By Monica Verma | Project Leader
Greetings from Wildlife Trust of India!
An important aspect in saving India's tiger population is combatting the snare menace.
A snare is a type of trap designed to capture or restrain wild animals. It consists of a noose or loop of wire, cord, or other material that tightens when pulled, brutally capturing the animal around its neck or limbs.
Once captured, the animal dies immediately or eventually from the horrible injuries inflicted by these barbaric snares. Either way, it's a very painful and sad demise for the poor, unsuspecting animal.
At WTI, we believe that every snare removed is an animal's life saved.
To dismantle the snares set up by poachers and hunters, WTI conducts regular anti-snare walks – on-foot patrols by our vigilant teams who traverse vulnerable forest areas, meticulously scanning for and removing illegal snares. It’s a boots-on-the-ground initiative, a tangible commitment to disrupt this perilous network that threatens India’s tigers and their prey species.
In one of the critical tiger regions of India - the Terai arc landscape – which supports a population of approximately 650 Royal Bengal Tigers, we began anti-snare walks in 2019.
After 5 years of hard work, we have some ground-breaking results and numbers, which we are proud to share with you.
The graph below shows a constant year-on-year decline in the number of snares found in the region, despite a continuous increase in the total area in kilometres covered during such walks. This year, so far we have found and dismantled only 15 snares in the region. This is a massive win for India’s tiger population. The rigorous anti-snare walks are deterring the poachers and hunters from setting up snares in the first place.
We found a similar trend for the state of Karnataka, which is another critical landscape for tigers we cover under the anti-snare walks. We are now expanding our efforts into other tiger hotspots - the central India landscape and the state of Kerala.
With each step, we aim to create safer spaces for the wild. Here’s to a future where the tigers freely roam the wild, their home, cleansed of the ugly snares.
We could not have come so far without your generous support. Thank you so much for your valuable donations. It's supporters like you who inspire us to continue working tirelessly toward our Vision of securing India's natural heritage.
We are grateful and humbled in our cumulative efforts to protect India's tiger population. But we still have long way to go. This is the tip of the iceberg.
It’s #GivingTuesday on 28th November. Support our de-snaring drives on this special day and participate in GlobalGiving’s exciting campaign!
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