Nagpur: While five tigers radio-collared by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, are still being monitored, the premier research institute has washed its hands of when it comes to the missing iconic tiger Jai . WII and the forest department are passing the buck to each other.Jai (UK-T1), radio-collared by WII twice, has been missing since April 18, 2016, from Umred-Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary. The latest information sought by RTI activist Avinash Prabhune shows that even after two years, both, the state forest department and WII, claim to have no information on the issue, and are blaming each other for failures.In March 2018, Prabhune had posed two sets of similar queries to WII and Pench Tiger Reserve. The questions included communication between both, details of replacement of Jai’s defective collar, name of officials responsible for the mess, and amount paid to WII among other issues.Replies received from Pench and WII show that both are passing the buck. “It is a matter of great concern that despite deployment of radio collar on Jai, it disappeared under mysterious circumstances in April 2016,” says Prabhune.The RTI reply shows that forest department and WII kept ‘quiet’ since April 18 (date of collar failure) till July 31, 2016, despite the collar reportedly developing a snag and Jai going missing. “It only shows that both were in the know of what happened to Jai but deliberately kept mum. They woke up only when the media, tourists and wildlife lovers raised a voice,” says Prabhune.It is further revealed that neither forest department nor WII claimed warranty replacement of the failed radio collar. Cost of the radio collar is about Rs6 lakh. Yet, both are shirking responsibility.The only straight answer forest department gave was about collaring Jai, which was done under ‘Long-term tiger monitoring project in TATR and its landscape’, in which NTCA was to pay 70% amount and tiger Conservation Foundation (TCF) 30%.“It only demonstrates adamant approach of forest officials, who had said during a press conference at that time the defective collar of Jai was in warranty and would be replaced. But replying to the RTI query, WII and forest department say they don’t have any information on the issue,” says Prabhune.The RTI activist said WII scientists and forest officials took credit for data on radio collared tigers like Bittu, Bor, Srini, but RTI shows failures are disowned.“Due to collars of two tigresses in the past, teams could track the big cats but same enthusiasm was not shown while tracking Jai. No official has been held accountable for failure in Jai’s disappearance,” said Prabhune.“The CID inquiry announced by none other than chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has remained a non-starter even after two years,” he said.

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