The alleged tiger poaching racket at Melghat may have also been involved in smuggling other wildlife and plant products from the forests, investigations have revealed.
The alleged tiger poaching racket at Melghat may have also been involved in smuggling other wildlife and plant products from the forests, investigations have revealed.
The forest department officials have arrested around 10 people for allegedly poaching tigers in and around the Melghat tiger reserve (MTR) in Amravati, since 2013. However, though leads pointing to the likelihood of a tiger being killed inside the reserve have been found, officials admit that the time lapse between the crime and detection made unearthing corroborative evidences difficult.
The case began in August when forest guards chanced upon a group inside the tiger reserve. These people attacked them and fled while leaving behind Safed Musli, which is used as a libido enhancer, and some meat suspected to be that of a porcupine.
More people were arrested later and bones, suspected to be those of a tiger, were recovered from a spot shown by the alleged poachers. The bones and meat samples (suspected to be of a porcupine) have been sent for forensic analysis.
"The people nabbed are locals and petty poachers. We are trying to get to the middlemen who purchased tiger body parts and sold it elsewhere," said a senior forest department official, adding that this would help unravel the procurement process.
"The case began as that involving smuggling of safed musli. It seems these people also procured and smuggled deer antlers, which are used as antiques and decorations, and said to have medicinal value, and even tiger scat, as they are said to have religious and medicinal significance," he added.
At present, the case if being investigated by officials from the Melghat tiger reserve and the buffer zone that is under the control of the territorial forest division, where animals have said to have been poached, with them registering separate cases. Sources said while Melghat officials had arrested at least six people for their alleged involvement, the number of arrests by the territorial wing was four, with more people likely to be rounded up soon.
"We have not been able to find substantial evidence of tiger poaching in our territorial area, though Melghat officials have secured leads about a tiger being hunting inside the reserve. Though there are claims that the number of tigers killed runs into double-digits, there is little chance that it could go undetected for long considering that the number of those accused is huge. They also belong to the same village, which would have led to word getting out if it was a racket of this magnitide," said another official.
The MTR, which is located in Vidarbha, is the first tiger project in Maharashtra and is spread over a 2,768 sq km area, including a 1,500 sq km core. It has around 49 tigers.
This year, around 17 tigers have died in Maharashtra this year apart from three cubs who were mowed down by a train last month at Chandrapur.
- According to the 2014 tiger census, India has 2,226 tigers, up from 1,706 in 2010. Maharashtra has around 190 such big cats, more than the figure of 169 in 2010. This increased to 203 in the phase-IV camera trapping exercise in 2014-15. Maharashtra has six tiger reserves, namely Tadoba Andhari, Pench, Bor, Sahyadri, Melghat and Navegaon Nagzira and a healthy number of tigers outside protected areas (PA) as well.
- In 2013, Amravati saw the sensational Dhakna tiger poaching case involving a multi-state poaching syndicate. This was the first case to be cracked using cyber forensics.
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