Man,tiger rift deepens

The Times of India Online
Printed from timesofindia.indiatimes.com > India
Man-tiger rift deepens
Abantika Ghosh
[ 12 Jan, 2007 0241hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: Barely a few months into the formation of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, three back-to-back incidents in three tiger reserves across the country over the last one week, have once again brought the problem of man animal conflict into sharp focus. Two tigers and one woman were killed in three separate incidents.

On Wednesday Kishenpur Sanctuary under the Dudhwa tiger reserve in UP, about 35-40 kg meat without any skin or bone was discovered. Senior forest officials visited the spot and sent the meat for DNA testing to the Wildlife Institute of India and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute.

Md Hassan, chief wildlife warden of the state said, "The meat had very small amounts of skin attached. Moreover there were absolutely no bones. The two circumstances make it look like a case of tiger poaching. We have sent the meat for forensic examinations but we are working on the hypotheses that it is tiger meat."

On Thursday morning, the partially decomposed body of a dead tiger was fished out of a well in Katwal Village in the Tadoba Andheri Tiger Reserve in Maharshtra. The body has been sent for forensic tests. Forest department sources say it initial suspicions are that this may be a case of retaliatory killing by poisoning. A tiger in the area had over the past few months killed several cows.

While the two incidents have left tiger conservationists worried, forest officials in Uttaranchal are gearing up to prevent retaliatory killings like those in the wake of a villager being killed by a tiger in the Terai East division of Corbett National Park in the Surai Range. On January 5, a 32-year-old woman Naro Devi who had gone to the forest to collect firewood, was mauled to death by a tiger. Tempers are running high and the forest department, a particularly worried about the safety of one tigress who has been sighted several times in the area along with her three cubs, has deputed extra personnel to ‘‘talk to the villagers’’.

K Vidyasagar, divisional forest officer of the Terai east division told TOI, "There have been several sightings of the tigress. Though we do not know if she killed the woman, we have made arrangements to ensure her and the cubs’ safety. We have to be careful though so as not to curtail her territory any further in our efforts to ensure their safety." The forest department, he said, has made alternate routes for villagers who go to collect firewood.