Speedy justice is important for Prevention of future crime

It is shocking how in our country criminals are able to find so many loopholes in the system to be able to evade any meaningful punishment for prolonged periods of time. Justice dealyed is justide denied and how well are we at denying that to the main focus of conservation efforts in india ; the tiger. In a shocking case of miscarriage of justice a poacher in was convicted by a Pilibhit court apparently after having run a poaching racket for well over 2 decades. According to the report in Indian Express an officials associated with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau “The gang, operating as poachers, carriers and traders of tiger skin, bones, has been active for at least 30 years before it caught our attention in 2005,” .

30 years for a criminal to operate without being caught can not happen with out official complicity & apathy, a fact that still is not under any sort of

investigation. This poacher and her gang has been under the lens of wild life officials numerous times in the last decade or so and still managed to run her operations with impunity, killing tigers under the noses of forest officials. No wonder we have become masters at paying lip service to tiger conservation and our efforts are falling way short of what is required of us. Though the WCCB officials are hopeful that this conviction will help bring poaching of tigers under some control in UP but going by the amount of time it has taken to achieve it one feels poachers in the state will be emboldened to increase their illegal activities since law might not catch with them for a very long time.

If there is an area the state government and MOEF need to fix apart from saving tiger habitats from encroachment they dont need to look beyond this story. Strengthening of wildlife crime bureaux, arming forest officials with better equipment and giving them more power, setting up fast track courts for wild life crimes and making bail provisions more stringent for suspected poachers will go a long way in acting as detterants for wild life related crimes.

Forest dept relieved as master poacher is behind the bars

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/forest-dept-relieved-as-master-poacher-is-behind-the-bars/487926/

Tiger farming might be the last resort to save tigers

There have been arguments galore about whether this will work or not but for all we know there might be no other option left for us if we want to see the big cat alive in real flesh in its natural habitat. Though conservationists across the board have consistently argued about how it is an unworkable idea and how it will not bring in the expected drop in demand for wild tiger parts. In fact to the contrary people belive it might actually stimulate further demand for tiger parts and hence be detrimental to the conservation efforts but one can not ignoare the fact that the pace at which countries like India are loosing tiger to loss of habitat and poaching we might not have any tigers left out side of zoos anyway in another decade's time. Despite the intense pressure being brought about by the green lobby in the past few years and the PMs sporadic efforts at tiger conservation and the role played by the media, some fundamental problems facing tiger conservation in India are not being addressed. As some media reports have suggested, India lost some 45 odd tigers in the last 6months and possiblly more unaccounted ones too. At such a rate of loss once you also factor in loss of habitat to iundustrialisation and farming the future of saving the tiger from extinction in India doesnt look very bright. At most we might be able to have smaller areas inside so called reserves with tigers being allowed to roam inside fenced boundaries. A glorified Zoo is what will be left of the sanctuaries with very few number of tigers and considerably weakened gene pool to sustain future populations. Given all of this it might not be a bad idea for the the MOEF to constitute a committe of scientists and experts from the field of tiger conservation to study the topic in detail and evaluate whether we should look at such a possiblity in the future if not now and how do we prepare for it.

http://www.zeenews.com/news546010.html

Experts suggest tiger breeding to quash poaching