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| Wayanad loses its tag of safest haven for tigers
MG RADHAKRISHNAN TRIVANDRUM, India Today, DECEMBER 14, 2012
The
shooting down by the state forest officials of a wild tiger on December
2 for predating on domestic animals has made Wayanad lose its tag as
one of the country's safest havens for the national animal. The killed
beast was an old and emaciated tigress which was trapped and
subsequently released to jungle by the state forest officials on
November 13.
According to the state forest department, the
Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) in the Wayand district with a
population of 78 Royal Bengal Tigers including 11 cubs in its 344.44 sq
km area, has the country's highest tiger density. WWS, also a favoured
habitat for the Asiatic elephants, is an integral part of the Nilgiri
Biosphere in the Western Ghats and lies contiguous to the protected
regions of Nagerhole and Bandipur of Karnataka in the northeast and
Mudumala of Tamil Nadu in the southeast.
The two tiger
reserves in Kerala - Periyar (777 sq km) and Parambikkulam (657 sq km)
- have 37 and 44 tigers respectively. After the study done jointly by
state forest department and WWF showed the high tiger density in
WWS, the central Ministry of Environment and Forests in June this
year had informed in June its readiness to declare it as a tiger
reserve. But following a public outburst against the proposal after the
increasing incidence of cattle-kill by tigers the United Democratic
Front government has decided not to have it.
The Western Ghat
region which holds the country's second largest tiger population saw
the highest growth in its numbers - from 412 to 534 - during 2006-11
when total tiger count in India rose from 1411 to 1706.
The
National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) which investigated the
December 2 incident has found many serious lapses on the side of the
officials which culminated in the death of the old (13 years) and
emaciated-looking tigress. It has also recommended to the state
government punitive action against even high ranking forest officials
for ordering the hunting down of an animal enlisted in the Schedule 1
of the National Wildlife Act of 1972 which should be accorded maximum
protection and the violation of which attracts highest penalty. It was
the Bangalore-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) which
established through advanced camera trap study that the killed tiger
was the same that was captured and released by the forest department
two weeks earlier.
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