Royal Bengal cub rescued in China

Police in central China rescued a Bengal tiger cub from a group of six suspected smugglers on Wednesday.

South China Morning Post reported that police in Henan province claimed that the smugglers bought the tiger cub for 250,000 Yuan (about Tk 3.12 million) from online dealers.

Police in Sanmenxia, where the cub was rescued, told the South China Morning Post that they were still investigating the case, but did not know where the cub had been smuggled from, or how the suspected smugglers had bought it online.

Another local newspaper quoted a policeman as saying that the tiger cub had been smuggled into Sanmenxia from Jiaozuo.

All trade in tigers – including the poaching, killing, or sale and trade in tiger parts – has been banned in China since 1993. However, illegal trade in tigers remains a serious problem.

According to the report, the newspaper in March reported that police had caught a gang of men believed to have smuggled up to 20 live tigers into the southern Guangdong city of Zhanjiang to be slaughtered and then cooked and eaten for the entertainment of businessmen and government officials.

Trade in poached tiger skins, meat and bones are also continuing unabated. Tiger bones are still used in traditional Chinese medicine and as a tonic for men.

Bengal tigers are classified as an “engendered” species, with fewer than 2,500 left alive in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund.