Worried over the threat posed by wire snares that are set up near villages in and around Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary for poaching wildlife, the forest department has not only decided to make de-snaring operation a regular feature but is using local volunteers to add teeth to its drive. In a unique move, the forest officials decided to call for local volunteers and even put up an advertisement in a local newspaper in Pandharkawda, Yavatmal calling people to join forest staff in protecting wildlife from deadly snares. "Within a day we had 50 volunteers from all over Yavatmal wanting to be part of our drive. On June 5 we kicked off this de-snaring drive along with 20 volunteers divided into four groups, with each group having four volunteers along with a forest guard and a van mazoor," informed Deputy Conservator of Forests (DyCF) Pandharkawda, KM Abharna adding that they were happy seeing as young as 12-year-old boy volunteering for this cause. The de-snaring operation began with four groups visiting four villages-Tembhi, Sunna, Bodh Bahathar and Sushri around Tipeshwar on Wednesday and managed to remove 12 to 14 snares, which included nylon rope, wires, clutch wire, and others. According to Abharna in Tembhi village, a group even managed to recover a snare, which was connected to an electric line for electrocuting the wild animal that would be trapped in the snare. As of now, the forest officials have divided the villages as-sensitive and very sensitive. "We have already prioritized eight more villages where drives will be carried out. As of now we are looking at minimum two drives per week but during monsoons, we plan to increase the number of drives as it's observed that during rains more snares are set up," said Abharna. Buoyed by the response the forest department has decided to continue the de-snaring operation till August 15. "Since now there will be more such teams volunteering, we have announced that the best team and the best volunteer will be awarded on August 15," informed Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Sunil Limaye adding that they will also form a committee comprising of forest officials, local sarpanch, police patils that will work in coordination with DyCF, Pandharkawda for a more effective approach. This year two tigers were found stuck in snares of which one died leading to the furor. On June 1, forest officials removed a nylon rope that was stuck in the right paw of tiger T1C3 at Tipeshwar, meanwhile, on March 18, this year forest officials found tigress T4 with a wire snare stuck around its neck, which had been there for nearly 18 months and the tigress died after being tranquilized. As per wildlife experts, the snares including clutch wires, nylon ropes are set up on the animal paths in forested patches near villages to catch wild animals like, sambhar, spotted deers, nilgai, wild boar for meat or even to save their fields from being raided. "It's not only these herbivores who end up getting stuck but there have been several cases where tigers and leopards have ended up getting stuck in such snares and dying," said a wildlife activist. Past Imperfect

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