IT WAS a Saturday morning and five-year-old Fitria Judin was playing with her two older sisters outside their house on a plantation in Bengkulu’s Kepahiang regency. Suddenly a tiger emerged from the nearby woods and attacked her. Terrified, Fitria’s two siblings ran 7km to the nearest village to seek help.

Villagers later found the young victim dead, about 20m from where the attack had taken place. Her left leg was missing, believed to have been eaten by the tiger. It was not immediately clear where Fitria’s parents were at the time of the attack, which took place on Nov 5.

Although tragic, the incident was not really surprising. Villagers in the province had been reporting sightings of tigers near human settlements for months. In December last year, for example, residents of a housing complex near the Kaur regency administration office woke up to the remains of three goats that had been mauled by at least two Sumatran tigers the previous night.

Tigers found wandering near human settlements are generally trapped by forest rangers and then released into more remote conservation areas. Government officials have responded to recent incidents by calling on the local population to avoid hunting deer, warning that the practice was forcing the tigers to enter residential areas to look for cattle.

However, with tiger habitats being progressively destroyed by illegal logging, the number of such encroachments is increasing. Reports of attacks on humans like the one involving Fitria also give villagers a powerful motive to hunt and kill the protected animals rather than cooperate with conservationists.

The Indonesian government estimates that more than one million hectares of forest are cleared in Indonesia every year. At this rate, conservationists argue, the Sumatran tiger could soon follow its Javanese and Balinese cousins into extinction. Only about 400 Sumatran tigers are believed to exist in the wild. The Balinese tiger became extinct in the 1950s, and the Javanese tiger in the 1970s.

Illegal logging is not the only culprit, however. Earlier this month, Interpol launched a new campaign to coordinate the global fight against tiger poaching, arguing it was imperative that the nations where tigers can still be found work together to combat wildlife crime.

Tiger poaching is rampant in Asia, where tiger parts are used in traditional medicine. The estimated 100,000 tigers that roamed Asia in 1900 have now dwindled to fewer than 3,500 across the so-called tiger-range countries. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), tigers will be extinct globally by 2022 if left unprotected. Countries that constitute the global tiger range include Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Named “Project Predator”, the World Bank-supported campaign was unveiled at the 80th Interpol General Assembly in Hanoi on Nov 2. The initiative seeks to provide capacity building to law enforcement agencies by strengthening their ability to work with wildlife officials using advanced investigation techniques. A press release issued by Interpol described the illegal trade as “one of the most high-profile, destructive and urgent forms of wildlife crime”.

A meeting of senior police and Customs officials from tiger-range countries is scheduled to be held in Bangkok in February next year to identify and implement a plan of action.

Whether the campaign will make much difference in Indonesia, however, remains to be seen. A recent incident in which a trader was a fined just 3 million rupiah (S$430) after being caught red-handed with a Sumatran tiger skin in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, has cast doubt on Indonesia’s commitment to conservation efforts. Reports say that the trader was planning to sell the skin for 150 million rupiah.

The judgment appears to be part of a depressing pattern. According to the WWF, at least 40 tigers are known to have been killed in Riau between 2005 and last year. But the authorities have made only five arrests in the province since 2001, and only one of these cases made it to court.

Cooperation with local populations is also critical. The plantation Fitria’s family was working on, for example, was reportedly located inside a protected forest area.

Rather than wait for forest rangers, villagers have sometimes taken matters into their own hands. Two young female tigers currently living in a conservation park in Bogor, for example, have each had a paw amputated. They were caught in traps set by villagers inside palm-oil plantations. Though accused of being man-eaters, the accusations were never proven.

Greenpeace’s Indonesia branch has demanded an end to all illegal logging activities. Noting that Indonesians once regarded forests as sacred, a spokesman told the Antara news agency that “if we destroy the forests, it means we also destroy the traditions and beliefs of our ancestors”.

The tigers, along with a great deal of other Indonesian wildlife, will disappear as well.

But is anyone listening?

Copyright Singapore Press Holdings, 2011