China- A Threat to Wildlife

China is renowned worldwide for its illegal trade in wildlife products. Goods from all around the world are supplied to Chinese markets, where they fetch a high price. The sale of wildlife products poses a serious threat to eco-systems and is a cause of immense concern for wildlife conservationists across the globe. My trip to China, revealed just a bit of the so many anti-wildlife activities that happen each day in China.
These make-up brushes made of mink hair (as told to me by the saleswoman) were being sold at Beijing’s famous ‘Silk Market’. Minks belong to the family of weasles and are poached for their fur which is used to make coats.

The most horrifying of all my revelations. These coats were for sale in a popular and also probably the oldest supermarket in Beijing. I took these photographs secretively with my mobile phone. I have no clue about the first one (top left), but the second coat (bottom) is undoubtedly an authentic Snow leopard fur coat, which cost a booming 50000 yuan (approximately 3 lakh INR). It is most probable that the Snow leopard has been shot somewhere in the Indian Himalayas and smuggled into China. The third photograph (top right) shows a dead Arctic fox, costing 3000 yuan (approx. 18000 INR) which is worn as a muffler!

Hill Mynas are birds found in the Inidan Subcontinent and South-east Asia. Their excellent ability to mimic calls makes them vulnerable to poachers who cage them and earn a good income by smuggling them to China and South-east Asia.
This is why I hate the food of South China. Restaurants in Guangzhou openly sell snake meat, turtle meat, reef fishes and corals. The photograph on the top left (please click on image to enlarge) shows a few snakes kept in an aquarium, ready to be chopped for 500 yuan! The image to the right (please click on image to enlarge) is of the menu card of President Hotel, Guangzhou. Bird’s nest (obtained from nests of Cave Swiftlets & Edible-nest Swiftlets) and Shark fin soup are popular Chinese delicacies. For the shark fin coup, sharks are caught in large numbers. Their fins are chopped off and they are dumped back into the sea. Once the fin is gone, the shark loses its ability to swim, and dies within minutes. The increasing demand for shark fin soup in Chinese restaurants has made many species of sharks endangered (including the Whale Shark). At the Bangkok airport, a packet containing 6 roasted Bird's nests cost 8400 baht (over 10000 INR)! The photograph to the right is of a coral polyp, which is another delicacy in China. If coral bleaching and pollution weren't enough, here comes another threat to the most fragile eco-system in the world!

Although it’s not illegal to sell sea cucumber soup(left) and octopus meat(right) ; personally I’m against it as I have a feeling that it disturbs the underwater eco-system. Sea cucumbers caught in the Andamans, are illegally smuggled into China through the Nathu-la Pass.

With the illegal trade flourishing and extreme lack of awareness among Chinese citizens, there’s little hope of survival for our wildlife. Snow leopards, tigers, rhinos; all have already become (highly) endangered because of the trade. Sharks lie on the edge. Poaching marine turtles for meat or capturing them as pets is strictly banned; yet China doesn’t care!

I don’t have the right to blame everything on China, as people from every country (India included) contribute to the prospering of the trade, either by poaching or by consuming illegal products. It’s a problem of global concern. But together we all can make a difference. By boycotting tiger skins, bones and claws; by boycotting the snow leopard coat hanging in that wardrobe; by boycotting that shark fin soup…indeed, we can make a difference! No other message, apart from this one, being propagated by the TV channel Animal Planet describes our role in putting an end to the wildlife trade…
“If the buying stops, the killing can too!"

Postscript- My dear Chinese friends, please dont mind my words. Feel free to post your comments / compliments, your views, your opinions about this article. If you disagree with any of the points mentioned in the article you may write to me or post it on the comments section of my blog.