1.Tigress found dead near H.D. Kote was poisoned
The carcass of the tiger was found on the fringes of Nagarahole National Park on Sunday. Photo: Special Arrangement
Second such incident near Nagarahole National Park
The tigress, which was found dead close to Metikuppe near H.D. Kote on the fringes of Nagarahole National Park on Sunday, was poisoned, says the post-mortem report.
As it is the second such case in the vicinity of the national park, this incident has sent shock waves among conservationists and Forest Department staff, who are at their wits end to tackle the
alarming trend. The carcass of the tiger found near D.B. Kuppe in January too had traces of poison.
Bhaskar Rao, Inspector-General of Police, forest cell, said the incident could not be treated as a forest offence but a criminal offence. He told The Hindu: “We will have to invoke the
provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Code for Criminal Procedure and go to the roots of the case to identify and book the offenders.”
An official from the Forest Department said the post-mortem report indicated that the prima facie cause of the tigress’ death was poisoning. “The tigress — about eight-years-old — had eaten the
carcass of a cattle and collapsed within 150 meters of the kill. There were strong indications of presence of metacid, a chemical. A close inspection of the site indicated that soon after eating
the carcass, the tiger dragged and hurled itself forward from the site towards the jungles in a desperate bid to overcome nausea and trauma and vomited all along. A few crows too were found dead
in the area and we have collected samples and sent them for tests,” the official said.
Thorough probe
Describing the development as alarming, the official said this calls for a thorough investigation and until the guilty are brought to book there would be deterrence against such incidents.
Preliminary investigations and spot inspection on Sunday indicated that there was no foul play by poachers as the claws and skin were intact. “Death of tigers by poisoning is a new trend and the
specially constituted Special Tiger Task Force is not capable of addressing the issue as poisoning can be attributed to social issues arising out of man-animal conflict,” he said.
Sanjay Gubbi, member, State Wildlife Board, said the issue raised serious questions about the delay in distributing compensation to the people affected by wildlife, who are living on the fringes
of the forests. “Timely and adequate compensation is the need of the hour. Conflicts cannot be reduced to zero but they can be minimised to tolerable limits by winning the support of the local
community through timely distribution of relief,” he said.
2. MYSORE: Increasing incidents of tiger deaths due to poisoning has made the officials of the tiger project to work out an action plan to end this menace of targeting big cats by mischievous
elements. Death of two of the three tigers due to poisoning has left worried the officials. Of the three tigers which died in the recent past including one on Sunday have been found to be
poisoned by the villagers .
What has made the issue more complicated is this is the new modus operandi being adopted by tiger mafia to employ the villagers and persuade them to poison the tigers which invade their
villages to prey on their livestock. Tiger's
trait of it's return to eat the left over of the prey has made it easy for villagers allegedly employed by poachers to poison the kill before the tiger visits it next day. Sunday's
incident typically fitted this format as officials have found an empty packet of a pesticide and two crows dead near the carcass of
the cow which was killed by the tiger . Even tiger was found dead hardly 100 mts from the spot where the half eaten cow carcass was lying .
Now officials of the tiger project have decided to take head on the mischievous elements through an action plan which has a positive
approach to the issue. As per the plan, project
tiger officials with the help of Special Tiger Protection Force(STPF) members will create a data base of all the cattle heads in the villages located inside and on the periphery of the
tiger sanctuaries and territorial forests.
This data base even have pictures of cattle population and their owners and cowboys who graze them. Project tiger officials are even planning to announce a compensation
package for farmers and the cattle owners whose animals are preyed on by tigers .
In addition, number of members of STPF
will be increased and they will part of stepped up vigil package on this score. Disclosing the implementation of this ne security project in next couple of days, project tiger direct B J
Hosmath said this plan will automatically eliminate mischievous elements which will act as stooge in the hands of poachers gangs. First the vigil and data base help officials to identify the
cattle owner instantaneously and second the compensation package will help the villagers to avoid mischievous elements. " We want to tackle the problem through positive approach instead of
curbing and searching for poachers" Hosmath felt , adding that this is worked out by project tiger officials itself and confident of achieving results.
3. Poachers killing tigers for money are back with vengeance with seizure of at-least seven tiger skins and over 160 kilogram of tiger bones in the Tibet-Nepal border hinting at revival of the
popular smuggling route into China.Three major tiger and leopard body part hauls in different districts of Nepal in the month of January has triggered panic among the wildlifers who claim that
the recent seizures show that the magnitude of tiger killing in India is much more than reflected in the government's official records.
The government has claimed that around 80 tigers were killed in India including for poaching in 2012 whereas the seizures of tiger body parts in the year was much higher.
The biggest hauls of recent times came on January 12 when on 12 Nepal police seized five tiger skins and about 114 kilograms of tiger bones in bags in Nawakot district very close to Tibet
border. The body parts were to be smuggled into Tiger in a van for the underground Chinese big cat medicine industry and two persons were arrested in this connection. The tiger skins and
plastic bags containing bones were hidden under rice sacks in the van.
A day earlier, in Gorkha district about 160 km west from capital city of Kathmandu, Nepal police arrested some Tibetans with two tiger skins and 53 kilograms of tiger bones. They were arrested
while they were trying to smuggle the tiger parts to Tibet, China, officials said.
On January 27, the Nepalese authorities seized three leopard skins in Kanchanpur district of Nepal, which is very close to a home of tigers in India, Uttarakhand. Tigers in Corbett National
Park in the state had been under stress for some time because of increasing poaching threat in the tiger reserve having highest tiger density in the country.
Anil Baluni, former vice-chairperson of Uttarakhand Forest Advisory body, said the tiger syndicates were operating in Nepal and the Indian government has not effectively taken the issue with
the Nepalese government to crush these organised groups in the area of wildlife crime. "There is a sense that smuggling of tiger body parts into Nepal has become easy in the last few months,"
he said.
The seizures in Nepal had some sort of relation with highest deaths of tigers in India in a decade. As many as 89 tigers died in 2012 in 41 notified tiger homes in India with poaching incidents
reported from reserves in Maharashtra to Kerala and Assam.
