Social, RTI and wildlife activist Ajay Dubey has urged the Chief Wildlife Warden of Madhya Pradesh to take immediate action against wildlife poachers.
Dubey, in an email, said, “I would like to draw your attention to the serious inefficiency and negligence on part of the Forest Department in curbing the problem of poaching in Madhya Pradesh. I have received some documents from the NTCA which disclose that the forest department of Maharashtra has informed the NTCA and MP Government about the arrest of the poachers in June 2013.These poachers were involved in poaching of tigers in Melghat and Nagpur.”
He further said that during interrogation, 12 arrested poachers revealed the names of another 27 poachers who were involved in poaching of tigers, not only in Maharashtra but also in Madhya Pradesh. They have given the names of the poachers as well as the names of places in Madhya Pradesh where they have committed the crime. “I have come to know that none of them has 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.
Attaching a list of poachers with the mail, Dubey said that on Tuesday, newspapers had published the news about the arrest of poachers in Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) and one of them was Mahendra Mahdele, who is a nephew of local MlA and Cabinet Minister Kusum Mehdele. Mahendra is still absconding. This is a very serious incident, which may be a threat to the lives of tigers in the PTR, he added.
He said, “I have also received information from your office obtained through RTI application that says that a high level committee of senior officers was constituted in May 2012 to tackle the problem of poaching of wildlife animals specially tigers in Bundelkhand region with special reference to PTR.
Unfortunately, your office has also admitted that none of the activity of this committee has been recorded. It means that the committee is non-functional. Hence, it is requested to consider the above mentioned points for urgent appropriate actions to save brutal killing of tigers and to ensure the arrest of the culprits.”