The Forest Department has stepped up surveillance in Idukki and Wayanad districts in the wake of intelligence forecasts that hunting of tigers and leopards for their pelts and body parts could escalate in summer.

A wildlife enforcer said that there was lot of tiger movement in Tholpatti, Muthanga, Kurichiyadu, and Batheri ranges this season. Many of the predators were aged and often forayed into human habitations for easy prey, mostly tethered cattle. Certain settler farmers sometimes collaborated with poachers to remove the threat of predators from their neighbourhoods.

The predators were particularly vulnerable while frequenting dwindling wateringholes. Moreover, forest fires, both natural and manmade, funnelled wildlife through certain paths and poachers found it easy to ensnare them using mechanical traps.

Wildlife Warden (Wayanad) P. Dhanesh Kumar said 24 camp sheds had been activated inside the 332-sq km reserve to keep a guard on poachers, detect traps and prevent wildfires.

On March 13, 2015, enforcers had encountered such a trap at the Akamala station limits in Machad forest range. They found a spotted deer (Sambar) caught in the crude trap. It had been bludgeoned to death after being trapped.

Traps

In 2014, enforcers had found a ‘cable trap,’ one fashioned out of clutch cables and second-hand vehicle parts, in a private estate bordering the forest at Tholpatti.

Investigators said use of such traps to ensnare wild animals, chiefly tigers, could be widespread and the detections, so far, were just the tip of the ice-berg. Officials said that unblemished tiger and leopard pelts fetched a higher price and poachers preferred to hunt the big cats using traps rather than fire-arms.

Forensic examinations of tiger skin and parts seized in the past showed that the hunters had cured the pelts using a combination of salt and sometimes, alum. The pelts would be stretched and left to dry under the sun for weeks. The meat and bones would be salted and preserved for sale.

On February 2, 2015, enforcers had trapped five persons in the Palode range into selling them a tiger skin. The number of tiger skin seizures in the State has dwindled over the years. Investigators said one reason was that much of the illegal trade had shifted to Coorg and certain Tibetan settlements in Karnataka.