings, poaching, cutting down trees in the forest and also destroying their habitat," said Poornima Dutta, Secretary General CEMO.

The participants said that they would soon be organizing a rally at the famous Sunderbans, the natural habitat of the Royal Bengal Tiger.

India has half the world's surviving tigers. The demand for tiger skins and bones in China for traditional medicines has slumped their number.

India's tigers are facing their severest crisis between 1,300 and 1,500 left in the wild. By Ajitha Menon

ANI