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Journalism of Courage
Seventeen tigers have died over the last 96 days,making it one of the highest mortality periods for the animal the country has ever known. This comes on the back of an alarming number of tiger deaths over the last year.
The revelation,coming ahead of a census with the new line transact method,might mean that forest officials will count less tigers than they did the last time.
The death count,given by sources in the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI),might not be complete,with some tigers missing and their fate unknown. Two tigresses are missing from Chandrapur district; three of the cubs of one were rescued last month and two of the other in November. Of the latters cubs,one is in Nagpur Zoo while the other died there.
If we look at it from the perspective of forests losing tigers,we need to take these four surviving cubs into account too. We can count 21 tigers that forests have
been relieved of, WPSI central India director Nitin Desai said.
The cub that died in the zoo is already in the count. Of the deaths in the last 96 days,11 have occurred since November,including the cubs.
Forest departments of various states attribute the deaths to various reasons,ranging from poaching to electrocution. Seven of the deaths have been accounted for following the seizure of tiger skins and bones.
Five of the deaths have happened in and around Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh,and one each in Uttar Pradesh,Karnataka,Kerala,Assam and West Bengal. Apart from the cub,another tiger is suspected to have died near Sakoli in Maharashtras Bhandara by electrocution. Its hair was recovered and forensic tests will confirm if the tiger is actually dead.
Of the seizures,two each have been made in Madhya Pradesh,Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh,and one in Kaziranga. Three of the deaths have occurred due to poaching,three reportedly in territorial fights with other cats,one by electrocution,and one for unnatural but unexplained reasons.
