Mahua flower collectors poison tigress, her cubs near Tadoba, 3 arrested

After the carcasses of three tigers were found in a span of five days (June 10-14) in the buffer area of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Chandrapur, the forest

After the carcasses of three tigers were found in a span of five days (June 10-14) in the buffer area of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Chandrapur, the forest department on Wednesday arrested three people that confessed to poisoning the big cats.

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On Tuesday evening, forest officials had detained three villagers from Kondegaon, Moharli in the buffer of TATR - Suryabhan Thackeray, 60, Shravan Madabi, 47, and Narendra Dadmal, 49 - for questioning.

“All three confessed to the crime during overnight questioning and were arrested on Wednesday afternoon. They will be produced before a local court for their quantum of punishment on Thursday,” said Nitin Kakodkar, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife).

According to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, an offence involving a species listed in Schedule-I (Tiger) attracts imprisonment of three years, which may be extended to seven years depending on the severity of the crime committed. There is also a mandatory fine of at least ₹10,000.

Based on their confession, they intended to kill the tigers by poisoning a wild boar, said Kakodkar. “The villagers are Mahua flower (Madhuca longifolia) collectors. After fermenting and distilling the flowers to make country liquor, the dried remains were left near the village, where the accused added poison to kill a wild boar for their own consumption. However, after spotting that there were tigers in the area for a few days, they laid poison on the remainder of the boar’s carcass,” said Kakodkar.

On June 10, the forest department found the carcass of an adult tigress near Kondegaon talao, Moharli range in compartment number 956. The area is non-forest land in the buffer of TATR, but in close proximity to the adjoining core zone. On June 14, the carcass of two sub-adult tigers, the tigress’ cubs, were found 300 m away from the one recovered on June 10. The department had said since all three tigers did not have injury marks and all body parts were intact, infighting or poaching was ruled out while they suspected death by poisoning. The carcasses of two langurs were also found in the area on June 14. The post-mortem of the adult tigress had shown that she had consumed a wild boar shortly before her death.

Meanwhile, the forest department suspects there could be a third cub of the tigress, which may have also died. “We were informed that the mother had three cubs. We have not been able to find the third cub’s body yet but search operations are underway across the buffer area at the moment,” Kakodkar said.

There have been seven tiger deaths in Maharashtra this year, of which six have been reported from Chandrapur, in and around TATR. As opposed, 22 people have been killed in tiger attacks this year across the state, 18 deaths involving mahua, tendu or other forest produce collectors.