8.3.10

Somewhere in Ranthambore....

In a shocking incident, two 17-month-old cubs were found dead, allegedly poisoned to death by villagers on the outskirts of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. Forest officials say that it might be an act of revenge by villagers, who were upset over killing of their livestock by the wild cats. Officials say that such incidents may happen in future too as straying of tigers from the over populated reserve was bound to happen. The tiger population in Ranthambore reserve has come down to 39, which has capacity for 30 only. With death of two cubs, the worst fears of ever growing tiger population in the limited periphery of the Ranthambore national park has come true. According to forest officials, the two cubs had strayed away from the park about two months back and were roaming around the outskirts of the park since then.“Prima facie we can say that it is not a case of poaching as the body parts were intact. But it appears to be a case of revenge killing,” said RN Mehrotra, chief wild life warden, Rajasthan. Local MLA Allauddin Azad has called for an inquiry into the matter. “The tigers have been killing livestock in villages. But on Sunday they were poisoned to death by the villagers near the Talawara village,” the official said. Forest officials said it seemed to be an act of revenge killing by villagers and the remains of two goats were found at the site where the two tigers were killed. “While one was below a tree and had been eaten, the other was on top of the tree. Prima facie it appears that the tigers ate the goats that were set as a bait and got poisoned. The tigers had thrown up too in the area. The furs on their bodies have come off,” the official said. In fact, officials have been apprehensive of the young straying tigers ever since the relocation of tigers from Ranthambore to Sariska tiger reserve were halted by the ministry of forests. “There is hardly enough space in the park to accommodate all the tigers. As a result, when mothers desert their grown up cubs, these cubs in the absence of a territory within the park, move outside. In some cases, while we are lucky to have them back, what happened on Sunday was what exactly we feared,” the official said. “In this case too the area between Anakpura and Bhir that comprises the territory of the Chirolee male is now accommodating five tigers — the Chirolee male, T-21, the Berda male, Graisagar male and another big male that keeps coming in and out. Since these two grown cubs were the youngest of the lot, they were made to leave the area and once they went outside the forests, they became vulnerable,,” the official said. “Had we relocated some of the tigers to Sariska, then perhaps we would not have seen this day. We would have relocated some five tigers to Sariska by now and there would have been space for these cubs in Ranthambore,” said Rajpal Singh, former member of the empowered committee.

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