Tigers poached in connivance with forst staff at Panna: Government report

TNN | Nov 9, 2011, 03.58AM IST In a detailed investigation, carried out by the field director, who is in-charge of Panna Tiger Reserve, it emerged that forest staff on occasions were involved in destroying evidence of poaching. NEW DELHI: Tigers in Madhya Pradesh's Panna Tiger Reserve were poached in connivance with forest officials, an internal state government report has admitted. But the state government, despite repeated requests from the Union environment and forests ministry, has refused to constitute a CBI probe as was done in the wipe-out of the elusive wild cats in Rajasthan's Sariska Tiger Reserve. The report submitted in January to the state government - a scathing indictment of the forest department for hiding facts and acting in collusion with poaching networks - came to light, thanks to an application by Madhya Pradesh-based RTI activist Ajay Dubey. In a detailed investigation, carried out by the field director, who is in-charge of Panna Tiger Reserve, it emerged that forest staff on occasions were involved in destroying evidence of poaching. In one case, forest officers, the field director said, took a bribe to suppress evidence of poaching. He has demanded a thorough investigation into forest officials working in cahoots with poaching gangs that operate in Panna. The officer notes that there are sufficient evidence to show active involvement of staff in poaching, and also in destroying of evidence in some cases. The report notes that at least once the ``mighty feudal structure played its part in manipulating" the case. To make matters worse, when well-connected people were caught poaching, they were let off by senior forest officials. The current field director has recommended that forest officials - starting from forest guards to his predecessor- be interrogated. "The area is infested with heavy poaching. With staff's omissions and commissions the crime nexus is complete from the scene of crime to New Delhi," he records. The local population has no sympathy left for tigers or the reserve because the creation of the park has hit them hard, the official says and warns that no park can survive without empathy from them. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Tigers-poached-in-connivance-with-staff-at-Panna-Government-report/articleshow/10661307.cms