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6 big cats netted in a year in Kerala’s Wayanad; Govt to study hike in incursion
Kerala forest minister A K Saseendran said the state government has decided to create a master plan to check increasing attacks of wild animals
Amid recurring wildlife incursions in human habitat in north Kerala’s Wayanad, an internal communiqué of the forest department leaked in the public domain has purportedly said that there is a sharp increase in tiger spotting in the district and the number of big cats in the forest periphery could be as high as 10.
A senior official, when contacted, neither confirmed nor denied the letter but admitted that there is a sharp hike in tiger spotting by field employees of the forest department who carry out regular survey of areas falling under their jurisdiction. Some of the spotted big cats were not in the forest department’s database.
Last Saturday, a 10-year-old male tiger that killed a farmer was darted and moved to the animal nursing centre. But local residents’ relief was short-lived after another domestic animal was reportedly killed by a big cat. The district witnessed a shutdown last week and the authorities called an all-party meeting on Monday.
“We have decided to create a master plan to check increasing attacks of wild animals. We will rope in experts and hear local people in detail. We will also hike relief package for affected people and ensure its speedy disposal,” forest minister A K Saseendran said after the all-party meeting. The government has asked the Kerala forest research institute to study “unusual sightings of tiger and recurring incursion of wild elephants in human habitats,” he added.
Meanwhile, the number of captured tigers in the custody of the forest department has risen to five now and they are planning to approach the National Tiger Conservation Authority to shift some of these animals to zoos, said the official quoted above who did not want to be named.
Six tigers have been captured in a year in Wayanad out of which one died later and five have been taken to the rescue centre.
But experts said without proper studies it is difficult to say there is a rise in tiger population and sightings and they blamed activists and farmers’ bodies for blowing it out of proportion that triggered panic in the district.
In a recent interview, the chief veterinary surgeon of forest department, Dr Arun Zachariah had said that a Siberian tiger needs 3,000 sq m and a tiger in Wayanad gets less than 2 sq km area only. He said that there were 157 tigers in Wayanad and the total forest area was 344 sq kms.
However, wildlife expert Dr P S Esa said it was ridiculous to compare Siberian tigers with Asian tigers.
“This comparison is not right and triggers panic. Habitat, endurance food habit and living environment of both are different. True, Wayanad is a complex situation. There are many settlements inside forest and cattle grassing is also rampant,” said Esa
“Wild animals’ move is based on resources. There are no boundaries for animals and they move around for resources. We need proper studies to pinpoint such issues,” he said adding that it was high time to do a post-mortem on measures taken all these years to check animal incursions and efficacy of such steps. He said crores of rupees were spent to check animal incursions but there were no serious studies on efficacy of these steps.
But protesting farmers say they need a permanent solution and human beings should get priority over wild animals.
“We cannot live like this. Our movements were crippled due to frequent animal attacks. Human lives also matter. Hundreds of farmers have left their profession and there were many suicides also,” said P K Devsia, a farmer who suffered big loss a couple of weeks ago after an elephant herd raided his farm.
“We need proper control measures to check multiplying numbers of wild animals and many countries in the world do it regularly. Similarly, harmful ones should be killed. Here all talk big about forest and wild animals but lives of people near forests are in peril,” said Kerala Independent Farmers Association chairman Alex Ozhukayil. Last week the government had announced its plan to approach the Supreme Court with a plea to restrict the number of wild animals in forests.
