NAGPUR: In an interesting turn to the PIL opposing killing of man-eater tigress TadobaAndhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), the petitioner claimed that despite spending a big amount of Rs1.62 crore for installation of radio tracking collars on tigers, the project failed to stop poaching/killing of the beasts.
Citing the example of well-known tiger Jai from UmredKarhandla Wildlife Sanctuary, who mysteriously went missing in April last year despite being fitted with the radio collared device, petitioner JerrylBanait squarely blamed the forest department officials for the fiasco.
Through counsels — Tushar Mandlekar and Rohan Malviya — Banait sought inclusion of Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) among the respondents, as it was instrumental in starting the radio-collared project for the tigers.
Accordingly, a division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Rohit Deo, on Wednesday, added WII as the sixth respondent and issued notice to it asking it to reply within three weeks.
Earlier, special counsel appearing for forest, Kartik Shukul, informed that the man-eater feline from south Brahmapuri range was tranquilized and brought to the Gorewada Rescue Centre.
The petitioner disclosed that forest officials failed to monitor failure of signals coming from radio collared attached to Jai for about 108 days. If they had monitored his activities, the iconic tiger could have been saved. He also cited the case of Jai's offspring Srinivas which was electrocuted in a farm fence in Nagbhid in April this year, as another case of negligence of respondents.
Banait prayed for interference by the court in alleged dereliction of duties, misappropriation of public funds, misuse and abuse of government position by the respondents.
Citing information obtained from RTI activist AvinashPrabhune, he pointed out that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was inked between principal chief forest conservator and WII on August 26, 2013, for funding the project titled 'Long term monitoring of tiger co-predators and prey specious in TATR and adjoining landscape'. The project was executed by WII.
The petitioner added that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) funded 70% of the cost amounting to Rs1.15 crores while 30% i.e. Rs46.37 lakh was funded by forest department.
The RTI application filed by Prabhune revealed Jai was fitted with a radio collar which was activated on September 15, 2015. However, on November 25, 2015, the collar stopped transmitting signals and it was replaced on March 18 last year. Thereafter, Jai went missing from April 19, 2016.
During last hearing, the court quashed and set aside state's chief wildlife warden AK Misra's order to shoot a problem tigress. Accordingly, Misra modified his order to tranquillize the animal.
The court had added PCCF (wildlife), MoEFCC, principal secretary (forests) and NTCA as respondents.
