GUWAHATI, Feb 7 – With nine tiger deaths reported in and around Kaziranga National Park within a short duration, the forest department has found itself under a cloud. What has raised concerns is the fact that so many deaths of a highly protected species have not been reported from any parts of the Northeast in recent times.
Most of the deaths took place in Agaratoli, the eastern range of the 860 sq km park that spreads across the south bank of the Brahmaputra.
Significantly, information acquired by The Assam Tribune have revealed that technical manpower and infrastructure for protection of tigers is absent in the national park even though Kaziranga has been declared a Project Tiger months ago. Funds earmarked for a Project Tiger area has also not been made available.
Top officials in the Forest Department while acknowledging that several deaths occurred within a short period, maintain that the deaths cannot be linked to poaching as reported in a section of the media. Unlike situations in poaching, in almost all the cases the remains of the tigers have been reported.
The Forest Department claims that three of the tigers died due to old age, one died of infighting, and another due to injuries caused by a wild buffalo. One of the tigers was have been killed by poisoning, which could be traced to a revenge motive.
Chief Wildlife Warden MC Malakar told The Assam Tribune that the deaths of three tigers are yet to be ascertained, while discounting media reports that a poaching outfit from North India has shifted base to Assam. “We have our intelligence network in place, and so far we have not received any such inputs of poachers entering Kaziranga,” he remarked.
Here it is interesting to note that the Chief Wildlife Warden, when asked about the population of tigers in Kaziranga, refrained to quote any figure, saying that proper estimation has not been done in and around the park.
Commenting on the situation, noted environmentalist Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar of the conservation group Aaranyak, said he found it difficult to believe that several tigers could be poached inside Kaziranga as has been mentioned in a section of the media. He, however, added that every death must be investigated till the logical conclusion.
Officials at Kaziranga National Park have admitted that no funds have been received under Project Tiger, and no specialised training for protection of tigers have been provided to the front line personnel of Kaziranga.
