Bhopal: Umaria forest team on Thursday arrested five poachers involved in killing of a tiger here. A body of an adult tigress was found in Barwah area of Ghunghuti forest in Umaria on Monday. The tiger reportedly had fallen victim to a live electric trap laid by poachers. Team has recovered tiger’s tooth, hair, electric wire, other equipment from their possession.
Five men who have been arrested under Wild Life Act include Laxman Singh, Kausal Singh, Rukmangal Singh, Ramesh Singh and Chandra Singh. All belong to Dhauri village under Pali police station in Umaria district. SDO Forest (Pali) Rahul Mishra said that forest department had constituted a team to trace the poachers and five arrests were made in this connection on Thursday. “Prima facie it seems that they are not professional poachers, the department is probing their links to big poachers. They will be produced in the court on Friday,” the officer said.
The death of two tigers in state in span of 15 days had put the forest department officials in dock. Recently, another adult tiger had died due to electrocution in Kalyanpur area of Shahdol district, some 60km from Umaria. According to National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a total of 71 tigers died from January 1 to September 30 in 2017 in India, of which 17, maximum among states, died in Madhya Pradesh.
Social and RTI activist Ajay Dubey said that it is unfortunate that forest department is not ready to accept its responsibility and has avoided taking action against poachers. “Government should look into matter. Officials should be made accountable for the act,” he said.
