The five men arrested for poaching a tigress in the forests of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. The tigress could have been saved before they killed it if the authorities would have acted efficiently on information received in the first week of October.
At present, the authorities have traced the location of the person who has the pelt of the poached tigress to Bijnor district in neighbouring UP and further action is expected in this case.
According to wildlife activists, the Uttarakhand Forest Department, police Special Task Force and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau had been informed in the first week of October about two persons who had entered the forests in the Khatima region of Terai East Forest division.
The names and mobile phone numbers of these two persons had also been conveyed to the authorities, but though the Uttarakhand forest department conducted search for the suspects, the WCCB and STF appear to have acted complacently, said an activist wishing anonymity.
It will be recalled that the poachers, including the two who had entered the forests earlier, were finally caught following a joint operation by the forest departments of Uttarakhand and UP on November 3 after they had killed a tigress.
The WCCB regional deputy director (northern region) Nishant Verma said that he had been informed by his sources on October 1 about the movement of suspected poachers and had conveyed this information to the divisional forest officer concerned.
He confirmed that the location of the person believed to be in possession of the poached tigress’ pelt has been traced to UP and necessary action will be taken in this case.
According to observers, this case has once again elicited focus on the lack of coordinated action by various departments when it comes to tackling wildlife crime.
lack of resources with the bureau may prevent it from taking effective action on its own, but this does not prevent the department from acting
as desired.
In this case, had the forest department personnel of UP acted swiftly, the poachers could have been nabbed before they killed the big cat.
However, the one positive outcome of the arrests is that the activities of poachers, especially those from the Bawaria community is expected to be stalled at least for some time in the Kumaon region.