Bengal tiger on verge of being wiped out
Total lack of political will, greed and complete indifference of Indian media and citizens will ensure that this decade goes down in history as one in which the Royal Bengal tiger in India went extinct
ANOTHER TIGER was killed on Tuesday (23 March) in Assam, thanks to administrative collapse and human barbarism, pushing this year’s official number of dead tigers to at least 20 in the country and nine in Assam. The unofficial figure could be anywhere between 200 to 250.
The trend is in keeping with India’s heritage. Fifty years ago, India’s government and people swept the country clean of another magnificent cat, the cheetah, now they have taken on the tiger.
Tuesday’s tragedy was preventable. A tiger from Kaziranga National Park reported to be a man-eater had been terrorising Nowgaon and Golaghat areas for some days. When administration finally woke up and decided to tranquilise the tiger hiding in a bamboo grove, it was too late. A thousand-strong crowd made tranquilising impossible. Police watched as a man rushed into the grove wielding a machette. The tiger charged and killed him. In the indiscriminate firing that followed, Prashanta Boro, the veterinarian from Panbari range in charge of tranquilising the tiger, was shot in the arm. Finally, several police shots killed the tiger.
Yes, the tiger was a man-eater. The question is why? “Because it had innumerable old wounds in its rear caused by human attacks and was in considerable pain. The wounds made it impossible for it to hunt forcing it to become a man eater,” according to Aftab Ahmed, the Divisional Forest Officer of Nowgaon.
The Nowgaon man-eater was at fault for having strayed from Kaziranga, but who was responsible for attacking, injuring and forcing it to become a man-eater inside the park?
Assam’s tiger conservation record is abysmal. Over nine tigers died in three months in Kaziranga National Park, thanks to poachers. A fact stoutly denied by Suren Buragohain, director of Kaziranga National Park. “'These deaths occur annually and cause of every death is investigated properly,'” he is reported to have told the media.
This is not quite true. Forest officials do not believe in transparency when it comes to dead tigers. An aggressive male tiger new to the region inevitably takes the blame for all tiger deaths by poaching and poison. An admission of truth may cost a job.
Close search may yield unpleasant truths, too. In some parks, police in collusion with locals are killing tigers to claim the reward declared by state governments for the recovery of tiger skins and bones.
Flat denial is another option and the forest department of the other major tiger state, Madhya Pradesh has mastered the art.
Until a few years ago, Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh had over 40 tigers. Since December 11, 2008 no tigers have been seen there. The situation is so grave that on March 7, this year, the tiger experts of the stature of Dr Ullas Karanth, Valmik Thapar, Dr Raghu Chundawat, Fateh Singh Rathore and others issued a Tiger Alert, urging the Prime Minister to carry out a high level inquiry into the disappearance of tigers in Panna.
Has an inquiry been carried out? No. Because on March 9, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Wildlife, Madhya Pradesh, HS Pabla said there are 'signs of the presence of a male tiger' in Panna.
Contrast this to what Kauhal Rai, Tourist Guide, Panna told journalists: “It's a very critical situation in the park; the tiger was last seen on December 11. After that there has been no sign of him or his pug marks."
Surely, Dr Pabla in Bhopal has all the information. What does a poor guide whose life depends on the forest and its tigers know? Pabla did not just stop there. He assured the media, “In case there is a problem, we will definitely find a solution.”
And boy, he did. He relocated two breeding tigresses from the core areas of Kanha and Bandhavgarh National Park also in Madhya Pradesh. This of course, in gross violation of rules of translocation laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) that prohibits removal of adult and breeding tigers from core areas of parks.
Incidentally, Kanha National Park is the worst affected in terms of tiger deaths. Over the last 14 weeks, at least 13 tigers have been lost to the park. Of these, 12 were killed by poachers although the official blame is shouldered by the proverbial and unseen intruding male tiger; while one breeding tigress was translocated.
Removing possibly a pregnant tiger from Kanha makes it possible for the forest officials to say, the tigress had mated in Panna.
While, Assam and Madhya Pradesh leads, other parks too, had their fair share of tiger deaths. In January, nine tigers were killed in Assam and Madhya Pradesh taken together and one in Bhandara in Maharashtra.
In February, two tigers were killed in Faizabad and Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, one each in Assam and Maharashtra; while two skulls, 16 kilograms of bones and skins were recovered by the army from the Manipur-Myanmar border.
This month, two were killed in Kanha alone, two in Assam, two in Corbett National Park on March 10 and March 17. On March 20, police in Bhadrawati, Maharashtra arrested three men with tiger claws and bones, while yesterday (March 25), three men with tiger skins were arrested in Kultoli, South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
The Central Government’s declaration of red alert in 17 tiger states on February 4 is a little more than a symbolic gesture as is the setting up on March 9 of the Tiger Strike Force by the State Government of Madhya Pradesh. Tiger killings continue unabated.
With elections round the corner, it is hardly the time to attend to inconsequential issues like the number of existing Bengal tigers in the country. The tiger does not vote; its extinction will not matter. So, even as the greatest democracy goes to polls and its national animal heads for sure extinction political parties of all hues and sizes remain unfazed. As for the average Indian citizens, we are busy with our all important lives to bother about animals, national or otherwise.
Tuesday’s tragedy was preventable. A tiger from Kaziranga National Park reported to be a man-eater had been terrorising Nowgaon and Golaghat areas for some days. When administration finally woke up and decided to tranquilise the tiger hiding in a bamboo grove, it was too late. A thousand-strong crowd made tranquilising impossible. Police watched as a man rushed into the grove wielding a machette. The tiger charged and killed him. In the indiscriminate firing that followed, Prashanta Boro, the veterinarian from Panbari range in charge of tranquilising the tiger, was shot in the arm. Finally, several police shots killed the tiger.
Yes, the tiger was a man-eater. The question is why? “Because it had innumerable old wounds in its rear caused by human attacks and was in considerable pain. The wounds made it impossible for it to hunt forcing it to become a man eater,” according to Aftab Ahmed, the Divisional Forest Officer of Nowgaon.
The Nowgaon man-eater was at fault for having strayed from Kaziranga, but who was responsible for attacking, injuring and forcing it to become a man-eater inside the park?
Assam’s tiger conservation record is abysmal. Over nine tigers died in three months in Kaziranga National Park, thanks to poachers. A fact stoutly denied by Suren Buragohain, director of Kaziranga National Park. “'These deaths occur annually and cause of every death is investigated properly,'” he is reported to have told the media.
This is not quite true. Forest officials do not believe in transparency when it comes to dead tigers. An aggressive male tiger new to the region inevitably takes the blame for all tiger deaths by poaching and poison. An admission of truth may cost a job.
Close search may yield unpleasant truths, too. In some parks, police in collusion with locals are killing tigers to claim the reward declared by state governments for the recovery of tiger skins and bones.
Flat denial is another option and the forest department of the other major tiger state, Madhya Pradesh has mastered the art.
Until a few years ago, Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh had over 40 tigers. Since December 11, 2008 no tigers have been seen there. The situation is so grave that on March 7, this year, the tiger experts of the stature of Dr Ullas Karanth, Valmik Thapar, Dr Raghu Chundawat, Fateh Singh Rathore and others issued a Tiger Alert, urging the Prime Minister to carry out a high level inquiry into the disappearance of tigers in Panna.
Has an inquiry been carried out? No. Because on March 9, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Wildlife, Madhya Pradesh, HS Pabla said there are 'signs of the presence of a male tiger' in Panna.
Contrast this to what Kauhal Rai, Tourist Guide, Panna told journalists: “It's a very critical situation in the park; the tiger was last seen on December 11. After that there has been no sign of him or his pug marks."
Surely, Dr Pabla in Bhopal has all the information. What does a poor guide whose life depends on the forest and its tigers know? Pabla did not just stop there. He assured the media, “In case there is a problem, we will definitely find a solution.”
And boy, he did. He relocated two breeding tigresses from the core areas of Kanha and Bandhavgarh National Park also in Madhya Pradesh. This of course, in gross violation of rules of translocation laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) that prohibits removal of adult and breeding tigers from core areas of parks.
Incidentally, Kanha National Park is the worst affected in terms of tiger deaths. Over the last 14 weeks, at least 13 tigers have been lost to the park. Of these, 12 were killed by poachers although the official blame is shouldered by the proverbial and unseen intruding male tiger; while one breeding tigress was translocated.
Removing possibly a pregnant tiger from Kanha makes it possible for the forest officials to say, the tigress had mated in Panna.
While, Assam and Madhya Pradesh leads, other parks too, had their fair share of tiger deaths. In January, nine tigers were killed in Assam and Madhya Pradesh taken together and one in Bhandara in Maharashtra.
In February, two tigers were killed in Faizabad and Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, one each in Assam and Maharashtra; while two skulls, 16 kilograms of bones and skins were recovered by the army from the Manipur-Myanmar border.
This month, two were killed in Kanha alone, two in Assam, two in Corbett National Park on March 10 and March 17. On March 20, police in Bhadrawati, Maharashtra arrested three men with tiger claws and bones, while yesterday (March 25), three men with tiger skins were arrested in Kultoli, South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
The Central Government’s declaration of red alert in 17 tiger states on February 4 is a little more than a symbolic gesture as is the setting up on March 9 of the Tiger Strike Force by the State Government of Madhya Pradesh. Tiger killings continue unabated.
With elections round the corner, it is hardly the time to attend to inconsequential issues like the number of existing Bengal tigers in the country. The tiger does not vote; its extinction will not matter. So, even as the greatest democracy goes to polls and its national animal heads for sure extinction political parties of all hues and sizes remain unfazed. As for the average Indian citizens, we are busy with our all important lives to bother about animals, national or otherwise.
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