Recently, a Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) was killed by electrocution in Debrigarh sanctuary. Some vital parts of the animal like nails teeth, fats etc. were missing. Over a period of time, there was confusion as to whether the poached animal was a tiger.
State Forest Minister Bijayshree Routray while expressing concern said that the hunted animal was a leopard, not a tiger. The wildlife officials also echoed the same version.
By a tiger, we always mean a RBT. India is fortunate that there are 15 types of cats, excluding domestic cats, noticed in the country. But the swiftest animal like a cheetah or a hunting leopard has vanished from Indian forests since long due to heavy poaching and population pressure. In Odisha, only five types of cats are available now. They are tiger, leopard or panther, fishing cat, wild cat and domestic cat. Now many races of cats are on the verge of extinction due to poaching and loss of habitat.
In Odisha, the big cats like tiger and leopard are getting extinct fast. The tiger relocation, though an arduous task, is undertaken to propagate their population.
The big cat like a tiger or a leopard can easily be differentiated from their very look. Every part of tiger and panther differs. The average length of a tiger is 10 feet or 300 cm. The average weight of a male is 180- 230 kg and the females are about 45-50 kg less in weight. The Indian tigers are richly coloured, well stripped with shoot smooth coat, which shines from a distance. The tiger can remain well in an altitude of 10,000 feet of the Himalayan range and can go down in coastal swamp of Sundarvans. It lives in humid ever-green pine forests of Himalayas and also in dry deciduous open jungles, in grassy swamps of the Tarai in tropics, in the estuaries of Ganga and Hooguli rivers in Sundarvans. The tiger lives an amphibious life and catches fishes and aquatic animals.
It is a good swimmer and needs neighbourhood of large animals to prey. Besides, it requires water to quench its thirst. It usually hunts during sunset and dawn. It hunts all kinds of animals, including elephant, especially those which are usually females and young. Its hunts Nilagai, wild pig, bear, deer, wild buffalo and rodents like porcupines. Sometimes, it kills panther and other tigers.
Human beings or cattle are not its usual prey, but when a tiger becomes partially invalid, due to certain physical disability, it goes to kill man and its domestic animals because these are the laziest creatures in the animal kingdom.
Recently, a male tiger, which was brought from Madhya Pradesh and introduced in Satkosia Tiger Reserve for tiger propagation, met its death due to a porcupine being eaten by the tiger itself. The multiple injuries in the body of the tiger by the spines of the porcupine are inevitable. Not only one or two spines were found in the dead tiger, but also several quills are generally expected in the body of the tiger.
Besides, several quills can also be expected to be received at the spot of encounter of both the animals.
The porcupine is armoured with spines for its protection from its predator. Again, the presence of a wounded tiger can be easily known as it moans which can be heard by the local people.
So far as the poaching of the animal in the Debrigarh sanctuary is concerned, there is much confusion over the species.
When the local people are saying it is a RBT, the forest people are saying it is a leopard. There is a dispute in identification of the animal. The animal carcass was found decomposed as its death occurred several days back. So a scientific analysis of the viscera test can establish the truth. The field observations also can help identify the species. A forester or a wild-lifer can easily identify the species. There are certain parts of the animal body which do not rot like nail, hair, tooth etc. So the employees of wildlife department who have sufficient field knowledge can easily identify an animal from these body parts.
Poaching of animals is very common in Bargarh – Sambalpur forest and Satkosia Tiger Reserve of Angul-Nayagarh- Cuttack and Boudh zone. Flesh of wild animals is on high demand in local hotels and dhabas. Sambalpur and Bargarh are close to Madhya Pradesh border.
Therefore, poachers often enter into the Odisha forests slyly and kill animals for a trade of the horns and hides. Now the nails, teeth, fats etc of tigers are in great demand in China for preparation of sex-promoting medicines. Similarly, the Rhinos of the Kajiranga Sanctuary in Assam are also hunted for same purposes. Debrigarh was declared as a sanctuary in 1985.
The total area of the eco-system is 346.90 sq km where all kinds of tropical species are noticed. The representation of all kinds of tropical species with lush green vegetations really support the tiger habitat. When tiger species is fast dwindling in Odisha, the poaching in Debrigarh shows how the authorities have gone lax in taking appropriate measures to protect the wildlife.
(The writer is a former forest officer and environmentalist)