Telangana: Catch The Trap Drive Yields Nearly Five Tonnes of Poaching Devices

Hyderabad: The true nature of poaching of wildlife, or attempts by poachers to trap and kill wild animals in Telangana came to the fore on with the state forest department announcing that since December 1, 2023, it seized a whopping 4,872 kg of snares, traps, cages, and nets among other poacher paraphernalia.

“A majority of poaching attempts are done by electrified wires laid on the ground. Despite several people losing their lives from coming into contact with such wires, poachers continue to use this method resulting in such unfortunate deaths,” Chief Wildlife Warden M.C. Pargaein said.

Since 2023, six persons have lost their lives after coming into contact with the live wires which are illegally hooked to overhead 11 kV high tension power transmission lines. With such HT lines criss-crossing the forest areas, uninsulated steel wires are being laid as electrified traps and any living creature coming into contact with it, gets zapped resulting in instant death.

Typically, electrified lines, or other forms of snares and traps are laid to catch wild boar, different species of deer, and ground dwelling birds such as jungle fowl, patridges. And at times, large animals such as tigers, leopards, sloth bears also get caught in these traps.

On display on Wednesday at the Mahavir Harina Vanasthali National Park in the city, were mounds of various kinds of traps, including pressure activated steel jaws that clamp shut and are used to trap large animals, cages made from wire and bamboo, and snares and weapons of different kinds. The Catch The Trap initiative was launched by Pargaien and is the first of its kind launched by the forest department, and it has yielded results.

The impact and effectiveness of Catch The Trap programme can be gauged from the fact that in the first six months of 2024 since the drive was launched, there were only 3 cases of electrocution of wild animals reported, while this number was 21, 15 and 18 in 2023, 2022 and 2021, Pargaein said.

Complimenting the staff and officials of the forest department the Chief Wildlife Warden said it was the Forest Section Officers and Forest Guards assisted by their watchers, who played a key role in curbing poaching. “Looking for traps and snares and other devices has now become an integral part of the daily duties of forest staff and has led to increased protection to both large herbivores and carnivores, along with many other species of smaller wildlife," he said.

Catch The Trap yields results

No of traps/snares seized: 3,810

Total weight of traps/snares seized: 4,872 kg

Wild animals killed by electrocution

Year – Number

2021 – 18

2022 – 15

2023 – 21

2024 (till June) – 3

Wild animals killed between 1-4-2023 to 31-3-2024

Tiger – 2

Leopard – 3

Sloth Bear – 2

Gaur (Indian Bison) – 2

Other herbivores & mammals – 143

Human deaths from electrified snares/wire in 2023/24

January 2023: Guguloth Mangya Naik, 45, Rudrangi Mandal of Rajanna-Sircilla dt.

April 2023 : Rajanna (45), from Arepalli village in Bheemaram Mandal, Mancherial dt.

December 2023: D.Sudhakar of Bajumallaigudem Singareni Mandal, Karepalli Range of Khammam dt.

Jan. 2024 : Kotnaik Bheemrao, 40, electrocuted near Chapri village in Sirpur (U) Mandal in Komaram Bheem Asifabad dt.

February 2024: A Greyhounds commando, A Praveen, died of electrocution during a combing operation at Nasturpalli (V) Kataram mandal of Jayashankar Bhupalapalli dt.

February 2024. Pendore Laxman, 60, of Bhuthai (V) Bajarhathnoor ,Adilabad district.