Karnataka: Hunting wrong animals? Activists fume

Bengaluru/Mysuru: In the last fortnight, foresters and ‘sharp shooters’ in Sandur in Ballari district have embarked on a manhunt for a killer leopard which has claimed the lives of three people. The team killed the wrong leopard on November 16 after which another human death occurred in the same area, allegedly caused by a leopard proving that they had killed the wrong animal.

This incident is testimony to how the business of shooting wild animals like tigers and leopards is gravely mismanaged in Karnataka and in other tiger states. Two tigers have been shot dead in the state in the last one year after they resorted to killing humans and now the increased trend of shooting down tigers that are termed ‘problematic’ has opened a fresh debate in wildlife circles.

While scientists and tiger biologists state that the animals that are killing humans must be shot down without any delay,  animal rights activists see it the other way. They claim that shooting down of animals has now become a fashion among a few foresters who are not trying to save these animals so that they can be  rehabilitated in wildlife shelters or zoos.

“There is no question of arguing over a tiger’s life when it has killed a human. Human life is definitely more valuable than that of a tiger, and if action is not taken there is a danger of losing more tigers in a particular area because of people’s fury. Why do you want to send the animal to a zoo? There are already enough tigers rotting in zoos which were captured from tiger areas. We must look at it from a conservation point of view, there is no scope for emotion while eliminating a tiger which has killed humans,” said a senior wildlife scientist.

The scientists also feel that the Forest Department currently is not well equipped to remove problematic tigers and the entire exercise of catching the animals live or dead must be ‘fine-tuned’.

“Every time when there is a capture operation, hundreds of people are taken inside the forest to shoot down one animal. There are also many enthusiasts who carry their own private licensed guns trying to help the foresters. What we need is a Strike Team consisting of few trained men and officials who could eliminate or capture the animal without any fuss,” the scientist added.

Identifying the Right Animal: The most important thing to consider before the forest team carries out ‘hunting’ of the animal in question.

• Reduce Human Footprints In Operations: More than 200 people were involved in recent tiger shooting in Bandipur. Such crowd can be minimised by sending in small teams of trained men on elephant’s back.
• Do Not Celebrate Or Parade: There is tendency to take a photo of shot tiger with guns and happy faces. Such animals are also paraded around the village. Such acts must be minimised.
• Police Involvement: The police must ensure that crowd management is done in such a way that the forest teams can carry out operations without any hindrance.

Tigers trapped in trap cameras in Virajpet taluk

The people of Kodagu district who faced the brunt of elephant attacks earlier, now fear possible attacks by tigers. The trap cameras installed by the forest department at the coffee estate of Mukkatira Shivu Madappa, at Kutta village in Virajpet taluk has captured the pictures of two tigers and two cubs in the estate.

The cameras were installed after a cow was killed on the estate. Forest officials had fixed the trap cameras by leaving the carcass of the cow in order to verify and detect the animal which had killed the cow.

Due to technical glitch, the cameras have captured over 500 black and white images of the tigers and their cubs eating the carcass, Madikeri division CCF Mr Manoj Kumar said.

He added that the forest staff was trying to monitor the movements of the tigers, but have not sighted them so far. But there is evidence that the wild cats might have moved towards Brahmagiri forests, Mr Manoj Kumar said.

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