Scholar sues over rare tiger 'pictures'

A LEGAL scholar has sued China's top wildlife authority for lack of accountability in dealing with a villager's claim that he photographed a rare South China tiger in the wild.

The tiger is believed to be extinct in the wild and the photographs have been widely debunked as fakes.

But the State Forestry Administration has sponsored a search for the tiger and refused to rule on the veracity of the photographs.

In October, Zhou Zhenglong, from mountainous Zhenping County in the northern province of Shaanxi, produced photographs of the tiger he said were taken in the forest near his village.

A local forestry authority said the photographs proved the South China tiger still existed in the wild.

But Internet users have accused Zhou of making the images with digital software, and local authorities of approving the photographs to bolster tourism.

Hao Jingsong decided to sue the wildlife office after it turned down his demands to appoint a "professional organization" to verify the photographs, according to yesterday's Procuratorial Daily, an official paper of the top prosecutors' office.

"The (administration) sent a group of experts to Zhenping to conduct investigations into the tiger, without first verifying that the photographs were real," the paper quoted Hao as saying.

"This is irresponsible."

Hao said his suit was a "call for official credibility."