No-holds-barred poaching has reduced tiger population drastically in Odisha with mere 28 of them living these days.
While the population of tigers has increased at the national level and also in the States like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Kerala in the last four years, Odisha drew a blank over the same period.
In fact, in last 16 years, Odisha’s tiger population has been reduced by 104 from 132 in 2002 to 28 in 2018.
A report of the fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation conducted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, revealed the dismal state of affairs in Odisha. Though the rise in the national average of tigers is a moment of jubilation for the wildlife lovers, the figure in Odisha has been a worrying factor for them.
The report stated that the tiger population in India has increased from 2,226 in 2014 to 2,967 in 2018.
The 33 per cent rise in tiger number is the highest ever recorded between cycles which stood at 21 per cent between 2006 and 2010 and 30 per cent between 2010 and 2014.
Madhya Pradesh saw the highest number of tigers at 526, closely followed by Karnataka at 524 with Uttarakhand at number 3 with 442 tigers.
Meanwhile, wildlife activist and Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) secretary Biswajit Mohanty has attributed rampant poaching to the steady fall in number of tigers in Odisha. The slack protection measures has been an advantage to the poachers who have been active in the State forests and carrying out their covert operations without any check.
Mohanty told since tigers are good breeders, provided there is sufficient prey base and protection from poaching, the State could have easily doubled the tiger numbers to at least 264 in 16 years.
However, the Simlipal Tiger Reserve lost 75 wild tigers as per the State Government census figures of 2006 and 2016.
No accountability was fixed on the forest officials though over Rs 25 crore spent on tiger protection.
Similarly, the Satkosia Tiger Reserve has only one wild tiger now. Out of the two relocated tigers, one was killed last year by poachers while one has been caged due to conflict with local villagers, told Mohanty.
“Odisha has excellent habitat and vast forests for tigers to live and flourish. However, rampant poaching of prey base and tigers is taking a heavy toll. The Forest Department has miserably failed to control poaching even in tiger reserves like Simlipal and Satkosia. The tigers are targeted for their bones, claws, skin and whiskers by professional poachers in Odisha,” informed Mohanty.