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  • Essay / The issue of animal poaching and its effects

    Table of contentsIntroductionGlobal perspectiveNational perspectiveLocal/personal perspectiveConsequences of poachingPossible action plansPersonal responseReferences:IntroductionIntroduction: Poaching, in simpler terms, is a prohibited hunt which causes the extinction of endangered animals. If more animals go extinct, it will cause a major disruption of the food chain, leading to larger scale problems in our ecosystem, possibly leading to new animal/species adaptations beyond human control. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayPoaching could deprive us forever of animals like elephants, rhinos, tigers, sea turtles, lemurs and gorillas if it continues at an increasing rate. I'm going right now. Each year in the United States, more than 4,000 tons of lead bullets are fired into the environment by hunters. More than 100 million animals are killed each year by hunters in the United States alone. This figure, however, does not include the millions of animals for which mortality figures are not kept by national wildlife agencies. Thesis Statement: I chose this topic simply out of curiosity, to find out how this unique but large-scale problem drives global concerns and imbalances. This is a topic that affects everyone on this planet, but beyond that, the way animals are treated is inhumane by poachers. And for me, that's personally worrying. Global Perspective Several countries are currently suffering from poaching. Wildlife tourism is an important part of many places around the world. In much of southern Africa, environmental tourism plays a vital role in local and even national economies, and the decline of wildlife due to poaching has an immediate illustration of the effects in terms of financial cuts, loss of jobs and overall economic sustainability. As a result, other crimes such as illegal narcotics trafficking, wildlife trafficking and poaching take advantage of state weaknesses. Not only South Africa, but even Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, China, Thailand and the Philippines are among the worst countries in the world when it comes to poaching and illegal ivory trade. The trade in animals, such as tigers, is not only for bones for Chinese medicine, but for skins for fashion in Tibet and China as well. Additionally, through well-managed wildlife tourism, countries that are home to these animals can benefit from the financial boost provided to their economies. The number of tourists will also raise awareness of the plight of animals such as the tiger and help increase publicity for activists. Different types of animals are hunted illegally in various parts of the world and are distributed equally. Toothfish and narwhal are hunted in Antarctica, most wildlife is hunted in Asia and the Middle East. The greatest losses of elephant populations have occurred primarily in Tanzania and Zambia, with over 100,000 elephant populations defined. However, there is a sharp increase in elephant populations in Kenya. As humans, to continue living as we are and have access to the food and resources we currently have, we must stop killing animal species. The moment you hunt and kill an animal species, it not only affects the animal, it affects the local environment and the entire world.Removing an animal from the food chain has a “collateral damage” effect on the food chain, the environment and the human population as a whole. Then there are the tragic consequences of poaching on humans. In Africa, nearly 600 forest rangers tasked with protecting wildlife were killed by poachers between 2009 and 2016 while on duty. In the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, one of the most dangerous on the continent, at least 170 rangers have been killed over the past two decades. Has been linked to armed militias in Africa on suspicion of trafficking ivory to finance their operations, and this often occurs alongside other crimes, including corruption and money laundering. And poached animals can spread diseases such as SARS and Ebola. The growing firepower of poachers and the desperation of policies adopted in response – such as shooting poachers on sight – have multiplied the levels of violence associated with poaching and wildlife trafficking. Although East Asian countries – particularly China, Vietnam and Thailand – are the largest consumers and demand, the United States is widely considered the country with the second largest consumer market of trafficked wildlife. But new supply and demand markets are emerging again in Latin America; An illegal parrot trade takes place in Brazil, for example, and many wealthy Mexicans love snakeskin boots. Demand also comes from other places, sometimes overlooked in the history of global massacres, which take place in various countries in East and West Africa (which are usually described as mere source countries). The oceans are also being emptied of creatures, whether sharks, tuna, sea cucumbers or seahorses. National PerspectiveMy country, India, is home to a vast array of wildlife that rivals that of the African continent, which has hundreds of thousands of species. animals in freedom. India continues to suffer from human-wildlife conflicts and cohabitation problems, but it faces a growing poaching problem due to demand from Southeast Asia. In 2014, the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) described 23 verified tiger deaths due to poaching, but 58 due to other, sometimes unknown, causes. They also reported the deaths of 17 leopards due to poaching, but another 30 died that year from other unidentified causes. India is home to 70% of the world's tiger population. Over the past two years, tiger poaching in India itself has increased by 68%. Data from 2013 shows that 38 elephants and 41 rhinos were poached that year. Additionally, problems also arise in tiger reserves and sanctuaries: Indian sanctuaries are teeming with tigers. Dr Rajesh Gopal, director of the Global Tiger Forum, said India's current capacity to accommodate tigers ranged between 2,500 and 3,000 tigers. Additionally, another official said, 25 to 35 percent of India's tigers now lived outside protected reserves. As conservation efforts aim to increase India's tiger numbers, global experts and government officials suggest that India must also prepare for a new challenge of reaching the limits of its management capacity. Officially, India had 2,226 tigers in 2014. According to the latest tiger census for 2018 released by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on the occasion of World Tiger Day, June 29, 2019, the tiger population in India reached 2,967. There is a 30% increase in thetiger population in India since 2014. Besides tigers, India is also experiencing a one-horned rhino crisis and pangolin poaching. Fewer than 50 one-horned rhinos remained in India as of August 2019. On the other hand, pangolin poaching is also an escalating problem in the Western Ghats. It is considered the most hunted animal in the world. Pangolin scales come mainly from India and more than 100,000 pangolins are captured each year worldwide and shipped to China and Vietnam where their meat and scales are sold. The scales are believed to be a cure for several medical problems. A kilogram of pangolin scales is worth 10,000 rupees in local markets. However, the minimum sentence for people caught poaching pangolins is only three years' imprisonment. Local/Personal Perspective As an individual, I am not affected by poaching in the metro area. city ​​I live in: Mumbai. Poaching here is infrequent due to the lack of free-roaming wildlife in the city, but there have been such cases in the more suburban northern areas. In the current year (2019), three cases of poaching have arisen, all in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, one of the most visited national parks in the world, consisting of a wide variety of species of wild animals. The reasons for hunting the protected birds were curiosity mentioned by the first man, while another group of poachers "wanted to eat" the deer, and the last group did not give a reason for killing the leopard. Personally, I don't know what drives a person to hunt protected birds. killing animals for their own pleasure. Money and trophies are some of the incentives that get people to hunt. But other than that, as the preceding circumstances show, none of the reasons for killing the animals was money or a trophy, and taking high risks, such as killing a protected bird out of curiosity, seems a poor justification for this. act. Understood, poaching can have serious consequences. The loss of wildlife due to poaching has negative effects on local tourism, which in turn affects the economy. This affects the local economy as the area begins to become less attractive to tourists, impacting all hotels, restaurants, rentals and other attractions which would suffer large losses in revenue. To illustrate the possible impact, it is worth noting that sub-Saharan Africa attracted almost 34 billion visitors in 2012. If poaching intensifies as it has, it will create a massive financial impact not only in a few country, but also in the rest of the world. continent. As a result, there will be huge job losses in the tourism industry, which currently employs around 8 million people. At the same time, poaching threatens traditional ways of life, as well as relying on profits from state weaknesses and corruption. The consequences of poaching can also contribute to epidemics. Trafficking poached animals involves crossing numerous borders and often taking circuitous routes to avoid detection. which means many people come into contact with animals or animal parts possibly contaminated with deadly diseases that can easily spread. This can cause the emergence of almost uncontrollable zoonotic diseases, such as SARS, Ebola and HIV, transmitted from animals to humans. One such event was the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong, which was attributed to human contact with poached meat available in black wildlife markets. Possible action plans 183 countries have signed the Convention on.