Villager falls prey to tiger in Maharashtra

NAGPUR: The raging tiger-human conflict claimed one more life in rural area of Chandrapur district on Thursday.

Sixty-year-old Tuljabai Jambhole of village Shedegaon in Chimur range had gone with other villagers to collect Mahua flowers, when the tiger attacked her around 8 am in the forests along the peripheral area of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), forest officials said. The woman died on the spot.

The spot where the incident occurred is about two km from the place where the previous victim, Bhaurao Masram of Jhari village, had been killed by the tiger on April 4, officials said. They suspect it is the same tiger. The two deaths have spread panic in the villages in the area.

On April 1, a tiger had killed a 30-year-old man on the other side of the forests in Bramhapuri division when he had gone to collect the Mahua flowers, which is an important livelihood source for the impoverished villagers living around the tiger reserve.

The forest department is running a corridor conservation programme in the conflict areas to mitigate the crisis that first precipitated in 2006 and has been aggravating ever since. The area is the biggest tiger-man conflict zone in the country, experts say.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_villager-falls-prey-to-tiger-in-maharashtra_1371904

Officials seize a tiger skin from poachers in Tamil Nadu

Mudumalai (Tamil Nadu), Apr 15 (ANI): The Tamil Nadu Forest Department officials recovered a tiger skin from a seven-member gang on Thursday in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve of the state's Niligiri District.

The seizure has once again highlighted the revival of poaching of tigers in the Western Ghats.

Acting on a tip off, the officials nabbed five suspects, before they could sell the tiger skin to a customer.

Officials said that other two members of the gang managed to flee from the scene.

According to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve Field Director, Rajesh Srivatsava, the hunt to nab the other two is on.

"Earlier in the morning today, they recovered the tusk and arrested five accused near Anakati area in Niligiri north division. Whole investigation was going on today. Still two accused are absconding," Srivatsava said.

"We are searching for them and definitely, we are confident that we will still arrest them and we will take stringent action against all concerned," he added.

The Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary was declared as Tiger Reserve in 2007.

According to a recent tiger census, there are just 35 tigers left in Mudumali.

Poaching and loss of habitat have resulted in the dwindling of the big cats population at an alarming rate.

India is a key player in efforts to boost the global tiger population, which numbers just a few thousand which, certain wildlife experts feel could be extinct in another two decades.

Conservationists say the trade in skin and bones is booming to countries such as China, which has banned the use of tiger parts in medicine but where everything from fur to whiskers to eyeballs to bones, are still used.(ANI)

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/04/15/officialsseize-a-tiger-skin-from-poachers-in-tamilnadu.html