BHOPAL: While cyber poachers maybe planning their next move after a daring hacking attempt on a radio-collared Panna tiger, the Madhya Pradesh forest department and the Dehradun-based wildlife institute are caught in an ugly tussle over lodging an FIR. Like petty cops squabbling over jurisdiction before registering a case, the forest officials and WII are busy lobbing the ball in each other's court even though it's a high-profile case of cyber poaching of a protected species.
Few weeks ago, cyber criminals tried to hack the login-ID of the portal which had the location data of the collar-fitted tiger Panna-211.
On Thursday, WII shot off an email to the MP chief wildlife warden Narendra Kumar asking him to lodge an FIR in MP as it was a matter of their jurisdiction.
The email read - the hacking issue got undue publicity in the media as minutes of the September 16 meeting at Bhopal was leaked.
Kumar swiftly replied to the WII mail, maintaining his stand on the decision that it's a case of cyber-crime and doesn't fall in MP's jurisdiction. The mail read - WII must either lodge a police complaint or identify the accused and viability of the hacked information.
Speaking to TOI, he said, "We have told them again the hacking was done in Pune and the computer system of the collar was operated from Dehradun. WII knew the secure passcode not us."
The state forest department has also decided to replace the satellite GPS collar of Panna-211 with a Very High Frequency (VHF) collar with direct access. The satellite GPS collar will be sent back to WII.
The collar on Panna-211, the code for the tiger which was relocated recently from Panna tiger reserve to Satpura-Bori, has stopped working from July 24.
Since the hacking attempt, the war of words has intensified. While MP forest officials claim they were denied the password of the satellite communication portal for tracking the big cat's movements, the wildlife brass in Dehradun allege the Panna-211 tiger was shifted to another reserve without informing them. And while the tussle continues, no FIR has been lodged yet.
