A Question of Survival for Kanha's Tigers

Lalit Shastri

(The Hindu (New Delhi), 30 Dec. 2006)

Poachers continue to pose a serious threat to the survival of tigers in Madhya Pradesh.
Two of them were arrested on December 19 and tiger skins were seized from them. A
gun was also recovered. They were active in the Hoshangbad forests and used Jabalpur as
a transit point.

Earlier this month, a tiger was rescued after tourists informed the staff of the Kanha
National Park that they spotted the animal in Mukki range with one of its claws caught in
a crude clamp. The forest personnel tranquillised the tiger and rescued it. Tribals from the
villages falling in the buffer zone along the Balaghat-Mandla border could have laid the
trap, officials said.

Besides the problem of poaching, the Park also faces immense biotic pressure. K. Nayak,
field director, Kanha Tiger Reserve, told The Hindu that there were 18 forest villages
inside the Park. Three villages were part of the habitat of the endangered Barasingha, a
rare species of deer found only in Kanha. The villages need to be relocated to reduce
biotic pressure on the habitats of the tiger and its prey.

Buffer zone

The Tiger Reserve is surrounded by a buffer zone of over 1,000 sq km. Comprising 150
villages, it stretches over two revenue districts, Mandla and Balaghat, and is not a
Protected Area.

Asked about the level of biotic pressure inside the Park, Mr. Nayak said villagers
continued to enter the core area for grazing their cattle and collecting fuel wood.

Staff sensitised

Admitting that a tiger had recently been caught in a poacher's trap inside the Park, he said
the forest staff had been sensitised and all efforts were being made to check the poachers.

The 2005 habitat assessment showed that the tiger population in the national parks and
sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh was 394 against the Census figure of 416 in 2004. There
are nine national parks in the State — Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Panna, Pench, Satpura,
Sanjay, Madhav, Vanvihar, and Fossil. Besides, there are 25 sanctuaries. The 2004
Census put the number of tigers at six in Rani Durgawati sanctuary (Damoh) and seven at
Palpur Kuno. However, last year's assessment showed there was not a single tiger in the
sanctuaries. The areas falling under them are contiguous with Ranthambore in Rajasthan.

Similarly, the boundaries of three districts of Chattisgarh Kavardha, and Rajnandgaon

also touch the forests of Madhya Pradesh. Hence, the tiger census projections have been
questioned by experts.

The Hindu

Saturday, Aug 14, 2004

Grey areas in forest encroachment record

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, AUG. 13. Even as the problem of encroachment continues to

threaten the forests in Madhya Pradesh, the State Government claims
that the mandatory requirement of compensatory afforestation has
been fulfilled and the forest encroachments across the State prior to
1980 can be regularised immediately after receiving appropriate
directions from the Supreme Court.

The Government claim vis-à-vis afforestation notwithstanding, State

Forest Department sources point out that the funds that were
earmarked for afforestation were diverted to village level forest
committees and only a thorough probe would establish whether the
State Government's claims were justified.

The Union Government had cleared the State Government's proposals

for regularizing forest encroachments prior to 1980. It had also issued
an order on February 4, 2004, approving the settlement of traditional
rights of the forest dwellers over forest land and produce. This order
was subject to interpretation but the State Government had even
initiated steps to legalise all encroachments till December 1993.
Despite the State Government's zeal to go ahead in this direction, the
entire process of regularizing encroachments has now come to a
grinding halt in the State due to the stay recently ordered by the
Supreme Court. This order even covers the period prior to 1980.

The official Forest Department records show that over 150,000

hectares of forests have come under encroachment. Forest
Department insiders point out that the actual forest area under
encroachment in Madhya Pradesh is many times more than the
recorded encroachment since people tend to bring more and more land
under encroachment year after year.
On September 8, 2001, when the Union Government had raised
several queries regarding the State Government's proposals to settle
the encroachers on thousands of hectares of forest land, the then
Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, had talked of diluting the Forest
Conservation Act and announced that 150,000 hectares of land was
being given to the landless forest dwellers in the State. This
announcement was made at a public rally of tribals at Shahdol in the
presence of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, who had taken a
firm stand against diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes. She
had underlined this by stating that concerns for environment, forests
and wildlife continue to recede in many States as vast amount of
forest land are still being diverted for non-forest use.

Later in June 2003, the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had
asserted at a public rally in the predominantly tribal district of Mandla
in the State that the Centre had issued the "No Objection Certificate''
for converting forest villages into revenue villages and it was for the
State Government to issue the necessary notification.

In 1991, the State Government had decided to settle people who had
encroached upon the forest area till October 24, 1980. The State
Government had invited applications from the encroachers to settle
their claims several times between 1991 and 1994 and the last date
fixed for this purpose was July 31, 1994. The State Government had
evolved a liberal eligibility criteria for this purpose and only those
encroachers, who had held physical possession of the forest area on
October 24, 1980, were declared eligible for encroachment settlement
although in March 1984, the Union Agriculture Ministry had suggested
to the States and Union Territories that they could confer inalienable
rights on forest villages only if they were in occupation of land for
more than 20 years. Between August 1995 and October 1997, there
were 27 proposals to settle 152,043 persons in 182,889.704 hectares
that were submitted to MOEF, under Section-2 of the Forest
Conservation Act, 1980. After the division of the State and formation
of Chhattisgarh on November 1, 2000, the State Forest department
records were showing that 90477.856 hectares of forest land was
under possession of 70083 persons (55023 hectares with the STs,
4146 hectares with the SCs and 10914 hectares with those belonging
to the general category). However, this is as far as the Government
records were concerned and only reflected the magnitude of the
encroachment problem.
The Hindu

Sunday, Oct 15, 2006

Illegal sand mining threatens Gharial sanctuary

Lalit Shastri

It goes on unchecked by the authorities on either side of the Chambal bridge

Photo: Lalit Shastri

ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT: Massive illegal sand mining activity goes on

unabated in the National Chambal Sanctuary.

MORENA (M.P.): A 15-km stretch of sandy bank under the Chambal

bridge on National Highway 3 connecting Madhya Pradesh with
Rajasthan has remained an ideal breeding ground for the now
endangered Gharial for millions of years, but now this endangered
species that lays eggs in sand faces the threat of extinction due to
biotic pressure and reckless illegal mining of sand.

Driving on NH-3 from Morena as one comes closer to the Chambal

bridge one finds that vast agricultural fields on both sides of the
highway have been converted into a dumping ground for sand to be
transported by trucks to far-off places in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan,
besides catering to demand nearer home.

What comes as a major surprise here is that the picturesque Bhanpur

Rest House overlooking the Chambal river has been taken over
completely by the sand mining mafia and there goes on a never
ending movement of tractor trolleys to dump the illegally mined sand
within the State Public Works Department-owned premises. This is
where the trucks get loaded with sand for transportation purposes.
A brief halt on the Chambal bridge reveals the massive scale of illegal
sand mining activity that goes on unchecked by the authorities on
either side of the bridge. This area has been notified and falls within
the National Chambal Sanctuary.

Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Himmat Kothari had also admitted in

the State Assembly earlier this year that illegal mining of sand had
been continuing down the Chambal river. He had particularly
emphasised that the survival of Gharial and other wildlife species that
lay eggs in sand is greatly threatened by sand mining in the Protected
Area. Mr. Kothari had told the House that on the one hand the State
Government tries to curb the menace of illegal sand mining and on the
other a large number of local residents, including labourers, traders
and truck operators, continue to be involved in illegal mining activity.
Mr. Kothari had even suggested that "some area falling along the 435-
km stretch of the Chambal river, which is important from the sand
mining point of view and was not an ideal habitat for the endangered
gharial, should be de-notified to reduce biotic pressure".

Taking a similar stand, the State Wildlife Board even recommended

that a 10-km stretch of land near the Piprai mine be de-linked from
the sanctuary with the Supreme Court's consent. A small patch of land
along the riverbank on the Madhya Pradesh side has been notified as
the Piprai sand mining area.

Forest Department officials told this correspondent that the mining

contractors use their mining lease contracts to transport the sand
mined illegally from the Protected Area. Forest Department Research
Officer R. K. Sharma said that the Piprai area is ideal for Gharial
breeding. A sandy island 5 km from the Chambal bridge and close to
Piprai is also a perfect breeding ground.

When this correspondent went 15 km downstream to Tigri Rithora on

Friday afternoon, there were some labourers illegally filling a tractor
with sand. When the accompanying forest guards confronted these
people, a large mob descended from a nearby mound and before
anyone could be attacked this correspondent was forced to leave the
spot in a speedboat anchored nearby.

Dr. Sharma later said that Tigri Rithora is one of the best breeding
grounds for Gharial and every year they spot eight to 10 gharial nests
around this place. When contacted, National Chambal Sanctuary
Superintendent S. K. Katare said that breeding of Gharial in the
natural environment is greatly threatened these days by illegal mining.
The alarm bells had started ringing when the Gharial count stood at
451 in this territory in 1983-84. However, the Forest Department's
Gharial breeding and releasing operation (which started at Devri in
Morena district in 1981) helped in improving the situation and the
number of Gharials rose to 1289 during the 1997-98 counting cycle.
Due to paucity of resources, gharial breeding and their counting was
stopped between 1999 and 2003.

When the Gharials were counted again in 2003, their number had
dropped to 514. The breeding activity was re-launched that year and
during the last count done in February this year the number of
Gharials had risen to 772. This clearly shows that the Chambal
Sanctuary no longer remains the perfect habitat for the Gharial. If the
Breeding Centre at Devri was not functioning, their numbers would
only continue to decrease.

The Hindu

Friday, Oct 20, 2006

Madhya Pradesh asked to stop illegal sand mining

Staff Correspondent

CEC takes suo motu note ofThe Hindureport during Oct. 16 hearing

BHOPAL: The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the

Supreme Court has asked the Madhya Pradesh Government to ensure
that no sand mining is carried out in the National Chambal Sanctuary
in violation of the apex court's orders.

CEC Member-Secretary M.K. Jiwrajka has written to Madhya Pradesh

chief secretary Rakesh Sahni raising the issue of illegal sand mining in
the National Chambal Sanctuary and asked the State Government to
comply with the Supreme Court's earlier order in this regard.

Enclosing a copy of the report that appeared in The Hindu dated

October 15 regarding illegal sand mining, Mr. Jiwrajka wrote to the
Chief Secretary that the CEC had taken suo motu note of that report
during a hearing on October 16.
The Conservator of Forests responsible for the Chambal area and the
State Counsel were present during this hearing. The CEC has
observed: "Apparently the sand mining is being carried out in the
Sanctuary area in violation of the Supreme Court' s order dated
14.2.2000 in IA No. 548 W.P. (C) No. 202/95."

The Chief Secretary has also been asked to get the matter enquired
into immediately and send a detailed report.

Madhai May Not Be Barasinghas’ New Home

Lalit Shastri

(The Hindu (New Delhi), 17 June 2007 )

Madhai is protected area and an excellent living forest on the backwaters of the Denwa
river near Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh. It is part of the Satpura Tiger Reserve and
the Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary. It is also in the vicinity of the Bori Sanctuary, which
was declared the first Reserve Forest by the British in 1861.

Madhai is located at the foothills with the Satpura range forming a perfect backdrop. One
has to leave the Bhopal-Pachmarhi highway just before Sohagpur and take a sharp bend
to drive 17 km through agricultural fields and scattered villages before coming face to
face with the endless serenity of Madhai that unfolds itself across the blue waters of the
Denwa. A motorboat ride and one is soon on a hillock where the Forest Department has
set up its small infrastructure to managethis area.

Just behind the forest guesthouse one could spot a herd of chinkara roaming freely on
Thursday evening. Not far away as one drove through the undulating forest terrain and
canopies of teak and sal stretching on either side, one came across big herds of cheetal,
smaller packs of sambhar, black bucks and wild boars.

This correspondent also sighted herds of Indian gaur at different places within a short
time. The accompanying forest guard said that if one is lucky one may even sight a tiger
or a leopard here.

Proposal

There has been a proposal to relocate the endangered barasingha to Madhai from the
Kanha National Park. When the Satpura Tiger Reserve Director S.S. Rajput was asked
about this proposal , he said there has been evidence of the Barasingha’s presence around
Madhai and at Jhela near Pachmarhi more than 100 year ago.
He said Captain J. Forsyth had even recorded seeing a barasingha in the Pachmarhi area
in 1862. Asked whether or not Madhai could be an ideal habitat to relocate the barasingha
from Kanha, he said that the Khakrapura- Sakot area in Bori Sanctuary which can be
reached either from Madhai or from the Betul side, would be ideally suited for this
purpose because it comes under the submergence of the Tawa river, where the
submergence is more widespread and shallow, whereas the area coming under the
submergence of the Denwa river around Madhai is much less and also deeper.

Habitat has to be considered from many angles for translocating the barasingha, wildlife
experts point out, adding that the Kanha meadows have grass round the year.

But the grasslands in the Madhai and Khakrapura Sakot area come under submergence
during the monsoon and remain sumerged till February.

When water is released for the wheat crop, only then this area is free from submergence.

Besides, they also point out that during the mating season, the male barasingha plucks a
typical grass with its antlers and displays it for the purpose of natural selection. This grass
is missing in the Madhai and other areas being considered for translocating the
endangered species.

It is also being argued that aquatic ponds near Madhai or in the forests of Bori do not
have the vegetation which is palatable to the barasingha. The water bodies at Madhai are
infested with crocodiles.

The Central Indian barasingha (Cervus duvauceli branderi) is highly endangered. The
Central Indian sub-species (Cervus duvauceli branderi Pocock) whose historic range
covered several districts of the present states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa
and Andhra Pradesh, is now endemic only to the Kanha National Park and forms the only
world population.

State wildlife officials point out that it is only due to long-term concerted efforts under
Project Tiger that this subspecies has been saved from extinction.

Evidence

There is evidence (Balaghat district gazetteer—C.E. Low, 1907) that the barasingha was
found in all parts where sal forests existed. Capt Forsyth also gave a vivid account of the
abundance of the Central Indian barasingha.

At that time, the species was found widely distributed from Hoshangabad in the west of
Chhindwara, Seoni Balaghat, Mandla (Kanha National Park, Motinala and Karanjia
ranges), and Durg, Bilaspur, Rajpur and Baster districts of undivided Madhya Pradesh.
Barasingha was also found in bhandara and Chanda districts of Maharashtra and several
areas in Bihar and Orissa contiguous with bordering forest tracts of Madhya Pradesh.
The Hindu

21/12/2004

Poaching resurfaces at National Park?

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, DEC. 20. The poaching menace has raised its ugly head inside the Pench
National Park in Madhya Pradesh where the remains of a tiger, said to have been killed
by poachers, were found on Sunday. This is the second poaching incident inside or in the
vicinity of the Pench Tiger Reserve within a short span of just one week. In the earlier
incident, a tigress and her cub were slaughtered by poachers. Their carcass was found
lying just outside the Park area on Friday.

The latest poaching incident surfaced following interrogation of Vijay Singh, a villager
from Bichwa-Kurai. He was rounded up on December 17 after he was found having four
tiger nails. On the basis of information provided by him, the remains of a tiger were
found from a spot at Kurai Ghati overlooking the lush forested valley. This place is about
five kilometres from Rukhad. The area is also being projected as Mowgli Land by the
Madhya Pradesh Government to promote eco-tourism and attract foreign tourists. This
verdant setting formed the backdrop of the popular Jungle Book authored by Rudyard
Kipling. This book is based on Robert Sterndale's Seonee— "Camp Life in the Satpuras".
The State Government had even organised a three-day Mowgli Festival here from
October 29 to 31 to build the necessary hype to promote eco-tourism.

Some senior foresters here said that poaching would acquire alarming proportions when
forest officers at the ground and territorial level show slackness in tracking and field
visits. On being contacted, the former State Director General of Police, R.P. Sharma, who
is now the Chairman of the NGO, Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife
(CREW), stressed the need for tightening the wildlife Protection Act. He said that the
killing of endangered species has continued but convictions under this head have been
highly unsatisfactory, if not negligible. If endangered species were to be saved, the legal
process would have to be given more teeth and proper investigation should become a
priority. He said that killing of endangered species, especially tigers and elephants,
should be treated by inserting Section (a) to the Indian penal Code sections like Sections
302, 325 and 326. If this was done the killings of endangered species would get proper
priority and the culprits would be booked and accounted for. He especially pointed out
that no extra workload was likely to be added to the existing workload of the police
because the total number of such cases would be negligible as compared to crime against
the public. The Pench National Park was also in news recently due to the sudden spurt in
illegal fishing in the Totladoh reservoir on the Madhya Pradesh side of the Pench tiger
reserve. This despite a ban on fishing imposed by the Supreme Court. Fishing activity
had continued in this reservoir even after the Apex Court order but was stopped by the
Maharashtra forest department, which had acted on the April 22, 2002 order of the
Nagpur bench of the Maharashtra High Court and forcibly removed the villagers who had
settled near the Totladeh Reservoir and were engaged in illegal activity. While the
situation remained under control for over two years, reports reaching here by August
2004 confirmed that once more there was large-scale illegal fishing activity in this area.

The Hindu

19/12/2004

Tigress, cub poached in M.P. forest

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, DEC. 18. Poachers continue to strike at will in Madhya Pradesh and the latest
case of poaching has been detected in Seoni district where the carcass of a tigress and her
cub were found lying just outside the Pench National Park on Friday.

When State Tiger Cell sources were contacted here, they told The Hindu that the tigress
whose carcass was found outside the Pench National park on Friday had been poisoned
two or three days ago. They said that the tigress and her cub had been skinned and their
flesh had been left behind. One person belonging to the Pardi tribe had been rounded up
for interrogation and further investigations were on.

The latest tiger poaching incident is a pointer that the local contacts, who are mainly
tribals carry out the real killings. They are in turn linked to international gangs having
contacts in Nepal and China.

During a short period in May-June this year, the Wildlife Protection Society of India
(WPSI) had pointed out that 10 tiger skins, 25 leopard skins, large quantity of tiger bones,
and claws of over three dozen tigers and leopards were seized in about a dozen cases in
India and Nepal.

These seizures also included the one conducted on June 23, 2004 in Madhya Pradesh, the
home for the largest tiger population in the country, in which seven leopard skins were
seized at a remote place near Shahdol. This was followed by another seizure conducted
by the Special task Force of the State Police in which a tiger skin was seized and three
men were arrested from the Habibganj railway station in the State Capital.

The string of seizures across several States in India and Nepal came close on the heels of
the largest single seizure of endangered animal products that were being smuggled into
the mountainous Ngamring county in Tibet from across the Nepal border in October
2003.
It has been the contention of WPSI that the large number of seizures earlier this year was
due to sudden spurt in poaching to meet the gap in demand and supply due to the huge
October 2003 seizure. When State forest department officials were contacted, they said
that the international racket engaged in the large-scale smuggling of tiger and leopard
skins and body parts from Nepal to China were getting a large part of their supply from
Madhya Pradesh. They do not rule out the involvement of some major international gang
in the latest poaching incident near the Pench National Park. Keeping in view the massive
global racket of poaching, the Madhya Pradesh Government is thinking in terms of
expanding the mandate of the State Tiger Cell. There is also a proposal to rename this
Cell as "Forest Crime and Tiger Cell", which would cover wildlife poaching as well as
encroachment and mining related crimes.

The Hindu

30/07/2005

M.P. police arrest tiger skin smuggler

Staff Correspondent

Is alleged to have links with Sansar Chand

BHOPAL: In a major breakthrough, the Chhattarpur police on Friday arrested an alleged

tiger skin smuggler who has reportedly confessed to his involvement in the smuggling at
least five tiger skins and 30 leopard skins during the last few years.

The Chhattarpur Superintendent of Police, Yogesh Chaudhary, told The Hindu that
Mohammed Raees of Bandhni village was arrested on Friday. He had allegedly admitted
to being engaged in the smuggling of wild animal skins for five to seven years and was
also linked with the recently arrested international tiger skin smuggler Sansar Chand.

The last tiger skin smuggled out of the area by him was sometime in the last quarter of
2004. Describing the modus operandi of the accused, Mr. Chaudhary said he used to
procure tiger skins from poachers belonging to the Pardhi tribe by paying Rs. 50,000 for
each skin. These were then packed and routed to Delhi and other places fetching him Rs.
65,000 for each skin. On a leopard skin, the accused was said to be making a profit of
over Rs. 5, 000. The police have also recovered a trap used for killing wild animals and
investigations are on to find Mohammed Raees' direct involvement in poaching of tigers.

In another related development, the Bhopal police on Thursday nabbed a youngster with
the skin of a freshly killed leopard from the bus stand. The police said that this person has
been identified as Azad, alias Aayat Gond (25) resident of Bhimnagar slums at Gwalior.
He said this skin, procured from a person at Obaidullaganj near here, was being taken to
be sold at Shivpuri.
Earlier, on March 6 this year, a leopard skin was seized and a Nepali citizen arrested in
Bhopal. When contacted, a senior State Forest department officer told this correspondent
that they are following a lead and were expecting a major poaching related seizure and
arrest in Shivpuri district. Poaching continues unabated in the State. On December 14,
2004, four tiger claws were found near Bichwa village in the Rukhad range of Seoni
district near the Pench Tiger Reserve.

Three days later, the carcass of a tigress and her cub was found near Sawrireeth village in
the south territorial forest division of Seoni. On December 19, 2004, another tiger died
under unnatural circumstances in the Totladoh beat of Pench Tiger Reserve.

In December 2004, one tiger skin and two leopard skins were seized near the Kanha
Tiger Reserve. In February 2005, two tiger skins were recovered from the Bahmani area
of Kanha Tiger Reserve. Around the same period, six claws and four traps used for
poaching were seized from the Seoni-Chhindawara road. Serious concern was also raised
in forestry circles here when some wild dogs were found poisoned 4 km from the Mukhi
Gate of Kanha Tiger Reserve on March 20 this year. They were found to have died after
drinking water from a poisoned water hole or eating the poisoned carcass of a tiger kill
that was found one km away from the area where the wild dogs had died.

The latest tiger census in National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries in the State shows there
are now 394 tigers in these Protected Areas against 416 recorded during the last census.
What is most alarming is that not a single tiger has been counted in the Palpur Kuno
sanctuary and the Durgawati sanctuary this time whereas the last tiger census showed
seven tigers in Palpur Kuno and six in Durgawati.

The Hindu

28/03/2005

`Tiger census figures wrong'

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, MARCH 27. Wildlife experts have questioned the official claim — based on a
census conducted in the protected area (PA) from March 18 to 24 — that there are 34
tigers and a cub in the Panna Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh. A spokesman of the
wildlife wing of the State Forest Department told The Hindu that a large team, including
officials from the Kanha, Pench and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserves, joined the census
operation. On analysing the pugmarks and other evidence, the team confirmed the
presence of 20 female tigers, 14 male tigers and a cub in the Panna Tiger Reserve.

Raghunandan Singh Chundawat, who has done extensive field research in the Panna
Reserve, has reacted sharply to the latest census projection. He says the authorities claim
to have counted 13 tigresses within the territory of a single, monitored tigress. The
"absurd claim" flies in the face of everything that is known about the natural history of
tigers, he said. "As if this was not enough, they have even claimed to have counted nine
adult male tigers within the territory of a radio-collared male tiger." The two overlapping
territories constituted only 25 per cent of the Park area. Since most of the pugmarks were
recorded from this territory, one would be forced to conclude that actually there would
not be more than eight to 10 tigers in the entire Reserve.

This year, he further said, the park management had prepared over 2,200 PIPs (pugmark
impression pads), that means for every 300-350 metres there was one PIP to record any
movement of tiger. Despite the huge number of PIPs, they were able to capture only 31
impressions of tigers on the PIPs, he pointed out.

The latest tiger census acquires significance since the Central Empowered Committee, set
up by the Supreme Court, had recently issued a firm warning that the Panna tigers would
vanish if quick action was not taken for their protection. Mr. Chundawat said he had
circulated a report among the authorities recently, saying that in the last two-and-half
years about 30 tigers had died or were missing from the Reserve. Of the six radio-
collared tigers that were being covered by him in his field study, four were missing in the
last two-and-half years and the Park authorities had no clue about them.

Some senior department officials said it would be futile to continue with the tiger census
ritual and turn a blind eye when it came to addressing the question of tracing the missing
tigers. The authorities are aware of the problem of poaching, a forester pointed out and
said: "We are all aware of the bleak track record when it comes to prosecution or
conviction of those involved in the poaching racket." A State Chief Conservator of
Forest, on condition of anonymity, said: "It is an irony that the Park managers and Project
Tiger authorities try to issue themselves certificates of satisfactory performance by
allowing the tiger census figures to be fabricated to prove that the tigers are safe".

"The tigers will be safe if these areas are properly protected, otherwise we should be
prepared to hear about the last of them", he said.
The Hindu

Sunday, Dec 19, 2004

Tigress, cub poached in M.P. forest

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, DEC. 18. Poachers continue to strike at will in Madhya

Pradesh and the latest case of poaching has been detected in Seoni
district where the carcass of a tigress and her cub were found lying
just outside the Pench National Park on Friday.

When State Tiger Cell sources were contacted here, they told The
Hindu that the tigress whose carcass was found outside the Pench
National park on Friday had been poisoned two or three days ago.
They said that the tigress and her cub had been skinned and their
flesh had been left behind. One person belonging to the Pardi tribe had
been rounded up for interrogation and further investigations were on.

The latest tiger poaching incident is a pointer that the local contacts,
who are mainly tribals carry out the real killings. They are in turn
linked to international gangs having contacts in Nepal and China.

During a short period in May-June this year, the Wildlife Protection

Society of India (WPSI) had pointed out that 10 tiger skins, 25 leopard
skins, large quantity of tiger bones, and claws of over three dozen
tigers and leopards were seized in about a dozen cases in India and
Nepal.

These seizures also included the one conducted on June 23, 2004 in
Madhya Pradesh, the home for the largest tiger population in the
country, in which seven leopard skins were seized at a remote place
near Shahdol. This was followed by another seizure conducted by the
Special task Force of the State Police in which a tiger skin was seized
and three men were arrested from the Habibganj railway station in the
State Capital.

The string of seizures across several States in India and Nepal came
close on the heels of the largest single seizure of endangered animal
products that were being smuggled into the mountainous Ngamring
county in Tibet from across the Nepal border in October 2003.
It has been the contention of WPSI that the large number of seizures
earlier this year was due to sudden spurt in poaching to meet the gap
in demand and supply due to the huge October 2003 seizure. When
State forest department officials were contacted, they said that the
international racket engaged in the large-scale smuggling of tiger and
leopard skins and body parts from Nepal to China were getting a large
part of their supply from Madhya Pradesh. They do not rule out the
involvement of some major international gang in the latest poaching
incident near the Pench National Park. Keeping in view the massive
global racket of poaching, the Madhya Pradesh Government is thinking
in terms of expanding the mandate of the State Tiger Cell. There is
also a proposal to rename this Cell as "Forest Crime and Tiger Cell",
which would cover wildlife poaching as well as encroachment and
mining related crimes.

The Hindu

17/08/2004

Illegal fishing thrives in tiger reserve

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, AUG. 16. There has been a spurt in illegal fishing in the Totladoh reservoir
inside the Pench tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh despite a ban imposed by the Supreme
Court in this Protected Area. There was tremendous biotic pressure on the Pench reserve
forest when the Pench dam was under construction. Soon the managers of the reserve
forest were confronted with the problem of illegal fishing but this menace could be
contained only after the Supreme Court had ordered a complete ban on fishing in this
reservoir.

State Forest Department sources told this correspondent today that hundreds of villagers
are involved in illegal fishing in the Totladoh reservoir. When contacted, the founder
President of Vasundhra, a Nagpur-based non-Government organisation that has been in
the forefront spreading awareness about forests and wildlife among school students and
the public, Gopal Ramchandra Thosar, said that anti-social elements were again active
and large-scale fishing went on unabated in the reservoir. Mr. Thosar, who is a member
of the Maharashtra State Wildlife Advisory Board, said that the labourers who had come
to work on the Totladoh project ended up settling at the same site. It was with the
intervention of the Maharashtra High Court that the labourers' colony was removed from
the Totladoh reservoir area. It was only after the removal of this human settlement that
the problem of illegal fishing could be fully contained, he said, adding that due to the soft
approach being adopted by the authorities, the problem of illegal fishing and biotic
pressure is once more acquiring grim proportions. He said that illegal fishing is being
done on both sides — in Madhya Pradesh as well as Maharashtra.

A special eco-development plan was being implemented by the Park authorities over the
last few years to keep a check on biotic pressure due to the villages in the buffer area. As
the rights of people inside the Pench Tiger Reserve were extinguished, concerted efforts
were made under the World Bank funded Eco-Development Project that began in 1997-
98 to encourage the people residing in 99 villages around the Protected Area to develop
their own resources to free them from dependence on the project Tiger area. In the
process, many of those engaged in the illegal fishing were employed in forest related
activities. people.

The Hindu

24/12/2004

Fourth park tiger killed in a week!

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, DEC. 23. One more tiger was killed in the Thuepani beat falling under the
Gumtara range of the Pench National Park on Sunday night. With this latest killing, the
total number of tigers found killed inside the Pench National Park and its buffer area has
gone up to four within just one week.

Earlier the carcass of a tigress and her cub, slaughtered by poachers, was found in the
buffer area of Pench National Park on December 17. On the basis of

information passed by an informer after this poaching incident, a resident of Kurai village
was arrested as he was found possessing few tiger nails. During

interrogation, he passed information that led to the seizure of another tiger's skeletal
remains from Kurai Ghati deep inside the Pench National Park on Sunday.

The number of tigers poached or killed under mysterious circumstances in the Pench
National Park and its buffer area has gone up to four after the villagers from Thuepani
village saw the body of one more tiger lying near the Japtikhapa Nullah on Monday
morning. This spot is about nine kilometers from the

Totladoh dam.

The Thuepani villagers, who were among the first to spot the tiger's body on Monday
morning have been firm in stating that the tiger had a bullet wound on its
head. According to informed sources, the forest staff that subsequently reached the spot
from Totladoh tried to hush up this whole case by just completing the

formality of a post-mortem and hurriedly burning its remains.

In their official records, forest department sources have pointed out, the forest authorities
are now showing it as a natural death caused by some wound

that could have been inflicted during a fight with another tiger over control of territory.

While the State Chief Wildlife Warden, P.C. Shukla was not available for comments as
he was on tour, the State Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, A.P.

Dwivedi told The Hindu today that the Chief Conservator Wildlife, Suhas Kumar has
rushed to Pench to study the ground situation and submit a report at the earliest.

He confirmed that the number of tigers found killed inside the Pench National Park in the
last one week has gone up to four. He denied on the basis of preliminary reports that the
fourth tiger found killed near Thuepani village had been shot dead.

In May 1996 the Chief Wildlife Warden, Madhya Pradesh had granted permits for fishing
in Totladoh reservoir inside Pench to 305 persons displaced due to the construction of the
Pench Hydro-electric Project Dam.

These permits had been challenged by the Delhi-based Animal and Environment Legal
Defense Fund on the plea that they were violative of the Wild Life (Protection) Act,
1972. After the Supreme Court had passed its judgement on the Pench National Park case
on March 5, 1997, access to the Totladoh reservoir (for controlled fishing by the dam
affected people) was allowed only on the Totladoh-Thuepani road.

Ever since Thuepani, which falls in the Chhindwara district, has become an easy entry-
point for those crossing the Maharashtra border and entering Pench from Chirrevani
village on the Madhya Pradesh/Maharashtra border.