Indian Tiger was Sighted in South China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Indian Tiger was Sighted in South China

An Indian tiger has been sighted by Chinese villagers recently in the mountains on the Sino-Vietnamese border. "The tiger was running around and its roars caused the cows to disperse. We all climbed up trees for safety".

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An Indian tiger has been sighted by Chinese villagers recently in the mountains on the Sino-Vietnamese border.

Huang Nongsheng, a farmer from Tongmian Township in Ningming County in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that he and about 30 other villagers were working on the mountainside when the tiger appeared about 100 meters from them.

"The tiger was running around and its roars caused the cows to disperse. We all climbed up trees for safety," he said.

Huang Junsheng, a local primary school teacher, confirmed the incident.

"That day I was on my way home after school when I saw dozens of villagers running down the mountainside, in a great panic. They told me they had seen a tiger."

Teacher Huang said he had come across a tiger on the mountain in his childhood, but the animal had not been seen for decades.

Mo Yunming, an expert from the Guangxi Museum of Nature, said what the villagers saw is most likely an Indian tiger, an endangered animal species with a current population of between 1, 200 and 1,700. Central Thailand and the Sino-Vietnamese border are its main habitats.

Mo said he had discovered Indian tiger footprints during a recent field trip to the Shiwandashan Mountain, on the edge which is located Tongmian Township.

Shiwandashan Mountain was a major habitat of the Indian tiger until the 1950s but, owing to the excessive felling of the forest, they gradually disappeared. Some fled to the Vietnamese side of the border, Mo said.

Some of the tigers may have returned with the recovery of the vegetation in recent years, he added.

Years of afforestation around Tongmian Township have increased its forest coverage to 85 percent which has lured snakes, wild boars, monkeys, blackcocks and many other wild creatures back to its forests, local officials say.

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