NEW DELHI, SEPT 18: Keeping in mind the report of the expert committee probing the death of white tigers in the Nandankan Zoo in Orissa, the Supreme Court on Monday termed the situation as "distressing" and said the condition in zoos were far from satisfactory."The situation is distressing and the steps taken for the welfare of animals in the zoos are far from satisfactory," a bench comprising Chief Justice A S Anand, Justices Santosh Hegde and K G Balakrishnan said.These observations were made during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an animal activist, Navin M Raheja, bringing to the court's notice the large-scale poaching in reserve forest depleting tiger population in wild.The Bench asked Solicitor General Harish Salve to consider the suggestions made by Raheja and submit to the court within two weeks details of steps to be taken by the Centre and state governments for the protection of tigers in captivity as well as in reserve forests.Salve drew the court's attention to the report of the expert committee constituted to go into the deaths of white tigers in the Nandankanan Zoo and pointed out the "shocking" way in which the sick tigers were handled by the zoo authorities.The bench said "a cursory look of the report shows that much needs to be done for the welfare of the tigers in captivity (zoos) and reserve forests" and directed listing of the case after two weeks.When Raheja pointed out the faults in the Enforcement of Wildlife Protection Act resulting in loss of at least one tiger per day in the wild, Justice Anand asked the Solicitor General "Is the Centre powerless to implement its own Act."Salve said any step taken by Centre with regard to Project Tiger reserve forests was seen by state governments as an encroachment in their territory and added that the issue needed careful handling.He suggested creation of a nodal agency which could inspect zoos and Project Tiger sanctuaries and suggest steps needed to be taken.Referring to the report on Nandankanan Zoo, Salve said after a few of the tigers were detected to have `sleeping sickness', the zoo authorities in a panic reaction herded the afflicted tigers into one enclosure."This knee-jerk reaction of herding the tigers resulted in more deaths as post-mortem reports showed that many tigers had enlarged heart indicating they died of shock," he said.Referring to various lapses pointed out by the expert committee while going through the management of one of the "finest zoos in the country", the Solicitor General said though the Cente has formulated a model guideline for management of zoos, nobody seems to be following it.The bench said to prevent recurrence of such tragic incidents, "the Centre as well as the state governments need to have inclination and determination to do something but ironically both these qualities seem lacking."
