Source : News24.com,  14 June '05
By : Ilse Arendse
  

According to Transtoto Handadhari, head of the Forestry Ministry's information centre, only 400 to 500 Sumatran tigers now remain in Indonesia.

"The Sumatran tigers' existence faces serious threats from poaching and illegal trading," the state-run Antara news agency quoted Handadhari as saying.

Environmentalists have blamed illegal hunting, which claims some 50 Sumatran tigers per year, combined with rampant deforestation in Sumatra for the large cat's drastic drop in numbers.

"Unless effective measures are taken to protect the Sumatran Tiger, there is a possibility that they will become totally extinct in the next 10 years," Handadhari said.

Based on existing government regulations, the Sumatran tigers (Panthera Tigris Sumatrae) have been classified as endangered species and are protected by law.

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) has said previously that at least 115 of the big cats were killed in Sumatra between 1998 to 2000.

An investigation last year by WWF uncovered evidence that the trade in Sumatran tiger parts was flourishing in neighbouring Singapore, where tiger bones are prized as ingredients in traditional medicine.

The Sumatran tiger is believed to be the last remaining sub-species of tiger indigenous to Indonesia. The Bali and Java tigers are believed to be extinct.