Ramnagar among hot spots of tiger poaching: Report

The Pioneer , Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Correspondent : Paritosh Kimothi
The Uttarakhand Forest department and State police recently received the Clark R Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award at the 16th Conference of Parties (CoP) of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) for undertaking nearly 100 seizures of illegally trafficked wildlife from April 2010 to August 2012.

However, TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network, has identified Ramnagar, adjoining the Corbett national park in Uttarakhand, as one of the five hotspots of tiger poaching and wildlife crime activities in the nation.

Apart from Ramnagar, the TRAFFIC report titled “Reduced to Skin and Bones Revisited” identifies Sunderban, Balaghat, Jabalpur and Satyamangalam as hotspots of poaching in India. Referring to the hotspot in Uttarakhand, the report states, “The town integral to this hotspot is Ramnagar, which sits close to the entrance of Corbett national park. There exists also an arterial route that runs through the park and leads up to the Nepalese border which is open from India. Corbett had previously been cited as one of the densely populated tiger reserves in India. Though Corbett and the adjacent Ramnagar forest division have healthy tiger populations, they remain prime targets for poachers and in 2012, a poaching group were found hiding out in the protected zone of the park with traps. Tiger skins were most commonly seized from this location.”

Wildlife activists have for long been calling for improved wildlife security in Ramnagar forest division not only because of the poaching risk, but also because it is believed to host about 30 tigers apart from elephants, leopards and other wildlife. This year, a tigress was found dead in the Dechauri range in the first week of March after which a cub tigress was found dead some days ago. Though officials attribute both the deaths to natural causes, wildlife activists point out that human role in these deaths cannot be discounted considering the vicinity of human settlements.

Ramnagar divisional forest officer PS Srivastav told The Pioneer, “This forest division is open on all the sides as the boundaries are not intact. Various roads pass through this division which also has many settlements which increase the probability of undesirable activities. We have limited resources compared to Corbett, but are trying our best to ensure the desired level of wildlife security here,” he said.

The Wildlife Protection Society of India, Uttarakhand in-charge Rajendra Agrawal, stressed on the need for further improving wildlife security adding that peripheral areas like Nagina-Dhampur, Nandhaur valley, Fatehpur, Belpadao and Kotabagh in this region are very sensitive from the view point of wildlife crimes.

Notorious tiger poachers Sansar Chand and Dariya, too, had their bases in Ramnagar. The town is also the centre of most wildlife tourism activities in Corbett with this being the main income generation activity for residents of Ramnagar.

 
SOURCE : http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/132840-ramnagar-among-hot-spots-of-tiger-poaching-report.html
 


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