Even as the hunt for Jai -—the iconic tiger who went missing from the UmredKarhandla Tiger Sanctuary near Nagpur — continues, with a recent sighting claimed in Telangana, a new method of poaching has reared its deadly head.

There have been reports that Jai may have been electrocuted on a farm fence. And, according to experts, if this is true, he wouldn’t be the first.

“Last month, two tiger deaths due to electrocution were reported from the periphery of Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. There were two others in Bhandara and Gondia in 2016, taking the toll to at least four in a year. This points to a definite rise in cases of animals being electrocuted, which appears to be the work of small-time poachers.

Such cases generally occur towards the borders of villages and the forests, where electricity is available,” explained Shahid Khan, founder of Save Ecosystem And Tiger (SEAT), an NGO working in the Vidarbha area. Besides tigers, in January this year, a sloth bear was found electrocuted and its claws harvested in a forested area near Amravati.

The method includes using a wired trap or fence, which draws power from a high tension electric line, usually passing through nearby villages. This is used to kill the animals, either by placing it on their preferred routes or through the water bodies they use. Khan elaborated that the main targets are herbivorous animals, whose meat is then sold illegally. However, considering that tigers use the same habitat, they, too, fall prey to electrocution. “Tiger deaths are significant and are usually reported. But, the deaths of herbivorous animals rarely merit enquiries, especially as the bodies sometimes vanish without a trace. Thus, pinpointing the exact number of such species becomes difficult,” he rued.

Khan added that the trend of such electrocutions could not be traced earlier since the authorities’ focus was on the notorious Baheliya gang — known for its organised poaching activities. The group, however, has become inactive in the Vidarbha forests for the past couple of years. “There needs to be multi-department patrolling if this new poaching method is to be curbed. If people are seen drawing electricity at night, it’s mainly for poaching purposes. If officials from the power department, along with the forest department, increased vigilance, it might help contain these deaths,” said Khan.

This method, while largely unnoticed in the state till recently, is not exactly new, according to Dr ShekharNiraj, head of TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network working with the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).

“Poachers often feel this is a safer method and that people will be less suspicious in the case of electrocution, unlike snares and poison which leave trails. In fact, electrocution is even being used on elephants in some parts of the country,” Niraj told Mirror.

However, while electrocution is becoming a tool for poachers, the method is also used as a form of protection for farms. “If power is taken illegally from a nearby wire, it is invariably poaching. But sometimes, farmers, too, leave wires near their fences, originating from the electric meters. This is mainly because tigers are increasing in number and have started coming out of the forests near villages. When tiger sightings become frequent, the locals act out of fear and band together to kill the tigers or their cubs by electrocution. At the end of the day, the problem comes down to lack of habitable space for wildlife. With corridors being erased, their world is shrinking,” concluded Suresh Chopane, president of the Green Planet Society in Chandrapur.