To us
humans most places on the ''Roof of the World''
are inhospitable but to wildlife it is a"
paradise''. If you travel to Qiangtang Grasslands
in north Tibet and Ngari Plateau in west Tibet,
both places being 3,000 metres above sea level,
you are more likely to meet with wild animals
there than with your fellow creatures. Please
read the following report by two newsmen on
what they saw and heard.
When passing through the no-man's-land in
north and west Tibet, the following scenes
are often seen: wi1d asses ambled in twos
and threes leisurely and sometimes they made
a turn all of a sudden and dashed forward,
antelopes, with beautiful recurved horns,
galloped in pairs behind our car if as they
would run a race with it; droves of gazelles
emerged above the horizon in the distance;
a blue sheep stood on the top of a mound motionless
like a silhouette; now and then you could
spot the dark brown back of a wolf moving
among the tall grass...
If lucky, you can meet with thousands of wild
asses or gazelles in migration. They would
raise clouds of dust as they move along. We
failed to see such a sight because, as the
native who served as our guide said, it was
not the right season. Of all these wild animals
the most impressive is the king of plateau,
the wild yak. Of a powerful build, a wild
yak may weigh more than 1,000 kilogrammes
with its whole body covered by long dark brown
hair. The two horns of his are said to be
so hard that they can overturn a truck. We
saw through a telescope four of them sauntering
in the distance.
In the Xainza Nature Reserve, dubbed ''giant
panda among the birds'', the black-necked
crane is categorized as an endangered species.
According to past reports, fewer than 1,000
of them survived in the world, with their
habitats being in China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In 1992, foreign
and Chinese experts, on an inspection tour
of a habitat of the black-necked cranes in
Tibet, spotted more than 3,000 of them and
saw a chick being hatched.
Tibet has more than 2,300 species of insects;
64 species of fish; 45 species of amphibians;
55 species of reptiles; 488 species of birds;
and 142 species of beasts. A total of 125
species of precious and rare animals receive
key protection from the State, accounting
for more than one third of the species under
protection. The 34 most precious species of
them have a total population of 900,000. The
wild yaks, native to Tibetan Plateau, now
number about 10,000; wild asses about 50,000
to 60,000; Tibetan antelopes 40,000 to 60,000;
gazelles 160,000 to 20,000; takins 2,000 to
3,000; Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys 570 to 650;
Bengali tigers 5 to 10. Besides, there are
also a considerable number of bear, leopard,
wild deer, wild sheep, rare birds, etc.
The Tibetan Wildlife Protection Association
was established in 1991, with Ngapoi Ngawang
Jigme as its honorary president and chairman
of the Tibetan Autonomous Region Gyaincain
Norbu as its president. China adopted a Wildlife
Protection Law in 1991; subsequently, Tibet
formulated regulations for its implementation
and published a list of the wild animals that
come under protection of the State and the
Autonomous Region. Five nature reserves in
which rare and precious animals receive protection
have been successively set up: i.e., Qiangtang
Nature Reserve for Wild Tibetan Yaks, Asses
and Gazelles; Mangkam Nature Reserve for Yunnan
Snub-nosed Monkeys; Xianga Nature Reserve
for Black-Necked Cranes; Nyingchi-Dongjug
Nature Reserve for Antelopes; Riwoge-Chamoling
Nature Reserve for Red Deer. Within these
reserves hunting of wild animals is banned.
Besides these nature reserves, some counties
also take measures for wildlife protection,
such as hunting allowed in one of every four
years and marking out of small areas for hunting,
etc.
Wild animals are friends of us humans; to
protect them is to protect ourselves. Tibetans,
especially those living on grasslands and
in forests, traditionally engaged in hunting.
Now they are discarding the old idea that
''wild animals are ownerless, so who hunts
them down may have them'' and work for their
protection. The reappearance of Bengali tigers
in southeast Tibet is a good example. In the
recesses of the wooded mountains of Rdzayal
and Meitog areas in south Tibet, people used
to regard tiger hunting as a heroic act; consequently
tigers disappeared long ago. However, in recent
years there have been reports of tigers being
spotted. In 1993, a tiger attacked a score
of domestic animals in a few days. However,
the local people only fired shots to scare
it away but did not try to kill it. There
are signs that about 10 Bengali tigers now
are roving around this area.
Poaching is severely dealt with. In 1993,
seven poachers were prosecuted for killing
50 Tibetan gazelles and given jail terms for
two to six months respectively. Experts say
that precisely because the existence and breeding
of wild animals are well protected their numbers
have increased by about 30 per cent in Tibet
in the last six years.
It has to be admitted that though cases are
fewer now, poaching still exists because of
the exorbitant profits it promises. This has
led to the decrease of the economically valuable
animals, such as bear and musk deer. On this
account, severe measures are still necessary.
If the masses do some hunting and kill some
protected wild animals because of their hunting
tradition or to ensure safety of their domestic
animals, there should be more education work
among them. And with improved economic life,
things will change. Moreover, natural changes
in ecology and greater human activities also
have led to diminished habitats of certain
wild animals. This poses a big question for
Tibetan wild animal protection in the future. |
