Tiger Poaching is Not Man Animal Conflict. It is Crime

Poaching is a heinous crime that is not a man-animal conflict and, this misconception has to be correctly implanted in society. Snaring, electrocution, and poisoning, all are done on the pretext of poaching for the small game thus mitigating the enormity of the crime in the public view. I do not know if any possible leniency accrues from the legal framework as such. Or is it labeled as small game poaching to address the culpability of sentinel in a more acceptable manner?  What can we do?      

Tiger

The recent snaring of a young tigress in the buffer zone of Kanha National Park adds up to another heinous crime against the beleaguered predator. Snaring is unimaginably painful and gruesome. Poaching in the buffer zones is a regular occurrence albeit the span between is reassuring but at the same time, it lulls the setup into complacency. These incidents keep on happening infrequently and some may go unnoticed by the public eye. For the death of the tiger is sometimes kept in a veil of secrecy for reasons unknown or simply to ward off public pressure.  

After every tiger poaching, there is some noise but like every crime, the act is soon forgotten. We are famous for forgetting even gruesome crimes that belie human sensibility whence precious life is concerned. We suffer from a weak memory. Although every life and every life form is precious, nonreversible incidence like the killing of big cats means the extinction of the species. Our National Animal can be killed so easily is a startling fact.        

The vast spread of our jungles and the humanity that prevails in between is an excuse enough for those in charge of the protected areas to get away. And the legal provisions are so shallow that every murderer gets bail and the case drags on and on. Though punitive measures cannot come into consideration until the act is proven but there can be some prevalent signs or logic that can come into play of the possibility of crime weighing down on the person assumed to be the culprit. Something that prevents outright bail. 

In such instances, bail is a clear getaway or escape from the grip of the law. The legal lacunae and skillful advocacy and delayed criminal proceedings are further attenuated by corruption in the courts and the clog that is present regarding the humongous number of cases is an encouragement for die-hard criminals or in this context the poachers. This criminal indulgence in tiger killing in India does not instill fear of punitive measures and its repeated occurrence is assured.            

The punitive sentence awarded is also not enough...poaching a tiger leads to jail for eleven years or so. And the indictment is rare. Why do we not consider the killing of rare and endangered megafauna on par with the murder of humans? Are we so biased against other life forms?  Not only this we continue to damage our environment through irrational resource utilization and management. And then we complain of climate instability.  

If we can be so sagacious in legislating the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 then we can consider this as well. A strong punitive measure should be in place for killing endangered species.   

Indian Conservation Ethos

We are powered by the past in conservation our fabulous Vedic civilization outshines all global ethos in according sanctity to all life forms and nature as a whole. We consider vital elements of nature as holy or sanctimonious why not the tiger or the leopard or the elephant? Is it because of past abundance and hence the lack of importance of these species? This could be true and so is the truth that we fear changing Holy sanctions even if they are not rational anymore. Things need to change with time and the prevalence of facts in the contemporary without fear of Holy wrath. Every Indian carries the ethos of the Vedic civilization within, howsoever shallow in some instances.      

The killing of big cats in India will continue unmitigated unless strongly discouraging punitive measures are put into the act.            

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Uday Works as Freelance Naturalist and Blogs on conservation, tigers, and environmental issues.

He also provides SEO and Website Content in English. He teaches Digital Marketing in Jabalpur in the summer.

He can be contacted at:

Mail: pateluday90@hotmail.com
 Mob: 09755089323

             

Tiger Conservation: The Assault Continues

Recent Tiger News!

The tiger at Balaghat was killed not by electrocution but by poisoning of the cattle kill it had made. The body was hacked to pieces after the poor animal was skinned and the claws were carefully disjointed all meant to be sold later. This is not one or rare instance but oft-repeated all over India. Sooner or later these culprits will be let off on bail. 

Male tigers whence they reach adulthood often have to look for vacant territories outside the protected areas and it is here that they are most vulnerable. Since the prey base is thin outside most of the PAs the predator resorts to cattle lifting thus raising the ire of the locals. 

In the case of this tiger, the cattle kill he made was left untended and hence easily poisoned. As per the NTCA guidelines, such kills have to be taken under control by the department with immediate effect and the carcass removed from the vicinity. This is an effective mechanism to prevent the poisoning of carcasses under vengeance or malice. In this case, the motive seems to be trafficking or for sales to local consumers.

Sold to whom?   

We blame the Chinese TCM but there are consumers within us! This horrific episode points towards it. A long time back I received a call from a lady politician from Gujarat who was seeking tiger claws to use as a talisman for her sick mother. I made her understand that these beliefs are taking a heavy toll of endangered species and should be stopped not only for their ineffectiveness but also to conserve the dwindling numbers. It seemed difficult to make her understand so I disconnected.  

Albeit not in a huge number of animal parts in India are used for their supposed medicinal value. The uromastix is an open case and a decade back I have seen its oil extracted by boiling it live and being sold openly in a weekly bazaar in Jabalpur. Who cares!

The reliance on animal parts for medical consumption is more in the Orient where traditions loom large and research-based scientific approach is comparatively low. 

The plant-based medicine seems to be more effective as in the case of Ayurveda but here also substantiated research is lacking. If the practice is threatening rare plants we do not know? If such plants/vegetative matter are used at all for medicinal purposes then their inclusion should be monitored and cultivation encouraged ravaging wild species will be detrimental to conservation in our country.      

Some time back a tiger was electrocuted in the buffer zone of Kanha National Park. The animal died a horrible death from the power of 11 KVA transmission lines that have become a death knell for wildlife in India. In this case, too the culprits were let off within a few months on bail. 

Though salient features are ingrained in the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 the complexities of the law in India make it difficult to negotiate a wildlife crime. The callous attitude towards these acts may be another reason for repeated violations since the punitive measures may not be discouraging enough. 

Do we sensitize our judiciary?

Well though there are judges and lawyers who understand the gravity of these crimes this cannot be said of the whole community. It is through voice and write-ups we can sensitize not only the legal practitioners and the guardians of law we need to sensitize other administrative bodies as well. 

Whence it comes to wildlife offenses the core focus remains on the forest department which probably may have little executive powers regarding such heinous acts... The protection granted to wildlife in India is not the purview of the forest department in isolation, other administrative bodies like the police department should play a proactive and extremely supportive role. 

Tiger conservation or wildlife conservation in the entity is a holistic exercise where a supportive role is required from many corners. Until this does not happen we will continue to lose endangered species in the country. Merely enacting laws will hardly deter the perpetrators of crime against the mute animals.   

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Uday work as a naturalist at Kanha National Park in India
He writes on conservation.
Mail: pateluday90@hotmail.com 

Debacle at Pench - Poaching of Tigers

The poaching of Bagin Nala Tigress and her cubs reminds me of my first visit to the park at River Pench. 

In that bright sunny day I could feel that I was in a tiger heaven just as Kipling had penned in his famous Jungle Book. I could imagine Mowgli along with the wolf pack waving at me from behind the dense canopy that lined attentively all along the road to Karmajhiri.  

The forest ranger had given me a lift generously from Khawasa but was in no mood to elaborate what lay all along us. In his deep husky drawl he informed me, "animals here are larger." And then there was silence as we moved on to the final destination the forest rest house.    

Those enamored by negative fall out of tourism..there were no hotels then as tourism was in infancy.  Few people from Nagpur made day visits for excursions.  

Seoni Hills and surrounding forests of Chindwara were once abode of the tigers and teemed with wildlife. Most of the forests have been denuded in the last few decades, but the ecosystem is still intact in the Pench Tiger Reserve that engulfs Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra border region on the Jabalpur Nagpur highway.  

The tiger was in the precarious state whence I arrived at Pench. Along with the tiger, other animals were being electrocuted using the 11 KVA line that passed through. The villagers had access through the park, possibly translocation had still not taken place?

The charred remains of the tiger unnerved me no end, the seat of the administration at that time was Karmajhiri barely two kilometers away. Other animals besides a poacher were charred to death using this hideous method.

The countenance of those responsible for protection of  wilderness was, at best could be described as shocking. There were more explanation for the events than action...

Tigress Pench

Tigress with cubs at Pench

and as we see in India all things gradually fizzle out. It did.

The shocking incidence at Pench is suggestive of prevailing presence of  the poaching fraternity, and nothing has been done regarding this. The wildlife is still in danger thanks to ineffective mechanisms and lack of will to foresee what threats are emerging. Is there a proactive strategy in place?   

The animals are surviving somehow, but a noose hangs around them all the time. After engaging abundant resource we could not prevent the murder of the most popular tigress. The fate of  many a big cats hangs in balance...entirely at the mercy of humans. 

Photo Credit: Dharmagiri