A WAKE-UP CALL FROM THE WILD

One of the scores of camera traps inside Rajasthan’s Ranthambore National Park clicked a photograph early December that shocked both wildlife officials and activists. It showed a tiger struggling in a wire snare. The big cat was immediately tracked down by officials, tranquilised, rescued from the snare and released into the forest.

- Rohit Parihar

The incident has served as another wake-up call for the state’s wildlife establishment, a grim reminder of the poaching activity inside the 1,334 sq. km national park in Sawai Madhopur, arguably India’s top tiger reserve. Acting promptly after this incident came to light, Shruti Sharma, Rajasthan’s principal chief conservator of forests, issued a red alert across the state, cancelled leaves of forest field staff till February, and ordered heavy patrolling. Sharma said a few poachers were arrested on December 5 for hunting down a sambar in the Mount Abu Wildlife Sanctuary.

Rajasthan’s three national parks (Ranthambore, Keoladeo and Mukundra Hills) have 69 tigers, as per the 2018 tiger census, of which 52 are in Ranthambore alone. Officials say the park has a high adult tiger population and younger tigers have been venturing afar in search of new territories, sparking human-animal conflicts.

Ranthambore has long been a hunting ground for poachers. In April 2018, two tiger cubs there died after eating a bull suspected to have been poisoned by poachers. This April, forest staff arrested poachers found cooking the meat of a wild animal. In February, camera traps caught poachers carrying a beheaded chinkara. Forest and police officials who went to arrest the suspects were attacked by villagers with stones, leaving six members injured. Soon after, Rajsamand MP and National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) member Diya Kumari demanded an inquiry into the claimed disappearance of 26 tigers from Ranthambore over a decade or so.

FREE RUN FOR POACHERS