Wire Snares: The Silent Stranglers

Nagpur: Twenty-four tigers and 110 leopards choking to death in forests across the country in the last nine years after getting entangled in wire snares laid for herbivores seem to be just tip off the iceberg! There may be scores of wild animals falling prey to this age-old technique of poachers for bush meat, which is now threatening even tigers.
Though little is being done by the forest departments to tackle menace of wire snares laid by bush meat-hungry poachers, the issue has once again hogged limelight after death of a young tigress on April 13, 2019, inside country’s premium tiger reserve Tadoba in Chandrapur and Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal on March 19. The Tipeshwar tigress moved with the trap for nearly 18 months and it must have been agonizing.
Considered to be poaching cases, no forest department in the country has figures about number of wild animal deaths exclusively due to these body-gripping traps. However, a database by Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), working to combat poaching and escalating wildlife trade, has recorded 24 tiger and 110 leopard deaths in the country during 2010-2018, which includes five tigers and 14 leopards in Maharashtra. Similarly, 57 leopards were injured and 30 other wild animals died painful death during the same period.
Wildlife expert Kishor Rithe’s Satpuda Foundation, working for tiger conservation in Central India, had in 2012 prepared a standard operating practice (SOP) to deal with wire snares after a series of tiger deaths due to snares, electrocution and steel traps around Tadoba.
“It was a maiden SOP which seems to be gathering dust now. We also held training sessions at Chandrapur for field staff but the response was not so encouraging. I feel field staff must use metal detectors in tiger reserves during patrolling,” says Rithe.
“The issue is more complex as thousands of animals must be falling prey to wire snares. It is only when a tiger or a leopard is caught such cases assume significance,” says Jose Louies, deputy director & chief, wildlife crime control division & communications, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
In the 70s, local poachers used creepers and bamboo traps to poach wild animals. Later, binding wires used in buildings, solar fence wires and bike clutch cables became the preferred materials because these are low on investment, easy to carry, hide, install and quite effective in capturing a wide variety of animals. “Once installed in an animal path or forage, they will remain unnoticed. Snares are mostly installed just outside the protected area boundary,” says Louies.
“Anti-snare walks is the best preventive measure to monitor and control poaching of wildlife in fringe areas. WTI along with Karnataka forest department have seized over 2,000 snares since 2012. In Karnataka’s Bandipur tiger reserve, we took help of select people from fringe villages to collect initial intelligence on snaring,” says Louies.
Buoyed by the results, Karnataka chief wildlife warden last year made anti-snare drive exercise part of the parks management plan. The drive helped detain criminals and led to recovery of snares and weapons. These snares were used for capturing hare, civets and other small mammals.
“We could help authorities in seizure of one tiger and two leopard skins and bones and pair of tusks,” says Louies.
Several Maharashtra forest officials, who worked in and around protected areas (PAs) for long time, admit snares to be the silent killers. Tonnes of such snares have been seized in Tadoba landscape and could be rusting in forest offices.
Divisional forest officer (DFO) Deepak Chondekar, who spent most of his tenure in and around Tadoba and Gadchiroli, says, “Our parks and forests are not safe from snares as they are mostly inhabited by tribals who are traditional hunters.”
“When I joined as RFO in Kolsa range of Tadoba in 2008, a male deer in a herd was found to be having neck spasms. After closely monitoring its movement, I found that it had a wire snare in the neck which we removed before releasing it after treatment. In 2010, a tiger had died at a water body in Hirdinala in Kolsa range of Tadoba in a snare laid for herbivores. This came to light when two villagers from inside the park were caught red-handed while trading tiger body parts,” adds Chondekar.
“Both, using wire snares and electrocution are the most prevalent practices to kill animals. In places like Gadchiroli, tribals lay long wire traps and drive animals towards them by shouting, popularly called as ‘haka’ in local parlance, and then kill the animals with spears for bush meat. While posted in Shivni, I had seized over 100 wire traps during Pola festivity on Shivni-Kolsa road but these cases die a natural death due to lack of prosecution,” added Chondekar.
Former DFO with Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR), Ashok Khune, says, “Snaring is done mostly to kill hare, wild boars and deer, but the fact remains that electrocution is a bigger threat. Due to lack of enforcement and poor conviction rate these poachers have a free run.”
“Two tigers died due to snares in last two months but electrocution claimed seven tigers November 2016 to 2018, in Nagpur-Chandrapur region alone. In last 5 years, at least 17-18 sloth bears were electrocuted in Gondia district. The snaring and electrocution practice is still rampant around NNTR with many cases going unnoticed,” Khune says.
“It is true that our tiger reserves are not safe from snares. During a safari in Nagzira sanctuary in April 2015, wheel of my vehicle got stuck in a wire snare near Pinjrewala Taka,” says Sawan Bahekar, founder of Sustaining Environment & Wildlife Assemblage (SEWA), Gondia.
“Not only fringe areas but also NNTR core has history of snares. In 2017, we seized several snares in Nagzira-Kanha corridor. You can still find abandoned wooden planks in forest areas used by poachers to lay snares,” says Bahekar.
WTI’s Louies called for anti-snare walks on lines of Karnataka as part of the state’s protection plan. “Every PA should have a plan for snare removal by engaging local youth. Park officials also need to comb farmlands near the park for snares,” he said.
Though as of now there is no specific long-drawn de-snaring plan for parks in Maharashtra, state’s PCCF (wildlife) Nitin H Kakodkar says, “Periodic anti-wire snare operations will be intensified in all PAs with special focus on the peripheral areas.”
Tadoba has taken up a massive drive from April when a tigress was strangled to death in snares. Officials arrested four local poachers from Palasgaon.
TATR DFO Shatanik Bhagwat agrees consistent de-snaring drives are needed. “Since the drive launched on April 13, not a single wire snare has been found in park’s three ranges,” he says.
“Surprise checks are yielding results. We could crack four wildlife crime cases of a monitor lizard, nilgai, bamboo thefts and tree felling. The practice of laying snares must also have been abandoned as a sequel to tigress death,” says Bhagwat.
“Snares are being laid since 80s. In 2012, a training session on de-snaring by WTI in Tadoba had evoked lukewarm response from the staff. In 1979, when I had trekked 25km between Navegaon-Itiadoh with veteran naturalist Narayandada Patil of Dabhe Paoni, we retrieved 52 snares on a single forest track,” says wildlife conservationist Prafulla Bhamburkar.
Dr John Goodrich, chief scientist & tiger programme senior director for Panthera, the global wildcat conservation organization, says, “Poaching for illegal wildlife trade is the greatest threat to tigers. This includes direct poaching of tigers and poaching of their prey, both of which are decimating tiger and prey numbers, especially in south-east Asia.”
“In the short-term, this threatens the existence of many tiger populations and even entire subspecies, and in the long-term renders tigers, their prey, and the ecosystems in which they live less resilient to the impacts of climate change, habitat conversion and other global-level impacts, as highlighted in the recent United Nations global assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services,” Dr Goodrich says.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
* Conservation education with targeted companies and communities
* Increased anti-poaching patrols and snare removals early morning and evenings
* Posters and videos to educate general public on cruelty of wire snares and punishment
* A structured drive by seeking help from people to update authorities upon seeing snares
* Introducing financial award schemes to local informers
* Even if snares are laid outside the PAs, those placing them should be taken up for violation of laws
* Installation of solar electric fences will reduce crop raids by boars and ungulates, thereby reducing placement of snares