Nagpur: Nagpur is known as the Tiger Capital of India. Good revenue is being generated through Tiger tourism in the Tiger Capital. Two months ago, a 3-year-old female tiger was found dead in Pench Tiger Reserve, Shivni (Madhya Pradesh). This incident was discovered by patrolling team two days ago in between BaginNala and BerbandNala. The carcass of the deceased tiger was allegedly four-days-old. Preliminary investigations reveal that the death could have occurred due to mutual-fights between other tigers. Nearly 12 Tigers have reportedly been killed in this Tiger Reserve.
One day earlier, one male cub is reported to have been found in Pench Tiger Reserve in Karmajari in Madhya Pradesh. This tiger too is claimed to have been killed in territorial fight. However, the carcass of the tiger was highly decomposed and the post-mortem report is awaited.
Meanwhile sources have also claimed that in all nearly 20 tigers are reported dead in Central India including forests located in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Non-functional radio collar
Meanwhile another tiger named Jai has gone missing. The officials of the Forest Department had affixed the first radio-collar that was fixed on him did not function well so another radio collar was fixed on the tiger. The Forest Department had claimed that the first radio collar did not function well because of high-tension-electric transmission lines passing through the area. However, no one knows why a similar radio collar was placed on the Tiger Jai when the same condition exists. Some forest officials claim that when the radio-collar affixed on other tigers is functioning well, how is it that only this radio collar not functioning.
In spite of many searches by the Forest Department officials and staff, the elusive Tiger Jai could not be located as yet.
While the Wild-Life lovers and the Tiger lovers claim that the forest department officials are not functional and doing their duty of safeguarding the wild-life in their care, they are only worried about the revenue generated by these wild-life sanctuaries or forest reserves.
While speaking to Nagpur Today, Wild Life Warden Kundan Hate said that in a new initiative taken by a media house, some members of some NGOs and Tiger Lovers have come forward to form a search party to track Jai.
However, this preposition is really wild. These members of some NGOs and Tiger Lovers are not trained to handle wild-life. They do not have knowledge of local territory or the habit patterns of other wild-life etc. One should also ascertain the real aim of these “Do Gooders” or “Nature Lovers”. Who will be responsible for any harm coming to them during the search operation?
Warden Kundan Hate claimed that most of the Tigers which were killed were mostly because of territorial fights. The deaths due to poachers were minimal. He added that nearly 35 poachers who had killed nearly 25 Tigers between 2012 -13 are now in jail. CBI has taken over the investigation into many other cases of poaching. He also added that many officials of forest department from neighboring states are giving statements without adequate proper investigations.
