BENGALURU: Exotic and illegal meat for a New Year party seemed exciting enough for a bunch of Bengalureans, including software professionals, to head into the Bhadra Tiger Reserve in Chikkamagaluru. Aided by locals, the 12-member gang shot dead two sambar deer and were attempting to cut them up for transportation to Bengaluru when they were nabbed by forest officials.
Wildlife photographer Ashish Parmar, who has seen game hunting up-front in African reserves, termed the incident "unfortunate".
"I go to that forest quite often and the reason this happens is because tourism is a double-edged sword and it is, sadly, sharper on the wrong side. The problem with that part of the forest is that it has been opened up for trekking. It has been done with good intentions because every citizen has a right to visit those parts of the forest. But there are certain areas that the department should not have opened up to the public."
"What happens is that people book treks and make friends with local guides. Those with bad intentions, though, team up with forest watchers, who are looking to make a few extra bucks, to conduct poaching sessions. There is a stretch of about 10kms, half of which goes through the wildlife reserve and, unfortunately, there is no buffer zone to this forest."
Every forest needs a buffer area.
There is a core zone, which, on a scale of 100, should be about 35-40%, while the rest is the buffer to ensure that there is no man-animal conflict. This is like building a compound wall around your house. There should be areas that no man is allowed into. The forest department should ensure tighter patrolling of the area as well. The department should also not be spending so much money on maintaining core roads in the forest, which, in turn, will only ensure that people end up speeding through these areas.
"Ideally, what has happened should be treated like human murder, but that does not happen because these are animals and culprits pay a fine and go scot-free."
