NAGPUR: Perturbed by the series of tiger deaths due to electrocution in the past few weeks, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body under MoEFCC to monitor all tiger reserves, has asked all tiger range states to step up patrolling in buffer and fringe areas of tiger reserves. They have also asked related agencies like police and power supply companies to be involved in the activity.
Data submitted by the states shows Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh top the chart in tiger electrocution cases. According to NTCA, of the 33 tiger deaths due to electrocution in the last nine years beginning January 2012, MP reported 20 deaths followed by Maharashtra 10, and Telangana, Karnataka, and Odisha one each.
However, Maharashtra has put its figure on the lower side. As per the data collected by Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), an NGO working to tackle growing wildlife crime, in the last five years (2016-20), 18 tigers and 18 leopards have been electrocuted in Maharashtra with the latest one in Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) landscape in Gondia on November 16. All the tigers have died in the Vidarbha landscape, mostly in Chandrapur district.
“Tiger mortality due to electrocution is a serious issue. Maharashtra and MP have been identified as hotspots where frequent electrocution cases have been reported near the same areas. Hence, we have asked both states to take preventive measures by running special drives,” said SP Yadav, additional director general (ADG) & NTCA head.
Yadav said, “The drive needs to be taken up in coordination with relevant government departments, inter alia including state electricity boards (SEBs). There is a need to exercise greater diligence in areas where tigresses with cubs have been reported.”
As per the information supplied by the states and a map drawn by the NTCA on these deaths, electrocution of tigers is rampant around Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), Pench (MP & Maharashtra), NNTR, Bandhavgarh, Sanjay-Dubri, Indravati, Kanha, Achanakmar, and Udanti-Sitanadi. MP and Maharashtra have been requested to take concerted action vis-à-vis the advisory issued by NTCA.
“It is very clear that electrocution has turned out to be the biggest killer of tigers in Central India. And I am afraid the number of such deaths may rise in the future given the facts that more and more farmers are applying for power, and there are a large number of transient or dispersing tigers at most places, thanks to the boom in tiger population in protected areas,” said Nitin Desai, Central India director of WPSI.
If Maharashtra is considered, four tiger deaths (three due to electrocution) have been exposed in the last one month. These include tigress Mayuri from Tadoba buffer from October 19 (carcass not found) and her one cub; seizure of two canines and 10 tiger nails from two accused, who confessed the tiger was electrocuted at Ratnapur in Bramhapuri in April 2020, while one tiger was found dead in agriculture field in Gondia on November 16.
“Entire Brahmapuri forest division is sitting on a volcano. Every range here has tigress with cubs at the dispersing stage there. These animals are most vulnerable to electrocution which is rampant in the area. In the Gondia case, we had alerted wildlife officials about the dispersing tiger but they said that was not our area. This attitude needs to be shunned,” said Sawan Bahekar, former wildlife warden.
Bahekar said it is a fact that NTCA protocol of special patrolling by joint teams along transmission lines in buffer and corridor and fringe areas of parks is not followed. “There is no analysis of cropping patterns and land tenure dynamics of tigers to assess tiger movement,” he adds.