Chinese Road Constructors Are Threat To Reptiles In Tajikistan
In Tajikistan in Varzob gorge a Chinese company is building a road. Chinese are famous for their exotic cuisine in the whole world. In Tajikistan this food seems strange to people but it does not withhold them from selling snakes and turtles to Chinese road-constructors (rus). The local environementalists are raising concerns because the local population made this a profitable business.
Usually the local boys are catching the reptiles and selling to Chinese cooks. One of these boys says:
Snakes are expensive – 30-40 somoni [~$10-11US]. There are not too many of them and they are biting. It’s dengerous. The turtles are sold at the same price as watermelons, depending on the size. The small ones are sold for 3 somonis, the average for 5 somonis, and the big ones are sold for 8-10 somonis.
Well, as AsiaPlus reports previously there was no danger for the reptiles and no one was thinking of making profit from them, but the Chinese road-constructors made the local population look at them differently. The company is going to work in Varzob for two more years and the local environmentalists say that they are afraid that by that time there will be no snakes or turtles in the gorge.
on July 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am
snakes are selling for 40 somoni a piece? Varzob gorge, here I come!
on July 10th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
LOL this is absolutely hilarious!!! It’s clever how the local boys have come up with such an idea…:D
on July 10th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
If not natural resources, enterpreneurship is what will save Tajikistan from poverty….
Looks like eagles in TJ have a much advanced competition now when it comes to their source of food (sambakas).
Could someone calculate how many chinese are there? We could then approximate how much they eat per day and compare the figures with turtle population in TJ to see if there is a threat. We also need to know:
a. how long the project is going to last and
b. if 10% tax on turtle sales imposed by government will cover the cost of breeding more turtles.
Honestly a turtle farm might look like a good solution to this problem
Anyone willing to invest?
on July 12th, 2007 at 9:37 am
I remember, when I was taking a marshrutka to Garm, that we had to stop for road works done on the M-41 by a Chinese company. When one of the other passengers and I went to take a look, he said: “Etix kitaitsi, oni nas slishkom mnogo pomagayut, brat. Oni xotshut dyelat ot nas vtoroi Tibet.” (These Chinese, they help us too much, brother. They want to turn us into a second Tibet)
lol
on July 13th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Well, it’s a price per piece.
on July 25th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
are you guys tired of talking about real problems (no disrespect to Tajik snakes and crocadiles
but I thought I direct your interest to an interesting posting I came across on toptj.com
http://www.toptj.com/ShowNews.aspx?news_id=1E3D875D-D446-4165-ABCC-5A2ABFDAEFB6
it is a very provocative opinion post about the out-of-control behavior of our Kulyab brothers (finally some one had guts to say what every one thought but didn’t dare to utter). It also has very interesting comments by viewers (I particularly agree with “SAID!”’s comments).
On a more personal note those guys ARE out-of-control.
on August 2nd, 2007 at 9:01 am
For those ineetsrted, a photo essay on teh CHinese minsu the reptiles and Kulyabi: :)lol
TAJIKISTAN: A CHINESE ROAD TO THE FUTURE?
David Trilling 8/01/07
Some might call it a branch of the Silk Road. But most major routes on the Silk Road bypassed modern Tajikistan altogether. Only recently – and with major Chinese help — has the dream of traveling directly from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, to the northwestern town of Khojand, over treacherous mountains in all weather, started to become a reality.
Today, the northern road out of Tajikistan’s booming capital winds comfortably through a wheat-brown valley into the rocky gorge of Varsob. The road is not new, yet potholes are freshly plastered, roadside signs announcing a mammoth cement factory promise a bright future, and drivers in a small bazaar hawk long-distance rides to Khojand and the Fergana Valley, 160 kilometers – and currently 10 hours – north.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav080107a.shtml#