Disappearing cats: 6 tigers dead in 10 wks
Times of India, New Delhi, 19 November 2008 Avijit Ghosh | TNN
New
Delhi: India’s tigers continue to die. In the last 10 weeks, six more
tigers have perished due to poaching, electrocution, accident or
natural causes. During the same period, police and forest officials
have also seized four skins and 18 claws of the big cat, according to
information collated by a wildlife NGO, from across the country.
On
November 2, a tiger was electrocuted in Soutiya village, adjoining the
buffer zone of the Kanha tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
Investigations showed that the villagers were laying out naked
electricity wires to catch sambhar, a widespread deer species but a
tiger got enmeshed in the wires and was electrocuted. ‘‘Every part of
the animal, including nails, was intact. Which shows that poachers were
not involved,’’ says Ramesh Pratap Singh, field director of the tiger
reserve. Seven villagers have been arrested.
Earlier, on October
21, one tiger skin was seized in Kerala leading to three arrests. K
Ummer, DFO of Nilambur South, says: ‘‘One female tiger skin, five feet
long, was seized from a car,’’ he said. The job was not by
professionals because the skin had plenty of holes, says the forest
officer. ‘‘They were not gunshot holes. Only that the skinning wasn’t
professionally done,’’ he says. However, the seizure of six iron tiger
traps in Satara by Maharashtra forest department on September 29 shows
that poachers remain extremely active in many parts of the country. The
latest census figures released this year showed a mere 1,411 tigers
alive, compared to 3,508 in 1997, a drastic dip of 60%. ‘‘With such low
numbers of wild tigers we simply cannot afford to lose so many of them
to criminals,’’ says Belinda Wright of Wildlife Protection Society of
India, the NGO which has collated the statistics. Experts feel the
government agencies need better training, more motivation and greater
resources. ‘‘But, if they need one thing more than
anything else, it is better intelligence on the ground,’’ says Wright.
Of late, the government has taken steps to shore up tiger protection,
notably constituting a multidisciplinary Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.
In his Budget speech this year, the FM announced a one-time grant of Rs
50 crore to National Tiger Conservation Authority.
UNDER THREAT
Nov 11: Tiger skin seized in Balaghat district, MP Nov 5: A tigress found dead in Corbett Tiger Reserve Nov 2: Tiger electrocuted in Kanha Tiger Reserve, MP Oct 21: Tiger skin seized in Malappuram district, Kerala Oct 6: Tiger shot dead by poachers in Sunderbans Tiger Reserve, West Bengal Oct 2: Tiger found dead in Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala Oct 2: 18 tiger claws seized by near Nagarhole National Park, Karnataka Sept 29: Six iron tiger traps seized in Satara by Maharashtra forest department Sept 28: Tiger skin seized by police in Mumbai, Maharashtra Sept 27: A tiger skin seized by police in Kanker district, Chhattisgarh Sept 6: One tiger killed in train accident in Katerniaghat, Uttar Pradesh Sept 1: One tiger found dead in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan
(Source: Wildlife Protection Society of India)
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