CHENNAI: Days after the carcass of a five-year-old male tiger was found in Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve, seven people were arrested in the case on Friday. Sources said the carnivore died a painful death after being caught in a snare suspected to have been laid for hunting small animals such as wild boars.
The news comes on the eve of Global Tiger Day when the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) will be releasing the tiger census data.
Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas R Reddy told TNIE, “It was a case of poaching, but not directly targeted at killing the tiger. The snare was laid to poach smaller animals like wild boar. The tiger’s nails, upper and lower canines were intact. It is very unfortunate to lose a young tiger to such an incident.” R Kanchana, head of Tamil Nadu Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, said the information was received on July 25.
“Our team in coordination with Satymangalam forest officials located the carcass, which was already 20 days old. Postmortem revealed the tiger died due to neck injury caused by a snare.” Authorities said workers were regularly carrying out perambulation exercises. Around 30 snares were removed recently. There is even a separate snare patrolling team, they said.
Forest dept has a lot of catching up to do, allege local activists
Local activists, however, said it was a failure on the part of the forest department. “The snare was laid in the Kothamangalam area which was just 150 metres from the forest boundary. The tiger carcass was found 1.5 km inside the forest. It’s not too deep to go undetected for 20 days. The department must intensify its efforts in preventing such unfortunate deaths.”
As per the Status of Tigers 2022 report, only 824 unique tigers were recorded in the Western Ghats against the estimated population of 981 in 2018 indicating a decline in some regions. The state-wise data will be released by NTCA on Saturday.
The Nilgiri cluster is home to the world’s largest tiger population, but recent data show a decrease in tiger occupancy throughout the Western Ghats, except in a few areas like Kali (Anshi Dandeli). While tiger populations within protected areas have either remained stable or increased, tiger occupancy outside of these regions has significantly decreased, sources said.
For example, beyond the protected area of the Anamalai-Parambikulam complex, a decrease in tiger occupancy was observed. However, the state government is confident that tiger numbers in Tamil Nadu are healthy considering the fact that five tiger reserves have scored well in Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE ). The Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) and Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) are in fact rated “excellent” and are among the top 12 best-managed reserves in the country.
However, activists allege that the forest department has a lot of catching up to do.