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Could the death toll of tigers seized during raids in January rise to 35?
Claims are being made by wildlife activists in India that the two raids in Nepal conducted in January could be much worse than first appears. In the raids Nepalese police seized 7 tigers skins and 53kg of tiger bones. Activists are saying they have been informed that 140 canine teeth were included in the haul meaning at least 35 tigers were killed.
The claims are being made by former vice-chairman of Uttarakhand’s Forest and Environment Advisory Committee Anil Baluni. He says he has been told that the haul of tiger parts included 140 canine teeth and with each tiger having 4 canine then at least 35 tigers must have been killed.
Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Administration and Intelligence, and chief of the Anti-Poaching Cell, SK Dutt said he was not aware of the claims of the canines being part of the haul but that telephone communications between Uttarakhand and Nepal is not ideal.
The authorities in India don’t seem to be aware of this information. The Uttarakhand Forest department, too, has done nothing since the details of this seizure were revealed.
Dutt explained that while a team has been set up to visit Nepal as part of the investigations into the tiger poaching so far they have not been dispatched.
Baluni said, “The authorities in India don’t seem to be aware of this information. The Uttarakhand Forest department, too, has done nothing since the details of this seizure were revealed”.
Many of the tigers that pass through Nepal on the way to the markets in China are thought to originate in Uttarakhand and its tiger reserves. If the number of tigers in the 2 seizures do numbers at least 35 then this would be a devastating blow to the tiger population in the state. The last tiger census in 2012 put the number of tigers at over 235 – up from 178 in 2008.
If the claims of the canines are true and the tigers originate from Uttarakhand then almost 15% of the states tiger population could have been wiped out.
The Rajaji national park authorities achieved a major breakthrough by arresting notorious poacher Arjun alias Kauwa who is suspected of involvement in tiger
poaching in the Corbett national park and the Rajaji national park landscape.
Kauwa was said to be on the way to becoming the next Sansar Chand (notorious
tiger poacher) of India.
Following his arrest, the department has called officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and Intelligence Bureau from Delhi to glean information from him. In another development, the Rajaji personnel arrested three men with 20 kg pangolin scales from animals poached in the national park.
Rajaji field director SP Subudhi said that Kauwa is suspected of being involved in tiger poaching cases in Uttarakhand and his arrest would help the authorities
secure valuable information about wildlife crimes.
http://epaper.mailtoday.in/showtext.aspx?boxid=31817843&parentid=76690&issuedate=2712013
REPEATED interventions by Congress president Sonia Gandhi have made the Uttarakhand government crack the whip on ‘ encroachers’ in Corbett Tiger Reserve.
The state government has banned any kind of land transaction within a radius of 2 km from the reserve boundary.
Sonia was apprised of this decision through a letter dated January 4, 2013 by chief minister Vijay Bahuguna.
News reports about land encroachment along the periphery of the national park, especially around the Ramganga river, prompted Sonia, who is also the chairman of the National Board for Wildlife, to take up the matter with the Prime Minister.
In a letter dated May 11, 2012, she demanded that allegations made in new reports be probed. “ The peripheral forestland are being encroached upon and tourism- related infrastructure is posing a threat to the wildlife in the reserve. I request you to have the matter urgently examined so that appropriate measures may be undertaken to preserve the ecological integrity of the reserve,” the letter stated.
The environment and forest ministry quickly constituted a two- member committee to probe the matter. On June 5, the committee submitted a report, accessed by M AIL T ODAY through an RTI application, seeking a probe against activities of four people — former BJP president Nitin Gadkari, former MP Akbar Ahmed Dumpy, former forest minister Nav Prabhat and Leisure Hotels managing director Mukund Prasad. The panel recommended immediate halt on all revenue land transactions in buffer areas of Corbett Tiger Reserve till a high- level probe is completed by the state government.
The report stated: “ A departmental inquiry should be conducted in the alleged collusion of officials to facilitate private hoteliers and lodge owners and MoU by the state with private angling associations in the buffer area must be terminated.” Sonia sent the findings to Bahuguna on June 12. She wrote: “ You are requested to look into the matter personally as the issue is of serious nature.” Bahuguna ordered a vigilance inquiry and immediately reverted to Sonia through a letter dated July 14, apprising her of the interim measures he had taken.
The chain mail concluded on January 4 when he submitted the result of the probe and informed the Congress chief that all land transactions around a 2- km radius of the national park have been banned. The report also gave a clean chit to Gadkari and Prasad, while the matter related to Akbar Ahmed Dumpy’s was referred to Bhati commission of inquiry.
RESULTS OF SONIA’S INITIATIVE
Land transactions within an area of radial distance of 2km from CTR boundary banned
Officials under probe for administrative lapses
Revenue department has issued instructions to DM not to entertain land use changes in respect of revenue land within CTR without ascertaining if it is clear from the point of view of various forest laws
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Rishikesh, Jan 18 (PTI) A putrefying carcass of a tigress was today found under suspicious circumstances in the buffer zone of Corbett Tiger Reserve. The carcass of the 6-7-year-old tigress was found near a stream in the Jhirna range of the reserve forest, Corbett Tiger Reserve Director Ranjan Kumar Mishra said. It must have died about week ago as it had already begun to putrefy, he said. Prima facie, the death of the tigress appears suspicious as Gujjars, traditional hunters, inhabit the settlements surrounding the spot from where it was recovered and most of its limbs are intact, the official said. The carcass of the tigress has been sent for a postmortem to ascertain the cause of its death, he said. About 10 days ago, a cow had fallen prey to carnivores near the same stream, he said. PTI ALM SRS DV
In order to mitigate the rising human-leopard conflict in Uttarakhand, the State Forest Department has proposed building water holes and increasing fodder in affected areas to attract the wild herbivores which constitute the natural prey base of the leopard. It is worth mentioning here that since October this year at least seven people have been killed by leopards while three leopards have been killed and one captured by the department after being declared man-eaters.
Though human leopard conflict is not new to Uttarakhand, the problem has been rising since the formation of the State and resulting developments. The forest department has had plans for some years now to tackle the rising human-wildlife conflict. However, wildlife activists point out that the department has done little more than drafting and discussing plans while the conflict situation has continued to deteriorate.
Talking to The Pioneer, the State chief wildlife warden SS Sharma said that the department has various measures either planned or proposed to mitigate the conflict between human and the spotted cat. “We have proposed to build water holes and encourage an increase in fodder so that deer and other herbivores are attracted to such places. By boosting the presence of the natural prey base of the leopard, we believe the big cat will avoid human settlements which will make life safer for both the villagers and their cattle. In addition to this we are raising public awareness in areas experiencing the conflict. We are telling the people to not venture outdoors alone in dark hours but to move in at least small groups and to remain alert outdoors,” said Sharma.
Widlife activists also point out that the human-leopard conflict is not only creating problems for the humans but is also a major factor responsible for the poaching of the feline. They point out that the department’s drafting of plans has not helped either the humans or the leopards in Uttarakhand with at least 25 leopard pelt seizures in this year apart from which 52 leopard deaths have also been recorded in 2012 so far. Since creation of Uttarakhand in 2000, more than 200 people while more than 600 leopard deaths from different causes have been recorded.
The Planning Commission has allocated Rs. 5,889 crore for 1,706 tigers in the 12th Plan (2012-17), compared to Rs. 615 crore in the 11th Plan (2007-12) – a nine-fold increase in allocation. For all the other endangered species – including 26,000 elephants, 300 lions in Gujaratand around 16,000-20,000 leopards – the money allocated is just Rs. 3,600 crore.In the 11th Plan, the other animals had received Rs. 800 crore – an amount higher than the allocation for tigers.
Justifying the fund allocation, officials said tigers are flagship species and the money spent on their protection would automatically benefit other animals such as deer and rhinos. Most of the money would be spent on relocating around 10,000 families living in 41 tiger habitats of the country, and filling vacancies of security guards in the reserves.
“Several new thrust areas have been identified for implementation. This includes strengthening protection and furthering the co-existence agenda in buffer areas of tiger reserves, besides voluntary relocation along with regulatory monitoring of tiger population and their habitat,” the 12th Plan document for wildlife says.
While separate funding for elephants under the 11th Plan has been merged with the existing scheme – Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats, there is no mention of Asiatic lions, which are only known to inhabit the Gir National Park in Gujarat.
Similar is the story of snow leopards, whose number is now estimated to be less than 1,000 in upper reaches of Himalayas in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Though the poaching figures of leopards have nearly doubled in the last five years, it is also missing from the Plan document. Not a single endangered bird – such as the great Indian bustard and vulture – finds mention in the 1,600-page Plan document.
Wildlife activists say that as a majority of the endangered animals live outside tiger reserves in 600 protected areas, they fall prey to development and other kinds of biotic pressure.
A bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and S J Mukhopadhaya sought the responses from the state government and Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) here and decided to tag the petition filed by Tehelka and noted journalist Nalini Singh with a pending matter on creating buffer zones in Tiger reserve areas across the country.
Senior advocate Chandra Uday Singh and advocate Sujatha Balachander appeared for the petitioners. The petition pointed out “startling” mortality statistics of tigers and leopards as per the official database of the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife Protection Society of India, which stated that in the year so far, we have lost 47 tigers and 222 leopards.
