A day after the Orissa high court rapped the state government over poaching of a tusker and burning of the carcass in Similipal Tiger Reserve, police on Wednesday seized the hide of a Royal Bengal Tiger on the outskirts of the reserve, further raising concerns about the safety of wild animals in the protected area.
Officials of Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police dealing with wildlife cases seized the hide in a staged operation from a wildlife trader in
A day after the Orissa high court rapped the state government over poaching of a tusker and burning of the carcass in Similipal Tiger Reserve, police on Wednesday seized the hide of a Royal Bengal Tiger on the outskirts of the reserve, further raising concerns about the safety of wild animals in the protected area.
Officials of Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police dealing with wildlife cases seized the hide in a staged operation from a wildlife trader in Udala, which falls under the buffer zone of the tiger reserve spread over an area of 2,750 sq km.
Police have arrested one of the three people involved in the case.
STF chief JN Pankaj said the tiger hide was being sent to Wildllife Institute of India, Dehradun, to ascertain the tiger’s age and when it was poached.
While the tiger hide was seized, according to STF officials, the trader also went on to offer another tiger skin, a leopard hide and an elephant tusk. “We were taken aback with the ease with which they negotiated with us. The tiger skin that was seized was not fully dry which indicated that the big cat was killed a couple of months ago. The poachers also appeared skilled as they peeled off the skin along with nails of tiger,” said Vanoomitra Acharya, former honorary wildlife warden of the reserve who posed as a buyer on behalf of STF during the operation.
On Tuesday, the HC expressed deep concern over rising deaths of elephants in the reserve, and criticised the inadequate action taken by the state government to prevent them.
In 2022-23, at least 61 elephants in Odisha died so far, while 97 people were killed in man-elephant conflict, according to state forest department data.
“We are reacting to a situation all the time, but not preventing anything from happening. So what are the preventive measures we have to put in place and how quickly we can put in place. Because this has been a very bad year for elephants in Odisha. It is perhaps the worst year. There is something going wrong terribly,” Chief Justice S Muralidhar said while hearing the case of destruction of evidence of elephant poaching.
Following the HC observation, the state government charged the three officials with destruction of evidence and arrested them under Wildlife Protection Act.
The seizure of the tiger hide a week after the poaching of the sub-adult tusker in Jenabil range, part of the core area of the reserve, has also raised questions about the level of protection measures in one of the biggest wildlife reserves of the country.
Willdife activists said that the seizure of the tiger skin from the buffer zone of the reserve showed that not much has changed since 2010, when the staff of the tiger reserve had burnt and buried the carcasses of at least 14 elephants, seven of which were killed by poachers in April and May that year.
An independent inquiry committee of the National Tiger Conservation Authority at the time had recommended action against the field staff, besides measures such as introducing wildlife crime intelligence gathering system, and greater supervision over park management. “Most of the recommendations by the NTCA team in 2010 as well as the ones made by another team of NTCA in 2009 have been ignored by the authorities. The discovery of the elephant carcass last week could happen due to a few alert villagers. There could be more such cases in the reserve as protection measures are extremely poor,” said Biswajit Mohanty, a noted wildlife activist.
Mohanty also highlighted the dwindling number of tigers in the reserve. “In 2016, the state government’s own tiger census put the tigers in Similipal at 26. In 2018, the all India estimation of tigers found the numbers to be 16. In 2006, the state government had claimed 101 tigers in the reserve. With the poachers having a free run in the reserve, it would not be long before Similipal becomes Satkosia tiger reserve where not a single tiger is left,” he said.
In August this year, two suspected poachers were arrested after they entered the core area at Jenabil range of the reserve to hunt wild animals and damaging the trap cameras to destroy evidence. In June, four poachers were arrested and three country-made guns seized from them for hunting a sambar. In April, unidentified poachers fired at a forest protection assistant in the Talabandh forest beat under the Dukura forest range of the reserve from countrymade guns leaving him grievously injured. In March, 8 people were arrested for starting a fire, attempted poaching, and illicit felling in the core as well as buffer zones. More than half a dozen axes, bows, arrows, nets and matchboxes were seized from their possession while they were allegedly setting fire to the forest for poaching.
In September 2020, a leopard skin was seized from a 40-year-old poacher inside the reserve while in November 2017 armed poachers fired at an ill-equipped protection unit in the core area.
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