Tracking And Providing Security To Wildlife In 1,000-km Forest An Uphill Task: Officials
Forest officials said the need of the hour was the removal of the electricity supply lines from the forest areas in order to protect wildlife.
ADILABAD: Forest officials on Tuesday presented before the media, the skin, teeth and claws of a tigress that was found dead on the outskirts of Yellur in Penchikalpet mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district last week. Officials had earlier doubted if the carcass they had exhumed belonged to a tiger.
The tigress, said to be Kadamba-8 (K8), referring to the forest block she was born in, was believed to be eight years old. On Tuesday, officials did not formally identify the tigress.
Forest officials also said that tracking and providing security for wildlife, especially tigers, was not possible in the 1,000 km periphery of the forests, if someone went into the forest to deliberately kill wild animals.
Forest officials said the need of the hour was the removal of the electricity supply lines from the forest areas in order to protect wildlife. Poachers and farmers draw power from these overhead cables to set up traps and electric fences.
Forest officials claimed their field staff had done their job without any negligence, unlike in previous incidents of tiger deaths. Giving details, Kawal tiger reserve field director S. Shantaram and Asifabad district forest officer Neeraj Tibrewal said they did not get exact information of death of tiger. Instead, they were told that some people had sighted a tiger and forest staff visited 30 villages to trace it.
The forest staff produced the tigress' skin, teeth and claws they had seized from the accused involved in the death of an eight-year-old tigress reportedly from Raspelli in Dahegoan mandal.
The officials said that they are still investigating the death of the tigress in Penchikalpet and identified four local poachers — whom they did not identify — as prime accused. They said they had also questioned some other people who knew about the incident.