‘Conduct probe to find missing tiger’

NAGPUR: The National Tiger Conservation Authority will be asked to conduct a probe into the iconic tiger, Jai that went missing on April 18 from the Umred-Karhandla wildlife sanctuary near Nagpur, announced the union minister of state for environment and forests, Anil Dave.

HT Image

Dave, who was in Nagpur on Wednesday, met with the state wildlife warden, Shree Bhagwan and noted the latest developments regarding the issue. “I will instruct the concerned authority to take the issue seriously and to conduct an inquiry,” he added.

He spoke of the growing menace of poaching in the country and said the government would seek help from Interpol and the agencies of neighbouring countries, such as Bangladesh and Nepal to prevent poaching.

Maharashtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s request regarding a CBI probe into the missing tiger took a new turn amid speculation that the big cat was poached.

Jai, named after actor Amitabh Bachchan’s character in the 1975 Hindi blockbuster Sholay, migrated into the Umred-Karhandla sanctuary by travelling 150km from the Nagzira-Navegaon tiger reserve of Gondia-Bhandara district in September 2013. It went on to father more than 20 cubs. The big cat was radio-collared by wildlife expert Bilal Habib last year, but the link failed after a few months.

Mungantiwar met union home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi on Tuesday and requested him launch a CBI probe into the matter as his own party MP Nana Patole said Jai had been poached. Patole wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said two more tigers from the region had been poached in connivance with the forest department officials.

Patole said he would give evidence when a high-level probe is launched. He described the massive search operation for Jai, launched by the forest department, as a mere “cover-up”.

Talking to HT, Mungantiwar said, “He (Patole) should provide evidence that Jai had been poached.”

As a section of wildlife-lovers and forest officials said the tiger was alive while some people, including Patole said it was poached, the state demanded a CBI probe into the incident, he said.

The Maharashtra forest minister said the union home minister Rajnath Singh responded to the request positively and he hoped that a CBI inquiry would soon be launched. Dave said he had no objection to the probe.