Stray tiger in amateur hunters’ crosshairs

Neha Shukla, TNN | Oct 26, 2014

Since the forest department’s team has been tracking the tiger only during the daytime, there is no one to keep a check on any illegal activity in the night.

LUCKNOW : The stray tiger's presence in Malihabad has made amateur hunters active in the area with some of them planning to shoot down the big cat and hand it over to the forest department.

"Hunting a tiger is a matter of prestige and pride for many in Maal and Malihabad. Their forefathers hunted down many wild animals and hunting was a tradition in their families," said a conservationist from the area. Locals also said that many of these hunters have begun to liaison with each other for the same.

Though hunting is an activity completely prohibited under the wildlife laws in the country, the fact remains that tigers straying out of forests has become a common occurrence in UP. Each time a tiger strays into human territory, the forest department ropes in hunters, which has made many of the old-time hunters active in the state.

Since the forest department's team has been tracking the tiger only during the daytime, there is no one to keep a check on any illegal activity in the night. Since big cats move only in the night, the tiger is vulnerable to poachers and hunters.

When a tiger had strayed out of Pilibhit in 2008 and reached Faizabad, forest department had come across few instances where locals possessing licensed firearms had tried to kill the tiger. The Pilibhit tiger had killed five humans and hence saw a lot of backlash from locals.

Trackers of the forest department do not deny that the tiger is under threat. "There is a need to deploy police in the area but that is for the district administration and not forest department to ensure," said one of the team members.

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