Inaction turns operative word for Tamil Nadu forest department

Chennai: Year 2017 was full of feverish activities in Tamil Nadu politics, but inaction was the operative word for the 160-year-old Tamil Nadu forest department. The department held by senior minister Dindigul C. Sreenivasan saw no major schemes coming up in the year. Union government and the Madras high court also pulled up the department on several occasions.

During the month of March, the Madras high court pulled up the state forest department for delaying the salary of a top IFS woman officer Aruna Basu Sarcar. Ms Sarcar, the first IFS woman officer in the country, known for her integrity and her tough stand against timber and mining mafia was also not given a senior post till the time of court intervention and finally retired, thus exposing the administrative lapse.

On the green cover front, the forest department which initially made promises of planting saplings in the cyclone Vardah hit areas in Greater Chennai also did nothing, ignoring the tree cover in Chennai terming it a subject handled by the Chennai corporation. The first of its kind of tree census started two years ago by the department is still awaiting compilation.

The annual planting of saplings marking the birthday of chief minister
J. Jayalalithaa also lost steam after her demise in 2016 and the joint venture projects like Oceanarium and Night Safari were also shelved. In case of establishing an advanced wildlife research centre (AWRC) at Vandalur zoo, the forest department inaugurated the Rs 7.13 crore facility through chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on October 13 and even after two months, the department has not recruited scientists or biologists for the facility. Despite government sanctioning funds, the authorities are clueless in procuring equipment for the high-end laboratories proposed at AWRC, Vandalur.

Above all the wildlife wing of the TN forest department also earned the wrath of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for shifting its field station office from Coimbatore (surrounded by tiger reserves) to concrete Chennai. A communication in this regard from NTCA in the month of November left the TN foresters baffled. A recent report on increased tiger deaths and the dip in elephant population is another exposure on TN foresters. The files related to the declaration of a fifth tiger reserve in TN by merging Megamalai forest in Theni also slept throughout the year.  

Even as the death ratio continued at the zoo, on Wednesday a 16-year-old lioness Sasi died at the zoo due to geriatric complaints. Another spotted deer also died in Kalpakkam after being hit by a speeding vehicle pointing out that all is not well with the TN forest department.

However, the forest department has successfully increased the ticket prices in the zoo, named a few tiger cubs and also announced new money minting tourism packages for its once restricted Sathyamangalam tiger tiger reserve during 2017. 

Tigress killing cubs remains mystery

In case of captive breeding, the situation is worse. In the past one-month, more than six big cats, including a lion and four tiger cubs died in the zoo.

The worst part is the recent deaths of tiger cubs due to the poor management of the zoo staff.

The Vandalur zoo authorities did the same protocol practised for zoo animals, forgetting the fact that tigress Rudra was a rescued wild tiger from Sathyamangalam.

Though Rudra grew in the zoo she was born in wild and the staff failed to read the wild instincts. Installing cameras and cleaning the cubs with tissue paper immediately after the birth of cubs made Rudra forcing her abandon her cubs.

The traumatised tiger later punctured her own cubs and authorities blamed the three-year-old tiger for the death of cubs. But what traumatised the tiger to kill her cubs is a mystery that the foresters are yet to explain.