Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Madhya Pradesh lost at least eight tigers in two months. Of them, some were poached. About 46 tigers including cubs died from January till date this year.
A tiger was poached in Satpura Tiger Reserve in August and the carcass was found floating in the backwaters of a river. A gang was arrested along with tiger body parts in Shahdol some months back. A tiger was poached in Sanjay Dubri National Park in first week of November. Accused chopped big cat into three parts and dumped it in a local pond. They were later arrested. Forest officials said that accused laid trap to catch wild boar and tiger fell prey to the trap.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority’s tiger mortality head says that out of eight tiger deaths in October and November, highest four deaths occurred in limits of Kanha Tiger Reserve.
A senior official of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve said as far as poaching cases were concerned, poachers laid the trap to catch wild herbivore animals and accidentally tigers become the victim.
“Now, there is no active international gang, which used to target tigers to get their body parts and skin. Now, poachers try to dump the body parts of big cat into water bodies or bury them inside the earth. If they have killed tigers for some specific purpose then why they would have tried to bury the body parts,” he told.
He claimed that in comparison to previous trend which prevailed decades back wherein villagers used to kill herbivore to celebrate the function, the trend to kill hervivore has come down steeply.
However, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve officials have increased the night duty to contain the poaching incidents. To trace the live electric wire trap, they possess a special gadget, which detects the flow of electric current from 10-meter distance.
He added that as now population of tigers was overflowing and hence challenges have increased.
Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey said delay in creation of Special Tiger Force was root cause for failure to handle poachers. Along with this, intelligence failure is also leading to the death of big cats in the state.
