In the era of empowerment, women are venturing into new territories and making great strides in almost every field. Ironically, poaching has intruded the list. Therefore, the noticeable among the six poachers sentenced to 3-year jail is a woman belonging to Bhavaria tribe of Haryana.
The Karnataka High Court convicted Bimla Devi (30), along with her accomplices — Jagadeesh (30), Jaler Singh, alias Diley Singh (45), lakumichand (26), Rothas (20) and Pappu (30) — under Sections 51(1) and 51(1) (A) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 last week.
Out of the six poachers, Jagdish and Pappu have to pay a fine of `10,000 each in addition to serving the three-year jail. The six professional tiger poachers from Kalka were arrested with jaw traps in BRT Tiger Reserve in Kollegal District of Karnataka in July 2012.
Jagdish Bawaria is the nephew of the dreaded tiger poacher Bhima Bawariya, who was arrested earlier this year in Gurgaon in a joint operation by Wildlife SOS, CBI, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and the Haryana Forest Department. A tiger skin, tiger skeleton, ivory and live turtles were recovered from Bhima.
According to Range Forest Officer, BRT Tiger Reserve, KT Boraiah, these six poachers had set up three ‘khadka’ ( local name for jaw traps) at different locations in the core areas of BRT Reserve.
Four more jaw traps along with skinning knives, nets and other weapons had also been recovered from their tent outside the forest. However, they were arrested before they could kill any tiger.
“It is very important to ascertain on the increasing network and spread of such inter-state poaching tribes in the various tiger reserves in the country and their ultimate nexus with the organised wildlife criminals,” said a senior official.
Kartick Satyanarayan from Wildlife SOS (working on protection of wildlife) feels, “This is a landmark judgement where the high court has recognised the threat to the tigers from such poachers and their jaw traps.”
This judgement sets a very good precedence for the future of tigers in the country, he added. The NGO runs an anti-poaching unit called Forest Watch, which helped in the arrest of these poachers in association with respective State forest department.