Irate villagers chase, pelt stones at Tipeshwar tigers

Nagpur: In a shocking incident, Kobbai villagers adjoining Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary, 180km from here, took to sticks and stones to shoo away a tigress with her two sub-adult cubs that had come to feed on a cattle carcass on Thursday evening.
A preliminary offence report (POR) has been registered against unidentified culprits who threatened and heckled foresters and also abused women forest staff involved in monitoring the tigers.
According to sources, the tigress from Tipeshwar with four 18-month-old cubs strayed out of the sanctuary. For the last 4-5 months, the tiger family was frequenting farms and fringes of Sunna, Andharwadi, Kopai, Kopamandi and Kobbai villages close to the sanctuary. All these hamlets are in 2-3km radius from the sanctuary. The tigers have also killed at least seven bovines in the last four months.
Trouble started last Saturday when there were series of cattle kills in Kobbai and disturbance by frustrated villagers did not allow tigers to feed on the prey. The tigress with two cubs frequented in the perennial waterbody surrounded by thickets on village outskirts.
Yavatmal honorary wildlife warden Ramzan Virani says, “The conflict reached flashpoint due to lack of early intervention from wildlife officials. People retaliated as for four months, no compensation has been paid for cattle kills. Foresters do not consider tigers their baby once they step out of the sanctuary.”
However, Tipeshwar DFO (wildlife) Subhash Puranik says, “The jurisdiction where tigers are moving is under territorial wing. The tigers are on separation stage and hence are scouting for new territory. We have undertaken several community development works in these villages under Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee scheme. We are ready to pay cattle kill compensation from tiger foundation.”
“The conflict is bound to happen as many villagers are involved in trespassing by grazing cattle in sanctuary area. As we have booked several offences, they are speaking against us,” said Puranik.
On Wednesday morning, villagers detained forest guards and told them to summon RFO on the spot. When RFO reached the spot, he was also held back. Meanwhile, the tigress killed a cow on Thursday morning.
“When ACF reached the spot for investigations, he too was detained demanding presence of Pandharkawda deputy conservator (DyCF) KM Abharna. All were let off after DyCF promised to hold a meeting on Friday,” they said.
However, in between, some villagers attempted to kill the tigress and cubs by poisoning the carcass. “We were forced to remove the carcass. We handled worse situation than this during T1 case in 2017-18, but people were patient and never attempted to poison cattle kills. Straying of tigers from Tipeshwar is not new and I’m really shocked at people’s behaviour,” admits Abharna.
Eyewitnesses said on Thursday when the tigress was seen with two cubs near the perennial waterbody, irate villagers chased her with axe and sticks in hand and also threw stones to ward off her in the Tipeshwar forest. The monitoring forest staff was also heckled and abused by the mob, which wanted senior officials to visit the spot.
“We are monitoring the animals for the last one month by posting foresters in shifts, but in the last few days our staff is facing harassment. We are also taking police help to resolve the situation,” said Abharna.
“This is a wake-up call for forest officials. The memories of tigress Avni, who was shot dead owing to severe man-animal conflict in the same division, are still fresh. To avoid Avni-II, both wildlife and territorial wings need to work coordinately and department should immediately release cattle kill compensation,” said conservation photographer Sarosh Lodhi.