Green lobby protests tiger’s killing in Kerala

Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: December 04, 2012 13:05 IST

http://www.ndtv.com

 

Kochi: Environment activists are protesting the shooting of a tiger by forest officials in Kerala on December 2. The tiger had killed 14 domestic cattle heads in several villages of Wayanad district.

The Kerala chapter of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, in a missive to the state government, has threatened to move court against the killing, saying “there was no evidence to substantiate that the animal was a threat to life and property of human beings”.

The society cited the Wildlife Protection Act to push its argument on the clause that “chief wildlife warden issues an order to hunt tiger, a national animal (Schedule 1 animal and part of Schedule 2 animals) only if it is proved that it is a threat to life and property”.

Also See

• 

  0:32

  Tiger cub killed by speeding vehicle in Corbett

• 

  2:58

  Tiger held captive for one week released

“Even if it is a man-eater, it should be proved authentically. Until then, no such order should be issued. The order to hunt the animal was illegal,” S Guruvayurappan, a senior functionary of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said in a statement.

The green lobby is up in arms because Kerala and Karnataka governments, which jointly conducted the operations, killed the tiger after they failed to tranquilise it.

A section of green campaigners challenged the governments’ decision to kill the tiger “instead of neutralising it with tranquilisers”.

Wayanad District Collector K Gopalakrishna Bhatt said “though the forest department officials had tried to tranquilise the tiger, shooting down the animal was the only option left”.

The 12-year-old tiger had spread terror in villages of Naikatty, Kottamkara and Muthanga on the Kerala-Karnataka border, killing as many as 14 domestic cattle heads.

Karnataka forest officials said the Kerala Forest Department could not bring the tiger down with two rounds of tranquilisers initially because of the agitated mob, forcing forest officials from Karnataka to kill the animal.

A petition by senior representatives of wildlife organisations in Kerala demanded urgent action from Tiger Conservation Authority and the Prime Minister so that tigers were not killed anywhere else in the country.

The signatories included S. Guruvayurappan of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, Tony Thomas, director of the legal cell of One Earth One Life, Aravindakshan P. of Aashrayam Rural Development Society, Arumughan Pathichira, chairman of Haritha Development Association, and Prasanth Randedath, Kerala coordinator of Nirmuktha.

Seeking answers to posers, the petitioners demanded that “even after shooting two tranquiliser darts, why did the staff kill the tiger?”

They wanted to know the “identity of the shooter”, and asked whether it was his intention “to murder the animal and who authenticated that the tiger shot down was the cattle lifter”.

“What will be the future of remaining tigers in the Wayanad landscape?” the petition said.

 

Task force kills Wild Tiger in Wayanad

cee4life -WARNING GRAPHIC DEATH OF KERAL TIGER – BUT WAIT!!! Theres more… Someone had the presence of mind, and time to film the death of this BEAUTIFUL CRITICALLY ENDANGERED TIGER… BUT DIDNT HAVE THE PRESENSE OF MIND TO CALL THE PROFESSIONALS IN TO SAVE HIS LIFE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Task force kills Wild Tiger in Wayanad

(Click on Title to View Video)

Report on the tiger killing at Wayanad

Man-animal conflict has led to the killing of a male tiger near the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in north Kerala on Sunday. The forest officials shot dead the beast which apparently had been attacking d

omestic animals of the human settlement near the sanctuary.

Under pressure from the locals and their political representatives, a team of forest officials with the help of their counterparts from Karnataka have been trying to capture the tiger for the last one week. The personnel had placed four cages with live baits in different places but could not capture the beast. They even placed surveillance cameras and used trained elephants to tour the forest areas.

On Sunday morning, the forest team spotted the tiger in a private land and shot a tranquilising dart. But it could not tame the tiger. So they fired another one, following which the animal turned against the team. Sanctuary wildlife warden S Sreekumar said at this stage the team, comprising veterinary surgeons, had little option but to fire the killer shot.

“We have invoked the section 11 (1) A of Wildlife Act for self-defence. Otherwise, the animal would have attacked the men,” he said.

crtsy: indianexpress/asianet

 

Who is afraid of tigers in Wayanad?

By Manoj K Das, TNN | Nov 21, 2012, 03.59 AM IST

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

READ MORE Wayanad|V Gopinathan|Muthanga

The Forest Department thinks that the queries reflect a bigger plan for land grab in the area by creating the bogey of a tiger reserve destabilising lives in the neighbourhood.

RELATED

• Will steer Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University out of al…
• Fresh guidelines for govt school teachers transfer
• Animals caught in the headlights takes heavy toll
• Kabini: Wild, peaceful and all in between
• Dip in banana price adds cheer to Onam

KOCHI: Do we’ve to paint our houses and shops in wild green if Wayanad is declared a tiger reserve? Do we have to keep a vessel filled with water every night for tigers to drink and turn on all lights around the house?

These are some of the RTI questions posed to forest top brass ever since rumours about an impending declaration of Wayanad as a tiger reserve went viral. But the Forest Department thinks that the queries reflect a bigger plan for land grab in the area by creating the bogey of a tiger reserve destabilising lives in the neighbourhood.

Citing other RTI queries to substantiate this, a senior officer told TOI that “most of the queries seek details of land owners who are voluntarily surrendering their holding for facilitating the demarcation of the proposed reserve”.

Ironically, these questions are flooding the department when there is absolutely no move to declare the area a tiger reserve. “Another questioner wants to know restrictions that would be imposed on construction activities. Yet another query has demanded all details of our rehabilitation plan,” he said.

Three other questions seek a detailed map of the area indicating various zones like buffer, core, etc. “We strongly feel that this is part of an orchestrated campaign,” a source told TOI.

A report from Wayanad submitted by D K Varma, CCF, northern circle, has stated that “the presence of miscreants who are misleading the local population needs to be probed.” Their instigation is the main reason for agitations turning unusually violent of late. The CCF also noted mischievous spread of rumours like how a circus company had let its tigers free in Muthanga thus leading to widespread panic. A trigger for the rumour mongering is the recent spate of cattle lifting by tigers. That is no new phenomenon in Wayanad.

Cattle-killer to be hunted down

Given the high possibility of the cattle-killer tiger of Wayanad turning into a man-eater, the forest department has decided to hunt it down.

V Gopinathan, CCF, in an order issued on Tuesday said a five-member team will ascertain its identity before hunting it by tranquilizing or using cages and “failing which by other means”.