Wildlife activists cry foul over Goa report on tiger poaching

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Wildlife activists cry foul over Goa report on tiger poaching

September 13th, 2009 - 3:15 pm ICT by IANS

 

Panaji, Sep 13 (IANS) Wildlife activists in Goa are incensed over a government

report into a tiger poaching incident in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in

February that states that the killed animal was not a tiger.

Chief conservator of forests Goa, Shashi Kumar, in a selective leak to the media

on Friday had said that forensic examination of the suspected tiger remains by

the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehra Dun had revealed that the poached

animal was not a tiger.

 

“Based on the samples sent, Wildlife Institute of India’s investigation prima

facie shows that it is not a tiger. The preliminary report states that blood

samples found on some leaves are also not of a tiger,” Kumar told a vernacular

newspaper, adding that the much-delayed report was “preliminary” in nature and

was still “being analyzed”.

 

Speaking to IANS Sunday, wildlife conservationist Rajendra Kerkar said the

investigations by the forest department into the tiger poaching incident were

dubious and that top officials were trying to hush up the poaching case.

 

“The animal which was killed is a protected animal under Schedule I of the

Indian Wildlife Protection Act. The investigation is a conspiracy to misguide

people by the Goa forest department,” said Kerkar. He had broken the story of

the poached tiger, with photographs in the Times of India in April this year,

two months after the poaching occurred.

 

Kerkar also said that tests carried out by the WII were “fudged” by forest

department officials. “I have seen the tiger remains myself. The remains should

be sent to another laboratory and the matter handled in a transparent manner,”

he said.

 

Amrut Singh, a wildlife activist who runs the well-known Animal Rescue Squad

based in Bicholim, North Goa, and who had accompanied forest department

officials as a witness during the ‘panchanama’ proceedings in April at Keri,

said that circumstantially it was beyond doubt that it was a tiger which was

killed in the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary.

 

“The fur stuck to the boulder showed the place where the tiger was leaning on

the rock,” Singh said.

 

Forest department officials have also begun to question the forensic report,

which they say is contradictory to the circumstantial evidence compiled in the

four-month investigation.

 

“The WII took three months to send us a prima facie observation. It’s

ridiculous. We generally get a preliminary report in a matter of two weeks.

Vested interests are trying to scuttle the tiger poaching probe,” a senior

forest department official alleged, adding that the terms of reference for the

forensic examination were also “rigged”.

 

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Compassionate Crusaders Trust

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