The Asian reporter., November 01, 2021, Page 4, Image 4

ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
November 1, 2021
Rare Sumatran tiger found dead in animal trap in Indonesia
PEKANBARU, Indonesia (AP) — A
critically endangered Sumatran tiger was
found dead after being caught in a trap on
Indonesia’s Sumatra island, according to
authorities, in the latest setback for a
species whose numbers are estimated to
have dwindled to about 400.
The female tiger, which is estimated to
be between 4 and 5 years old, was found
dead near Bukit Batu wildlife reserve in
the Bengkalis district of Riau province,
said Fifin Arfiana Jogasara, the head of
Riau’s conservation agency.
Jogasara
said
an
examination
determined
the
tiger
died
from
dehydration five days after being caught in
the snare trap, apparently set by a
poacher, which broke one of its legs.
She said her agency will cooperate with
law enforcement agencies in the
investigation.
Sumatran tigers, the most critically
endangered tiger subspecies, are under
increasing pressure due to poaching as
their jungle habitat shrinks, according to
the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
It estimates fewer than 400 Sumatran
tigers remain in the wild.
It was the latest killing of endangered
animals on Sumatra island. Conserva-
tionists say the coronavirus pandemic has
led to increased poaching as villagers turn
to hunting for economic reasons.
Three Sumatran tigers, including two
cubs, were found dead in late August after
PROBLEMATIC POACHING. Members of the
Natural Resources Conservation Agency inspect a Su-
matran tiger found dead after being caught in a snare
trap in Pekanbaru, Riau province, Indonesia, on Octo-
ber 17, 2021. Authorities say the death is the latest
setback to a species whose numbers are estimated
to be fewer than 400 who remain in the wild.
(AP Photo/Rifka Majjid)
being caught in traps in the Leuser
Ecosystem Area, a region for tiger
conservation in Aceh province.
In early July, a female tiger was found
dead with injuries caused by a snare trap
in South Aceh district.
An elephant was found without its head
on July 11 in a palm plantation in East
Aceh. Police arrested a suspected poacher
along with four people accused of buying
ivory from the dead animal.
Aceh police also arrested four men in
June for allegedly catching a tiger with a
snare trap and selling its remains for 100
million rupiah ($6,900). Days later,
another Sumatran tiger died after it ate a
goat laced with rat poison in neighboring
North Sumatra province.
Activists seek legal marijuana in former hippie haven Nepal
By Binaj Gurubacharya
The Associated Press
ATHMANDU, Nepal — Widely available
marijuana once drew thousands of hippies to
Nepal, where its use was not only accepted but
embedded in both the culture and religion.
But the country followed other nations in outlawing
marijuana in the late 1970s and chased away the hippies
who came on busses from Europe and the United States.
Half a century later, campaigners are seeking to again
legalize the farming, use, and export of marijuana as more
countries allow its medicinal and recreational use.
Supporters have introduced a bill in parliament that
would legalize marijuana, although debate has been
delayed by continuing squabbles between political parties
for power.
“We are demanding the legalization of marijuana in
Nepal firstly for medicinal purposes for patients who are
dying,” Rajiv Kafle, a campaign leader, said at his “Hippie
Hill” retreat in the mountains surrounding the capital,
Kathmandu.
Kafle, who lives with HIV, said marijuana helped him
cope with pain and kept him away from alcohol and other
drugs.
Marijuana use is widely accepted in Nepal. It was freely
farmed and attracted western hippies in the 1960s and
1970s. However, pressure from western governments
made Nepal introduce laws making marijuana and other
K
2 1
7
5
3
9
6
8 7
5
7
5
1 6
9
Difficulty
HARD
Olympic flame arrives in Beijing amid boycott calls
9
8 4
3 9
4
3 6
8
level: Hard
#21573
# 53
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Puzzle #48231 (Medium)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
5
3
6
9
4
2
1
8
7
7
9
8
1
6
5
4
3
2
4
1
2
3
7
8
9
5
6
3
6
4
7
5
9
2
1
8
8
7
1
6
2
4
3
9
5
POT PUSH. A marijuana plant is seen (left photo) and a visitor smokes marijuana (right photo) at “Hippie Hill,” a retreat in the mountains surround-
ing Kathmandu, Nepal. Widely available marijuana once drew thousands of hippies to Nepal, where its use was not only accepted but embedded in both
the culture and religion. But the country followed other nations in outlawing marijuana in the late 1970s and chased away the hippies who came on
busses from Europe and the United States. Half a century later, campaigners are seeking to again legalize the farming, use, and export of marijuana
as more countries allow its medicinal and recreational use. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
was the arrival of hippies that brought tourists to Nepal.
narcotics illegal.
“With our low cost of production and the competitive
Some portraits of the most revered Hindu god, Shiva,
show him smoking marijuana. Devotees and Hindu holy edge we have in the global market for cannabis, we surely
are going to win and this is going to change the country,”
men are often seen smoking in temples.
Marijuana plants often grow wild in villages, but police he said.
The campaigners have convinced some politicians of the
sometimes destroy plants grown on farms for sale.
It is not difficult to buy marijuana in cities, where there benefits of legalizing marijuana.
Health minister Birod Khatiwada, a powerful member
are thousands of users.
“You can see everyone smoking in Nepal from young of the governing coalition, has been lobbying for the
kids to old people,” said Polish tourist Lukasz proposed bill and has registered for debate in parliament
on the issue. He said about 9,000 people are currently in
Walendziak.
Kafle and a coworker at his retreat were detained in jail on marijuana-related charges.
“I am trying to make it a campaign and issue in
September by police and released on bail but face narcotic
parliament because many countries including the most
distribution charges.
Under the law, anyone possessing marijuana for powerful and developed countries have allowed the use of
personal use can be jailed for a month, but distribution marijuana,” Khatiwada said.
“The new law would ensure that the benefit is not going
and sales are punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment
to go to one industrialist or small group of businesspeople
depending on the amount of marijuana seized.
Kafle said legalization of marijuana could benefit the but rather it will benefit the poor farmers who would use
country’s economy by attracting tourists, adding that it their small plots of land to grow it,” he said.
9
2
5
8
3
1
6
7
4
6
5
7
4
9
3
8
2
1
2
8
9
5
1
6
7
4
3
1
4
3
2
8
7
5
6
9
BEIJING (AP) — The Olympic flame
arrived in Beijing in mid-October amid
calls from overseas critics for a boycott of
the February 4 through 20 Winter
Games.
Beijing’s Communist Party Secretary,
Cai Qi, the top official in the Chinese
capital, received the flame at a
closely-guarded airport ceremony.
Beijing successfully hosted the
Summer Olympics in 2008, although the
event failed to produce the more open
political and social environment in China
that many had hoped for.
Activist groups had disrupted the
flame lighting ceremony in southern
Greece, accusing the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) of granting
legitimacy to rights abuses in China. IOC
officials have said they are committed to
seeing the competition go ahead and that
rights issues are not part of their remit.
Speaking in the ancient stadium of
Olympia, IOC president Thomas Bach
Japan’s Princess Mako
marries commoner
Continued from page 2
TORCH PASSED. Volunteers hold the Olympic
torch and the frame on stage during a welcome
ceremony for the Frame of Olympic Winter Games
Beijing 2022, held at the Olympic Tower in Beijing,
on October 20, 2021. The ceremony was held in
Beijing after the torch arrived at the Chinese capital
from Greece. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
said the games must be “respected as
politically neutral ground.”
Activists said human rights in China
have deteriorated since 2008, claiming
that the Summer Games “emboldened”
China. Over those years, Communist
Continued on page 10
couple. There was no wedding
banquet or other marriage
rituals for the couple.
Their marriage is not
celebrated by many people,
the agency has said.
Mako, who turned 30 three
days before the marriage, is a
niece of Emperor Naruhito.
She and Komuro, who were
classmates
at
Tokyo’s
International
Christian
University, announced in
September 2017 that they
intended to marry the
following year, but a financial
dispute involving his mother
surfaced two months later and
the wedding was suspended.
The couple plans to move
together to New York to start
a new life.