Horror, anger as tiger claims 5th victim near Navegaon

Jan 5, 2013, 02.56AM IST TNN[ Vijay Pinjarkar & Gopu Pimplapure ]

m.timesofindia.com

NAGPUR/BHANDARA: History is repeating itself near Navegaon National Park. Seven years after the forest department permitted cops to shoot dead a full-grown, man-eating tiger in Talodi forest range in Brahmapuri division, a similar situation prevails again, some 130km from here. A tiger mauled a girl to death on Friday, making her the fifth victim in the past 20 days.

The 18-year-old girl, Bhagyashree Neware, was mauled near Bhivkhidi in Morgaon Arjuni tehsil in Gondia, at around 1.30pm. A concerned SWH Naqvi, state chief wildlife warden, who rushed to Navegaon in the evening, issued fresh orders around 5.30pm to shoot the problem tiger. However, villagers are refusing to let the forest officials act as per procedure, and want instant action.

“Earlier, I had issued orders to shoot a problem leopard, but now it seems the victims might have been killed by the same tiger. Normally, tigers do not attack humans except in self-defence, but the behaviour of this animal looks abnormal,” Naqvi said before leaving for the spot. He was accompanied by APCCF (wildlife) AK Saxena and CCF for Nagpur Circle SH Patil.

The tiger struck when Bhagyashree was returning from her farm along with her mother, sister and other village women. She was attacked when she went into the bushes along the roadside to answer nature’s call. The tiger in a small nullah pounced on her. She shouted for help and the others rushed forward, only to see the tiger dragging her body away. Farmers and labourers working in nearby fields gathered and soon the news spread, leading to scores of villagers crowding the spot.

According to one version, the tiger sat close to the body after it had killed the girl. The crowd was angry and wanted to remove the body. The forest staff were able to remove the body after great effort, but could neither tranquillize the problem animal nor replace the body with goat meat to avoid more attacks.

However, according to an eyewitness, villagers were agitated over the ‘lack of action’ by forest officials. A violent crowd of around 2,000 damaged a dozen vehicles of public representatives, revenue, forest and police department staff and also targeted a state transport bus.

After the tiger mauled the girl, the carnivore was in the forest till the evening but the staff did not have orders to shoot it. The scared staff had gathered at a loghut in Navegaon, fearing a public backlash, and was waiting for orders from Naqvi.

SV Ramarao, deputy conservator of forests (DyCF) for Gondia, said the crowd did not allow the tranquillizing team and sharp shooters to approach the tiger. “We had to take police help. Our men sighted the tiger but by the time the team reached the animal, it was already dark,” Ramarao said.

“A combing operation will continue even in the night. Still, priority will be to tranquillize the animal before shooting it. Both teams will zero in on the animal simultaneously,” he added.

The earlier fatalities in this area have been Chhaya Deshpande from Manegaon near Dighori on December 15, Muktabai Ganvir of Salebardi on December 24, Mirabai Bahekar from Gudri near Sangadi on December 29 and Vandana Meshram of Chikli on January 1.

The distance between fourth and the fifth victim, both killed by the tiger, is hardly 15km. On the basis of pugmarks, forest staff had earlier claimed that the first three women were killed by a leopard and last two by a tiger.

“Pugmarks of a young tiger are similar to a full-grown leopard and hence they concluded the problem animal was a leopard. We established it was a tiger only after the fourth woman was killed and the tiger was spotted,” Ramarao said.

Now, forest officials are assuming all victims must have been killed by the same tiger, since it also eluded six trap cages with bait laid near the spots. “A tiger rarely walks into a trap. Had it been a leopard, it would have been caged by now,” they said.

“It is indeed shocking and surprising that even 40 years after ‘Project Tiger‘ began the forest staff is unable to differentiate between a leopard and tiger. Where are the camera traps procured by every division? Why were experts not deployed after the first kill? There is no regular monitoring by field staff and hence such incidents take place,” said Chandrakant Deshmukh, who was earlier summoned to shoot the Talodi tiger in 2007 by ex-PCCF B Majumdar. The Talodi tiger had killed seven villagers.

Gondia district guardian minister Anil Deshmukh is also visiting the spot and will hand over compensation money to family of the deceased. On Saturday, wildlife biologist Vidya Atre from Pune is reaching Navegaon to help the forest officials.

END OF A TIGER

* Last tiger to be shot, when and why: On November 30, 2007, a full-grown tiger was shot down in Govindpur in Talodi range in Brahmapuri. It had turned into a man-eater and killed 7 villagers.

* What’s the plan for Navegaon tiger? Orders have been issued to tranquillize the animal, but if need is felt, to shoot it. Attempts to drive it away into deep forests seem to have failed. The animal is moving on the fringes of the park perhaps in search of easy prey.

* Who will shoot it? Three commandos from Bhandara police have been summoned, and three from the forest department have been equipped with SLRs. It is not easy to either tranquillize or shoot an animal in the wild. The animal will have to be lured in with a bait.

* Precautions by forest department and police: The biggest problem is of keeping away angry villagers, who want instant action. After the deaths of five women, it is risky to approach the animal. Combing operations have been launched and patrolling intensified.

 

Tiger not at fault, victim was killed inside the park

Jan 3, 2013, 02.22AM IST TNN
m.timesofindia.com

 

NAGPUR: The situation in villages around the Navegaon National Park became tense on Wednesday after a woman – Vandana Meshram of Chikli – was killed by a tiger on Tuesday evening.

Villagers are up in arms and want forest officials to either kill or trap the animal. This is the fourth death in the last 17 days.

“However, it is yet to be established whether it is the same animal that killed three women since December 15,” said SWH Naqvi, principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) for wildlife, Maharashtra.

Naqvi said he issued orders to shoot the problem leopard that mauled three women in Dighori, Salebardi and Gudri. “I was told that it was a leopard that killed these women,” he said.

However, on Tuesday the fourth victim was killed by a tiger inside the national park where she had gone to collect fire wood. After learning about it, villagers shifted the body outside the park apprehending the family won’t get compensation.

“The tiger was so irritated that it charged at an official vehicle later. It may be a young carnivore, possibly moving in the transit route. We cannot say anything for now whether it is the same animal or different one. There is a gap of 18 days between the first and last attack. The distance is also 40km,” Naqvi said.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that no fresh orders will be given to shoot the tiger. Forest officials have been asked to drive away the tiger into the forests.

 

Stray leopard captured, released……TOI News

 ROARrrrr for Jungle Tiger

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ROARrrrr-for-Jungle-Tiger/166490116742359

BHOPAL: The leopardthat strayed into the residential pockets of the state capital, creating panic, followed the bait and landed in the cage that was arranged by the forest staff to catch i

t near the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) on Sunday morning. The forest staff later took the trapped leopard to Van Vihar rescue centre and after check-up was released into the Satpura Tiger Reserve area in Hoshangabad district.When the bait (goat) kept in a couple of cages placed strategically in a few places where the sightings of the animal were reported failed to achieve any result, the forest department officials used a voice device to lure the leopard into the cage. A member of the team that caught the leopard informed that they had placed a device that had prerecorded bleats of a goat.

Trapped leopard cub`s three steps to freedom…..

 

ROARrrrr for Jungle Tiger

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ROARrrrr-for-Jungle-Tiger/166490116742359

 

A leopard cub trapped in a dry tank in Tipdi Dhar on the Mussoorie-Dhanaulti road for almost 10 hours was rescued by forest officials on Monday.
According to forest officials, the leopard

had fallen into the 10 feet deep tank while chasing its prey on Sunday night.

Some school children passing by heard the cub growling in the tank and informed the villagers. The forest officials then launched a noval rescue operation to save the wild cat.
The officials lowered a ladder into the tank. The leopard was instantly alert and climbed on to the ladder and jumped out to safety.

The animal then disappeared into the nearby forest. The rescue operation began at 10 am on Monday and was concluded within two hours.

Mail Today News….

Tiger tourism: revised norms replace 10% tax with fixed amount

 

http://www.livemint.com

The monthly sums to be paid by the resorts will be decided based on which category they come under

Neha Sethi

First Published: Mon, Sep 24 2012. 10 18 PM IST

http://www.livemint.com/rw/LiveMint/Period1/2012/09/25/Photos/tiger_1–621×414.jpg” alt=”The government has to submit the new norms to the Supreme Court, which is deciding a case on curbing tiger tourism in India, before the next hearing on 27 September.
Photo: Hindustan Times
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The government has to submit the new norms to the Supreme Court, which is deciding a case on curbing tiger tourism in India, before the next hearing on 27 September. Photo: Hindustan Times

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New Delhi: The government’s revised guidelines on eco-tourism propose allowing restricted tourism in the core areas of tiger reserves, according to two government officials privy to the new norms.

The guidelines also recommend that resorts bordering India’s 41 tiger reserves pay fixed monthly sums to the government instead of the 10% eco tax proposed earlier.

The government has to submit the new norms to the Supreme Court, which is deciding a case on curbing tiger tourism in India, before the next hearing on 27 September.

The monthly sums to be paid by the resorts will be decided based on which category a resort comes under. The category will be determined on the basis of the area resorts occupy and the revenue they earn.

“All the resorts will be divided into different slabs based on the basis of their revenue and their area among others and then they will pay a fixed amount from their revenue monthly,” one of the government officials said. The slabs will be finalized in a couple of days before the guidelines are submitted to the court, he said.

The second official confirmed this. Both officials declined to be identified.

The Supreme Court on 29 August gave the government about a month to re-draft guidelines for tourism in tiger reserves. Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati had sought more time to do this keeping in mind both tiger protection and sustainable tourism.

The first government official cited above, however, said the guidelines were being re-drafted under pressure from lobbyists for the tiger tourism industry, which is worth at least Rs.1,000 crore annually, according to some experts.

This lobby was unhappy with the Supreme Court’s interim decision on 24 July to ban any form of tourism in the core areas of the 41 tiger reserves to aid conservation efforts. The core area is a critical habitat for tigers and is identified on the basis of availability of water, prey and shelter.

After the court’s 29 August direction, the government constituted a committee to revise the eco-tourism guidelines. The committee recommended that a fixed amount be collected monthly from resorts near tiger reserves, which will be used for the welfare of the local communities and aid conservation efforts.

The previous guidelines recommending a 10% eco tax were on the same lines and suggested that the funds “collected should be earmarked to fund human-wildlife conflict management, conservation and local livelihood development.”

The first government official said the new guidelines do not call for a ban on tourism in the core areas of tiger reserves.

“Restricted tourism will be allowed in core areas. States will have the power to limit the…tourists going into core areas. However, they will not be allowed to exceed the current limit on tourists in every tiger reserve,” the official said.

State-level and local area committees will be constituted to advise state governments on tourism limits in core areas, the official said.

The mandate of these two committees was mentioned in the previous guidelines too. “The tourism activity in a reserve will depend on the potential of the tiger reserve,” the official added.

There is also a plan to include local bodies such as gram sabhas and panchayats in conservation, and to “give them a bigger role in planning and decision making”, he said.

States will design their own an eco-tourism plans for tiger reserves based on the Union government’s broad guidelines. “It will be on a case-to-case basis,” the official said.

The revised guidelines, he said, are “specific for tiger reserves.” The previous norms were called “guidelines for eco-tourism in and around protected areas” and were not specific to tiger reserves.

Activist Ajay Dubey had filed a special leave petition to stop “inviolate activities” including tourism in the core areas of tiger reserves in the Supreme Court in July 2011. He approached the apex court after his demand to ban tourism in the core areas was rejected by the Madhya Pradesh high court in January 2011.

Environmentalists Shekar Dattari, a wildlife filmmaker, and Swathi Seshadri of Equations, a non-governmental organization that works on tourism, declined to comment on the redrafted guidelines because they are part of the committee that framed them. Conservationist Prerna Bindra said she couldn’t comment on the guidelines before they are made public.

 

Radio-collared big cats in WB gardens to nip conflicts soon

 

Friday, 14 September 2012 01:32

PNS.|.New Delhi

http://www.dailypioneer.com

 

In view of the rising man-leopard conflicts particularly around the tea estates and forest fringes in North-Bengal, for the first time in the country a proposal has been mooted for radio-collaring these big cats to keep tabs on their movements.

According to Bipin Sood, Conservator (Wildlife) Northern Circle, the proposal after approval from the State Government would be sent to Wildlife Institute of India (WII) for their logistic and technical support. This first-of-its-kind pilot project would be started from Jalpaiguri Forest Division which would then be carried out in other forest divisions facing similar situations.

The sprawling tea estates in the region are vulnerable grounds of growing conflicts between human and leopard. The female big cats that stray from the fringe forest areas, find tea gardens safe place to deliver their litters and to protect them from their prowling male partners that invariably prey upon the cubs. There are nearly 52 estates in the region, coupled with small tea plantations in the forest division.

The breeding season of the leopards is largely during monsoon. After mating, the female leopard soon begins to prepare a “den” for her upcoming cubs. The gestation period of leopards is about 90 to 105 days.

“The expecting leopards often take refuge in the trenches of the tea gardens, that run off the water from the terrain,” pointed out DFO, Jalpaiguri range, Sumita Ghatak. A mother leopard feels most threatened by her male counterpart who is on a constant look-out to hunt on his cubs. The solitude of the estate make them feel secure to give birth to her cubs.

Also, these human-modified habitats of tea gardens ensure easy availability of livestock and feral domestic animals. These hilly estates apart from providing good cover, when the mother is away to look for food, also provides ample water.

During such incidents, the straying leopard would earlier be trapped with the help of bait in cage and released in the forest which unfortunately did not solve the problem pointed out Ghatak, following which the proposal was discussed.