This week China is lobbying nations at the U.N. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered (CITES to lift a ban on the trade of tiger organs. The move comes despite overwhelming evidence that wild tiger populations are declining drastically in the Asian subcontinent due to poaching, reported Reuters.

Last week China announced it was considering legalizing the trade in parts of captive-bred tigers, saying it would reduce poaching and help tigers worldwide. Tiger parts are popular in traditional medicines, and conservationists say the push to legalize the trade is coming from the Chinese tiger farms, which could make enormous profits if the ban is lifted.

China is estimated to have only about 30 animals in the wild, according to Reuters, but has about 5,000 animals housed at breeding facilities throughout the country. One of those facilities drew fire on Tuesday when, according to the Associated Press, it was discovered that tiger meat was served to journalists from a British television network at Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain farm in Guilin, China.

The Chinese lobby comes at the same time that conservationists in India are claiming that tiger numbers in the Buxa Tiger reserve could be five times lower than previously thought. They fearf that the endangered animals could disappear altogether in Buxa, as they did in Sariska Tiger Reserve in 2005.

Forest authorities told Reuters it was possible that some of the cats could have crossed the border into Bhutan, but that it was more than likely that their numbers had dropped significantly due to human encroachment and poaching.

“We found evidence of only six tigers during the survey,” Amal Dutta, chairman of a local conservation group, told Reuters. By contrast, a 2001/2002 census estimated that there were around 31 tigers in the reserve.

Unlike China, India has taken a leadership role in tiger protection, and recently drafted a proposal with Nepal on how to save the endangered cats. The proposal urges countries to cooperate more closely with each other on conservation and trade efforts, and to improve law enforcement.

Still, despite India’s recent conservation efforts, tiger numbers have declined steadily in the over-populated country, according to the World Conservation Union, which is home to the largest feral population of tigers in the world. More than 40,000 tigers roamed India a century ago. In 2001, that number had dropped to about 3,700. Officials working on the new census, which they expect to complete by the end of the year, fear that number will be much lower this year.

A vote on the Chinese proposal should come sometime this week.

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