To catch a dead tiger by its tale

It was a sign of the perilous state of wildlife conservation in West Bengal: the shocking death of a Royal Bengal Tiger near Coochbehar recently..

It was a sign of the perilous state of wildlife conservation in West Bengal: the shocking death of a Royal Bengal Tiger near Coochbehar recently, apparently after a collision with a train. While the state forest officials and railways engaged in a bitter squabble over the death of this eight-and-half-feet tiger, the real tragedy was missed. The Royal Bengal Tiger is the latest addition to the list of animals endangered by a shrinking habitat, savage attacks by affected villagers, the attentions of a poaching mafia and a callous forest management.

North Bengal particularly has witnessed the deaths of several wild animals. Just three months ago, a full-grown leopard was poisoned to death in Simulbari, near Siliguri. The leopard, out of the Kurseong forest beat 8212; a Darjeeling-Himalayan forest range 8212; had been on the prowl in the vicinity of Simulbari. Villagers sought help and finally poisoned it to death when their appeal failed to elicit a response from forest officials. A little further, near Nagrakata, was another case of a leopard being butchered. In the last one-and-a-half years, at least eight unnatural deaths of the bison have been recorded in north Bengal.

Elephants are the other specie under attack. What has made things even more difficult for the pachyderms has been the conversion of meter gauge railway tracks into broad gauge in the Siliguri-Malbazar-Alipurduar section of the North Frontier Railways. Of the 14-odd elephants killed over the last two years, at least seven were crushed under the wheels of speeding trains along this stretch.

The gauge conversion and been met with vociferous protests from the green lobby. Completed around 2004, it has proved the apprehensions of environmentalists right. Active green groups like Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation point to the flagrant violation by the railways of the conditions imposed by the judiciary while clearing the project. The railway tracks slice through some of the most beautiful natural, dense forests in the state, including major elephant corridors. Vulnerable zones had been identified by an expert committee, which imposed speed limits on the trains. The suggestions were followed more in the violation.

The latest CAG report contains damning observations about tiger conservation in the state. While scrutinising Project Tiger and India Eco Development Project 2000-2005, the CAG noted the failure of the authorities to go 8220;beyond the routine maintenance of forests despite incurring an expenditure of Rs 12.75 crore on Project Tiger and Rs 23.44 crore on India Eco Development project.8221; A management plan providing activities to be undertaken within a time-frame for implementation was prepared in 2000-2001, after a gap of 24 years since 1973 in the Sunderban Tiger Reserve and 17 years since 1982 in Buxa Tiger, the CAG stated. It also unearthed gross discrepancy between physical achievements and recorded data at the tiger reserves.

In Buxa Tiger Reserve, for instance, in north Bengal, only 415 out of a total of 16,000 forest villages were shifted, leaving wide scope for 8220;unabated human interference8221;, said the report. The CAG also found that the Buxa Reserve remains unguarded for over 16 hours a day. In the Sunderban Reserve, of the 14,990 offences recorded between 2000-2005, involving illegal tree felling, timber smuggling and fishing, not one offender was punished. That is comment enough on the pathetic state of wildlife conservation in Bengal.