CALL FOR MORE PUBLIC AWARENESS ON ENDANGERED SPECIES

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- Public awareness about protecting
endangered species such as the tiger needs to be urgently increased to ensure it
does not become extinct, said Dr S. Elagupillay, the director of the Ecotourism
Division, Department of Wildlife and National Parks.

He said currently the number of tigers especially in Peninsular Malaysia was
fast decreasing yearly.

"In 1950, the number of tigers in the peninsula was about 3,000. In the
early 1980s they numbered between 400 and 500 hundred and we expect the number
to decreasing further.

"So we need to have a large scale public awareness in Malaysia to ensure
their number does not decrease further," he said at public forum entitled
'Protecting Biodiversity: Malaysia`s Natural Wealth and Heritage' at Auditorium,
Bangunan Getah Asli, here, Tuesday night.

Other speakers includes Profesor Gurdial Singh Nijar from the Centre of
Excellence for Biodiversity Law(CEBLAW) University of Malaya and World Wildlife
Fund CEO, Dr Dionysius S K Sharma.

-- BERNAMA