Vanishing Stripes: Save the Bengal Tiger

Tigers trapped in Live Wires

The charismatic national animal of India has been under the radar for decades now. Project Tiger initiated by the Government of India was one of the pioneering initiatives launched in 1973. The gradual yet successful progress from 9 Tiger Reserves (TR) to 50 today, shows the importance of the species. Yet we are still battling over threats like demand for tiger parts and its derivatives sold at exorbitant rates nationally and internationally. The movement of tigers outside protected areas as per their innate behaviour brings them closer to human contact adding to threats like human-tiger conflict, which are reported from all across the country.

Poisoning, shooting, snares, and explosive-traps were earlier some of the popular poaching methods in Indian forests but today using ‘live’ electrical wire traps are the best silent solution that easily kill animals in an instant. Electrocution, a method in which a wired trap or fence of a high tension electric line passing near forests is used to kill animals, is a heinous trend today. This is either adopted by tiger poachers or by farmers to protect their fields from herbivores. Especially in villages close to tiger reserves, the heavy losses incurred due to crop raiding instigate farmers to lay live wires with a minimum of 440V and trap deer, wild boars etc. but, this often ends up accidentally trapping another mega fauna like Tigers, leopards, elephants etc.

The recent death of a tiger in the backwaters of Kabini in Belthru village, Karnataka has raised a huge cry. The carcass was found floating with skin and canines intact but claws removed and tied in a plastic bag hanging to its foreleg. The post-mortem conducted by the forest department revealed the tiger was electrocuted as the heart had reduced to ashes and carcass was dumped in the river to evade prosecution. Not just tigers but several animals from the forests face the same plight today. Many cases such as this go hidden due to lack of evidence and adequate vigilance. In Meghamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu the number of electrocution cases have been proliferating.

Meghamalai TR situated in the Western Ghats in Theni district, Tamil Nadu works as an excellent connectivity between Periyar TR and Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary. As per forest department records these moist tropical forests in the last ten years have witnessed around 90 sambar deer,200 wild pig, 4 elephants and an Indian Gaur. Several such cases in many Indian Tiger reserves go unnoticed and not long before a leopard or tiger gets un-trapped. Only active surveillance conducted within regular intervals can stop the rising incidents of electrocution in our country.

Thanks to your generous contribution in Global giving, Wildlife Trust of India successfully. The need for training forest guards and providing them the right equipment to help detect these fatal traps and also ensure personal safety is currently being taken as a priority. We kindly request for your philanthropic support to help us protect tigers.

Activities from Tiger Projects of WTI that are funded by other Donors

The shrinking habitats of wild animals due to escalating human population result in unsolicited and inevitable encounters between humans and wild animals in and around forests, leading to human wildlife conflict. WTI’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) was established to provide an expert emergency response to such conflict situations and address human big-cat conflict proximally. Comprising of three skillsets – a trained wildlife biologist, a sociologist and a wildlife veterinarian, the RRT is equipped with requisite equipment and a vehicle to efficiently address big cat conflict situations. At a conflict situation, each component of RRT brings together their expertise and strives to mitigate conflict without bringing the lives of people and the animal involved in danger. This includes intensive monitoring and identification of the animal by the biologist, awareness and crowd control by the sociologist, and if required, chemical capture and relocation of the animal involved with the help of the trained veterinarian.

Currently, the RRT is operational at two places – the Dudhwa Pilibhit landscape in Uttar Pradesh and the Vidarbha landscape in Maharashtra. Since its establishment, the RRT has attended to several human tiger conflict cases and directly intervened in 9 tiger conflict cases in Vidarbha landscape and 13 tiger cases in Dudhwa-Pilibhit. This involves intensive and regular monitoring of the tiger to avert any possible conflict in villages; providing safe passage; and direct capture and relocation of the tiger. Apart from direct interventions, the RRT plays an important role in other aspects that indirectly contribute to human tiger conflict mitigation and ultimately tiger conservation. These include awareness and sensitization of local communities, training of Frontline Forest Staff (FFS), treatment of other wild animals in distress, and conducting livestock immunizations camps.

This holistic approach aims at addressing human-big cat conflicts in the landscape using a proactive and multipronged strategy that could prove favourable to the wild animals and humans involved in conflict situations.

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India’s national animal, Royal Bengal Tiger survives today braving all threats alarming their existence. Global wild tiger populations have suffered a severe decline over the years making them one of the most endangered big cats in the world. We, today stand at a critical crossroad fighting between the need for development and to also save this apex predator from extinction resulting due to habitat loss and poaching.

The Central India Landscape is well known for its network of Tiger reserves interspersed with forest patches and corridors. With a good number of National parks (9), Tiger Reserves (6) and Wildlife Sanctuaries (25) Madhya Pradesh (MP), Central India’s “Tiger state” was unfortunately recorded with the highest tiger deaths in 2017. Since 2013, 15 Tigers died because of Electrocution in MP.

Electrocution has raised concerns in the wildlife community. Often villagers from forest fringes lay down high voltage wires to deter wild boars and deer from their farmlands and sometimes also hunt them. Dozens of elephants, tigers, sloth bears, birds etc fall prey to such poorly maintained power lines around human settlements. While there are strict guidelines to keep animals safe and from straying out of their shrinking habitats, they are not strictly implemented in our country.

The grave danger wildlife in our country is constantly exposed to, there is always a need for strong enforcement initiatives and litigation to mitigate recurring tiger deaths in the country. Both wildlife and forest-related offenses are fundamentally distinct from other crimes and require a specialized skill set to put away convicts. The lack of training in filing cases and adequate documentation of legal procedures contribute to the alarmingly low conviction rate in wildlife crime cases. So to address this issue at the very root Wildlife Trust of India through its litigation project under Wildlife Crime Control division has been providing routine counseling and training to state forest departments to address wildlife offenses across several Protected Areas since 2013. As part of this programme, WTI’s regional legal consultant Mr. Yash Kumar Soni provided legal assistance to a tiger death case in Kanha Tiger Reserve reported in the jurisdiction of Mohgaon, a village located in the vicinity of the Protected Area.

Information was received from some villagers about a death of the tiger in their village. On further investigation, the body of a tiger was found buried in a remote area near the local village with its paws cut off. The forest department after post-mortem and inspection, it came to fore that the tiger was accidentally killed due to electrocution and the culprits buried the same fearing legal consequences. To add further, the miscreants had cut the paws off and portions of the Tiger’s skin to sell in the black market. With the aid of the local community, the forest department took into custody four convicts and the case is currently under judicial consideration in the District Court. WTI’s legal consultant assisted the forest department in legal documentation of this case.

WTI’s Wildlife Crime Control Division has been actively working to prevent deaths through electrocution in Karnataka, South India. These efforts have resulted in Chief Wildlife Warden of the State making inclusion of Anti-electrocution walks mandatory in Forest staff’s routine patrolling.

To help tackle the increase in accidental electrocution deaths WTI is currently developing an anti-electrocution kit which will help detect live wires and take appropriate measures before any casualty. Talks are underway with forest departments to equip and train their frontline staff to also conduct anti-electrocution walks and map power lines in and around Protected Areas. Each kit will possess a live-wire detector, pliers to cut wires and precautionary wear for the frontline staff. The cost of each kit is around 300 USD and every department will be provided 4-5 kits for selected individuals from the forest department. The selected staff will also be provided with training. Total cost for training and equipment comes to approximately 1700 USD.

We would like to request our donors to support this cause and help us raise funds to help address this rising issue of electrocution deaths, both accidental and deliberate cases and protect tigers and other wildlife in our country.