Ranthambore National Park authorities believe poaching could be the reason
It's increasingly worrisome at the Ranthambore National Park (RNP), with 15 tigers disappearing in the past two years. Of these missing tigers, five have disappeared in the past six months. Experts believe that in such a situation poaching couldn’t be ruled out.
The
five tigers missing for the past six months — whose whereabouts are not
known to the forest authorities —included four males and two females.
The male tigers are five-yearold T-47 (popularly known as Mohan); and T-
55, T-64 and T-65 —all about three year old; besides the female tiger
T48, which is about five year old.
The three-year-old T-64 is one of the five big cats which have been missing from Ranthambore National Park
Clueless foresters
While
divisional forest officer Sudarshan Sharma said these were sub-adult
tigers that were perhaps busy in carving out their own territories,
chief wildlife warden S.N. Singh conceded that some tigers of
Ranthambore were missing and the officers concerned were directed to
find them out.
However,
the authorities have failed to find the whereabouts of three other big
cats that are missing for the past 10 months to 18 months. These tigers —
T-67 and T-68, both aged four years, and cub of tigress T-41 — are
missing for the past 18 months. Similarly, another twoyear- old cub of
tigress T41 is missing for about 10 months.
RNP
tiger expert Dhirendra Godha asserted that their disappearance and the
failure of the authorities to track them expose the poor system of
monitoring the animals in the park. He alleged that the past history of
the park did not rule out the possibility of poaching in the sanctuary.
Initial
indications of poaching of Ranthambore big cats emerged some two years
back when tigress T-17 disappeared from the park, leaving behind her
three newborn cubs. Initially the forest authorities claimed that the
tigress must be around, notwithstanding the fact that a tigress would
never desert her cubs. But the tigress never returned. RNP sources
conceded that she had developed the habit of roaming near the hilly
track bordering the park where illegal mining had been going on. And the
obvious inference was that she was killed at the instance of the mining
mafia, sources added.
During
the search operation to track T-17, a degenerated carcass was found
near village Bhid and its viscera was sent to the Wildlife Institute of
India (WII). The WII, in turn, reported that the carcass belonged to a
leopard that was poisoned and sought a detailed report. The detailed
report was never sent and the matter was allegedly hushed up.
Around
that time another tigress numbered T31 disappeared in similar
circumstances, leaving behind its two six-month-old cubs. The incident
was never investigated. Similarly in December 2012 a big cat was killed
by poisoning and the forest officials could not identify the animal
after its carcass was found in Khandar region. Even its sex couldn’t be
determined either as its rear portion was missing.
These
are not the only tigers whose whereabouts couldn’t be traced so far.
Two tigers, T40 and T21, have been missing since 2010 and three big
cats, tiger T29 and two tigresses T27 and T14, have been missing since
2011. Significantly, though tiger T21 was collared, the forest
department has failed to find it out so far.
Not
ruling out the possibility of their poaching, Sunayan Sharma, president
of Sariska Tiger Foundation, an NGO working on the tigers, said that
the most neglected aspect in the states’ sanctuaries was the habitat
management. Tourism, a by-product of sanctuaries, was given top
priority. It was for this reason monitoring of the animals was put on
the backburner, he opined.
Godha
asserted that a monitoring cell comprising senior experts must be set
up in Jaipur to keep a track of the tigers in the sanctuaries and this
must not be left only to the field staff and local officials.
Ignorance
Meanwhile,
expressing ignorance over the disappearance of tigers Rajasthan
Minister of State for Forest Raj Kumar Rinwa said that on Wednesday a
meeting of Ranthambore officers was held where the officers claimed
everything was fine. “The only thing that I was told that at times
tigers from RNP strayed away to Madhya Pradesh. But if so many tigers
were missing I would seek information in detail and further action would
be taken,” he asserted.
Significantly,
it was in the same fashion that Sariska became tiger-less in 2004 when
officials claimed everything to be fine but the tigers disappeared
mainly due to poaching, pointed out a tiger expert. Subsequently, a
tiger reintroduction programme was taken up in 2008.
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