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Friday, September 18, 2009
Chinese year of tiger 2010 causing headaches in India
With demand for tiger parts in China rising at unprecedented rate, Indian officials are worried about further surge in tiger poaching on account of next year being the Chinese Year of the Tiger. During a recent visit for China, the minister MOEF Jairam Ramesh had raised the issue of implementing a UN mandated ban more strictly only to hear back accusations about India not doing enough to clamp down on Shatoosh shawl trade which is encouraging Chiru poaching in Tibet. Jairam Ramesh also rightly pointed out in TV interviews recently that the primary responsibil;ity of protecting tigers is India's and if we can ensure stringent laws and application of the same we can curb poaching activites to the minimal which will allow for a healthy population of tigers to survive in the wild.
Goa forest officials continue flip flop - Tiger killing Case set for quiet burial
An old saying in Hindi translated roughly means , You need to lie a 100 times to cover up one lie. This in essence sums up investigations into unforunate case of a tiger killed in Goa in March this year. After trying to hush up the incident from the very beggining, Goa Forest officials now are just waiting to close the case. Perhaps the case should also rest in peace like the soul of the dead tiger. Consider the series of events:
A tiger is killed in Mhadei wildlife sanctuary in Goa. As reports of killing reach wildlife officials they go into denial mode asking for proof rather than initiating investigations. Local journalists take pictures of the carcass which is published in newspapers. Even after that wildlife officials put the onus of getting 'concrete proof' on the journalists rather than taking congnizance of the pictures. After much media pressure investigations are initiated but vital time is lost which allows the villagers who had killed the tiger to burn the carcass. Some evidence is finally found in the form of burnt skin and sometiger parts which wildlife officials claim are from the killed tiger and samples are sent to WII Dehradun for confirmation. In the meanwhileowner of farm where the tiger parts are found is arrested by forest officials while the villagers ostracize a local who led the invetigation team to the burnt carcass. A local court releases the accused on bail since there is no evidence to even prove a tiger was killed let alone proof of the accused being involved. After being let off, the accused files a case against the forest officials for harrassment and torture in custody and bizzarely the local cops file an FIR against the forest officials. And in the final death knell to the case WII said last week that samples sent for investigation donot even belong to a tiger indicating the sample was changed before it reached them. With no evidence, no witness, investigators being harrassed it is unlikely the case will move any where. After systematically destroying the case Goa Wildlife officials have decided to form a board which will study the WII report and might advise future course of actoin which might as well be shutting the case for good.
Goa not to close tiger killing case as of now: CCF
Caputured Tadoba Cub indicates continued disappearance of tigers
In a late night incident reported extgensively in newspapers today, a man in Chandrapur distt battled and overpowered a tiger cub when he went out of his house investigate the sounds emanating from the backyard of his house. The worrisome part of this story is the missing mother of the tiger cub who might have been poached or poisoned. The cub was found to have been starving when officials took it for a medical indicating it was parted from her motherever since and not being able to hunt on its own hadnt eaten. Chandrapur has been in news for the last few years on account of a series of man animal conflict incidents leading to poisoning and killing of big cats. Recently this blog had also highlighted the mismanaged relocation policy in tadoba where villagers were shifted from their original settlements only for them to return since the new area didnt provide them any means of earning their livelihood. With angry villagers surrounding the park and govt apathy taking its toll, Tadoba's tigers are fast getting cornered from all sides with no where to run.
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