Right To Information (RTI) and wildlife activist from the State capital Ajay Dubey urged the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) of the State to curb poaching and poachers of tigers in Madhya Pradesh.
Dubey in a mail to the CWW on Tuesday said, “I would like to draw your attention to the serious kind of inefficiency and negligence of the Forest Department in curbing problem of poaching.” He mentioned that he has received some documents from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) which disclose that the forest department of Maharashtra has informed the NTCA and Madhya Pradesh government about the arrest of 12 poachers in June 2013. During the interrogation these poachers have given the names of the poachers as well as the name of places of Madhya Pradesh where they have committed the crime, he added.
“I have come to know that none of them have been arrested by the concerned authorities even after knowing the fact that how dangerous these poachers are for the safety and security of tigers,” he added in the letter. He also provided the list of poachers with the mail. He said that a section of media has published the news about the arrest of few poachers in Panna Tiger Reserve and one of them Named Mahendra Mahdele who is nephew of local MlA and Cabinet Minister Kusum Mehdele is absconding. This is a very serious kind of incident which may be a threat to the lives of tigers who are in the Panna Tiger Reserve, he added.
Dubey also the member of Prayatna environmental action group said that I have also received information from your office obtained through RTI that says that a high level committee of senior officers was constituted in May 2012 to tackle the problem of poaching of wild life animals specially tigers in Bundelkhand region with special reference to Panna Tiger Reserve. Unfortunately your office has also admitted that none of the activity of this committee has been recorded it means the committee is un-functional, he added.