BENGALURU: A recent case of an elephant being shot at by a forester and the debate on poaching at the state assembly and all-India forest officials’ meeting have shown that poachers continue to roam free in the forests of Karnataka.At the meeting of heads of forest departments from across the country, Karnataka officials revealed that the largest number of sightings of poachers with weapons was at the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) and that too in areas bordering Tamil Nadu. The foresters had data with photographic evidence of poachers captured on camera traps in core areas of the forests.
To ensure that poachers are caught with sufficient evidence, Karnataka forest officials have decided to tighten vigil by deploying more staff, adding more cameras and holding more meetings with their counterparts from Tamil Nadu. In the last two years, only two division-level meetings have been held with their Tamil Nadu counterparts, admitted CWS and Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) officials.
“The threat of poaching is the highest in areas bordering Tamil Nadu, especially towards CWS and BNP. There is a threat at other forest patches too, but the most number of poachers have been captured on camera traps at CWS when compared to other forest patches. Karnataka houses the largest elephant population and uses the highest man-elephant conflict measures, but it still records many conflict cases,” Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, Sanjai Mohan, told The New Indian Express.
CWS staffers have found 11 cases of poachers being sighted with weapons from 2014 till December 2018. The camera traps showed poachers with guns, dogs, machetes and snares. BNP officials, however, reported to have captured only one such instance, where three poachers were caught with weapons in 2019. Forest officials added that at other tiger reserves, including Bandipur, Nagarhole, Kali and Bhadra, there is more staff and patrolling is stringent so poaching activities are less.
The CWS camera traps showed poachers walking with weapons, placing snares and hunting animals like sambar. “Poachers patrol the area mainly searching for tuskers. They make do with other wildlife when they are unsuccessful. They use dogs to sniff out and chase animals or use them as bait to capture tigers or leopards. Data analysis of the number of pelts recovered from areas bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is being done to draw up the next course of action,” a CWS official said.
The official added that they have been asking the government to deploy more staff, especially youth, to the wildlife division, as footfall is high and the area is vulnerable to poachers. “It has been observed that poachers now know where the cameras are placed and our ways of nabbing them. So they have changed their modus operandi. To catch them, we need young recruits to go for longer hours in the field. We also need more cameras to be installed in new locations,” the official added.