A report in this paper yesterday stated that the forest department finally managed to get an image of the tigress in its camera trap along with fresh pugmarks
The race to net Maharashtra's most wanted tigress T1 in Yavatmal has reached epic proportions. Elephants, sharp shooters, nets, traps, decoys, drones and even paragliders have been deployed to track the seemingly elusive big cat. Many of these methods wildlife experts have dubbed 'ill-thought-out and foolish'.
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A report in this paper yesterday stated that the forest department finally managed to get an image of the tigress in its camera trap along with fresh pugmarks. While the mammoth hunt continues, it would do well to find out just why the big cat has been able to kill so many humans – 13 over two years, at last count.
Reports clearly indicate that human settlements have encroached into forest area here. A shocking government statistic shows that around 19 lakh hectares, or roughly two per cent, of forest area in the country has been encroached. Why then are we targetting the tigress instead of making efforts to resettle the humans? Move them away from the wild animal's purview? Is it because the tigress is a more acceptable casualty in this conflict? Why is it hard to acknowledge that if the animal's source of food has been disturbed because of the encroachment, it is a given that the animal will reach out for an easily available source.
The Centre has said that protection of forests is the responsibility of the state governments, so it is time we made the authorities accountable for man-animal conflict. Permission after permission is being given with alacrity to chop down precious green cover in the name of development.
We see examples of man-animal conflict right here in the city, too, with forest land encroached to make way for human habitation. It would do well for us to make protection of forests a very important part of government policy, but not just on paper.
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