NEW DELHI, Sept 19 (Reuter) - India's tiger, safe at last from the hunter, faces extinction within a decade at the hands of Asian consumers whose insatiable demand for its body parts sustains a multi-million dollar clandestine business, environmentalists say.

The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) says the trade in tiger parts is growing at such an alarming rate that it recently held a briefing with guards on the border with China to try to stem the traffic. "Unless it (the trade) is stopped our tiger population will be wiped out in less than 10 years," WPSI official Tariq Aziz told journalists on Monday.

The society says the main markets for tiger parts are China, Taiwan and South Korea. Tiger bones are used in a broth that Chinese apothecaries recommend for rheumatism, while tiger penis soup, selling for up to US$320 a bowl, is supposed to do wonders for the sex drive. Tiger bristles and the musk gland are also in great demand and skins remain a prized, if secret, possession.

Trade in tiger parts has been banned in much of Asia in recent years, but the WPSI estimates that there are still 100 million potential users of tiger-based potions in the world. For the Indian tiger, the onslaught comes at a time when its numbers are just beginning to recover from 100 years of indiscriminate slaughter....

The WPSI says most of the trade is conducted in the mountainous Himalayan border from the Leh region of India's northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir to the Chinese province of Tibet. It says traders ship the goods to border outposts where they are passed to Tibetan nomads who take them over the border into China, often loaded on the backs of yaks.

The tiger parts are usually traded for shahtoosh, a rare wool produced from the Tibetan antelope. It is highly valued in Kashmir where it is woven into fine, lightweight shawls. The WPSI says traders can sell the shahtoosh for up to six times what they pay for tiger parts.

Although there have been no recent seizures of tiger parts, the WPSI is confident that its briefing programme with the Indo-Tibetan border police will pay dividends.

"The tiger is a symbol deeply rooted in the culture of this country. It is a vehicle of the Goddess," said Aziz, referring to Durga, a tiger-riding Hindu goddess symbolising female power who is worshipped all over India.

"The jawans (border guards) are not happy that it is being taken across the border to China."