Poachers, electric wires pose threat to wild cats

ADILABAD: If it were the farmers who were at the risk of falling prey to wild cats till recently, in a role reversal of sorts it is the tigers that are in danger of being killed by either animal poachers or the electric wires set up by farmers in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. Electric fences put up by farmers to protect their crops from wild animals, especially boars, during this season, are posing a huge threat to unsuspecting felines who roam the area in search of prey.

Experts say it is time for the forest staff to intensify tracking of tiger movements in order to keep the big cats safe. There is every possibility of poachers becoming active as they can track tiger movement with the help of photos and videos that are being posted on social media by local villagers.

The poachers may come to know the exact area of the tiger movement with the information on social media.     

Nirmal DFO Vikas Meena formed a team and is tracking the movement of a tiger that recently entered into Narsapur (G) mandal of Nirmal district from bordering Maharashtra.

The forest staff are creating awareness among villagers and removing snares and electric fences to protect tigers. They are making efforts to retain migrated tigers and ensure their entry into the Kawal tiger reserve.

However, the reserve’s core area is 40 km from the Narsapur (G) forest area.  Tigers migrating from Maharashtra have to cross NH-44 if it has to enter the buffer area of the reserve.            

Local farmers are moving in groups since their agriculture fields are adjacent to forest areas.

Nirmal forest officials are raiding houses and seizing electric wires from farmers to save tigers that entered Nirmal from Maharashtra. They are setting up camera traps to capture the movement of tigers. In some places in the Nirmal area, farmers cultivate groundnut and Bengal gram. Wild Boars enter into the fields and destroy the crop and also eat them.

In order to save the standing crops, the farmers who invest huge money in agriculture resort to setting up electric wire fencing around their fields to save the crops from the forest animals.