MUMBAI: Despite eight tigers having been killed in the last six months in the Tadoba tiger reserve and elsewhere in the state, it has been found that the state government has not initiated stringent measures to halt poaching.
Forest minister Patangrao Kadam visited the Tadoba Andhari reserve in Chandrapur district on Wednesday.
"There were specific reports from %wildlife activists, saying poachers from Madhya Pradesh would enter the state as they had taken supari for killing tigers. However, no steps were taken to halt the poaching," said a senior Indian Forest Service official.
He said that in view of the stepped up poaching activities, the state forest department, in collaboration with the state police, should have set up special squads to curb poaching. However, the cabinet member woke up only after the Centre sought details from the state on increased poaching in Maharashtra, he added.
Slamming the Centre for not amending the more than century-old Indian Forest Act, the official said that under section 66 of the Act, a forest or police officer has powers to prevent commission of an offence. "The Act is very weak, no forest officer can take direct action against the poachers. If the government is serious about curbing poaching activities, besides amending the Indian Forest Act, 1927, it should set up special forest police stations and grant powers under the Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code to the forest officials. In that event, forest officers will be able to arrest the poachers," he said.
It also appears that the state government has completely ignored the concept of protection of wildlife and stringent implementation of the wildlife protection act. Nearly 50 officials, specially-trained in wildlife, have been given insignificant assignments. Either they have been deployed in social forestry or planning section. "The government has been told on several occasions about the need to set up a secret service fund and intelligence unit to gather information on illegal activities," he said.
After the tiger killings, the state forest department had deployed 90 armed forest guards in and around the Tadoba tiger reserve, said another IFS officer.
He added that besides taking corrective measures to halt poaching, Kadam should order a high-level probe into the killings. "Kadam must fix the responsibility and take action against erring forest officials," he said.
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