MG RADHAKRISHNAN  TRIVANDRUM,
India Today, DECEMBER 14, 2012 

The shooting down by the state forest officials of a wild tiger on December 2 for predating on domestic animals has made Wayanad lose its tag as one of the country's safest havens for the national animal. The killed beast was an old and emaciated tigress which was trapped and subsequently released to jungle by the state forest officials on November 13.

According to the state forest department, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) in the Wayand district with a population of 78 Royal Bengal Tigers including 11 cubs in its 344.44 sq km area, has the country's highest tiger density. WWS, also a favoured habitat for the Asiatic elephants, is an integral part of the Nilgiri Biosphere in the Western Ghats and lies contiguous to the protected regions of Nagerhole and Bandipur of Karnataka in the northeast and Mudumala of Tamil Nadu in the southeast. 

The two tiger reserves in Kerala - Periyar (777 sq km) and Parambikkulam (657 sq km) - have 37 and 44 tigers respectively. After the study done jointly by state forest department and WWF showed the high tiger density in WWS,  the central Ministry of Environment and Forests in June this year had informed in June its readiness to declare it as a tiger reserve. But following a public outburst against the proposal after the increasing incidence of cattle-kill by tigers the United Democratic Front government has decided not to have it.

The Western Ghat region which holds the country's second largest tiger population saw the highest growth in its numbers - from 412 to 534 - during 2006-11 when total tiger count in India rose from 1411 to 1706.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) which investigated the December 2 incident has found many serious lapses on the side of the officials which culminated in the death of the old (13 years) and emaciated-looking tigress. It has also recommended to the state government punitive action against even high ranking forest officials for ordering the hunting down of an animal enlisted in the Schedule 1 of the National Wildlife Act of 1972 which should be accorded maximum protection and the violation of which attracts highest penalty. It was the Bangalore-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) which established through advanced camera trap study that the killed tiger was the same that was captured and released by the forest department two weeks earlier.

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