WEDNESDAY, 6 JUNE 2012

Poachers electrocuted a tiger and cut into two pieces in Madhya Pradesh

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Image as found in http://www.bhaskar.com/article/MP-BPL-tiger-huntimg-in-bhopal-3373076.html?C3-BHL=
Body parts of a five year old male tiger was found on 5 June 2012 near a water hole in Kathotia village in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh. Animal was electrocuted by poachers and later cut into two pieces. 8 people were detained by forest officials in connection with this poaching. This is the second time in the last two weeks that a body of the tiger was cut into pieces, the first case was reported from Chandrapur, Maharashtra on 18 May 2012.

Sehore villagers mourn death of striped friend

The two days' old carcass of a young tiger was found in the forest of Kathotia village in Sehore district on Tuesday. The body had been hacked into two pieces for the purpose of hiding. Forest officials are of the view that the tiger fell prey to an electrical trap laid by hunters to poach wild animals.

Four persons have been arrested and a search for two more culprits is on.

Sources from Sehore said on condition of anonymity that the poachers have been active in the area for long and work hand in glove with forest officials. Their modus operandi consists of laying of live electrical traps in the forests to kill the wild animals. Once the animal comes in contact with the live electric wire, it meets a painful death. Several complaints about the poaching activities have been made but no action was initiated by the forest administration.

Sources said that locals moving in the Keeldas Forests in village Kathotia on Tuesday saw the body of a tiger lying in decomposed state.

Sehore District Forest Officer Vijay Nema told The Pioneer, "It appeared that the hunters, having failed to take the tiger away, chopped its body up in two portions. But they still could not move it as the tiger was too big. And that's why they fled from the site but not before hiding the carcass with the intent of returning to take away the booty. Before they could come back, it was spotted by the villagers."

The Keeldas Forests were home to the tiger for the past few years. The tiger and the locals were familiar with each other since long and on several occasions came face to face but neither tried to harm the other.

The forest administration of Sehore cremated the tiger in a hurry lending further credence to doubts of locals that there was something fishy about the matter and that the forest administration does not want the news to be made public.

The DFO said that it is an unfortunate incident and that it was the villagers who laid a trap for smaller animals near the water body. The department has intensified patrolling inside the jungles, he said.

TUESDAY, 05 JUNE 2012 23:46

STAFF REPORTER | BHOPAL