Shift to Pandharkawda till tigress caught, min tells wildlife bosses

  • | Sunday | 23rd September, 2018

Nagpur: In an unprecedented move, the state government has directed chief wildlife warden A K Misra and APCCF (wildlife) Sunil Limaye to shift to Pandharkawda till problem tigress T1 is tranquillized and captured. If tranquillizing efforts fail, there will be no option but to shoot the tigress,” he added. Separate tigers have killed 13 people in the Ralegaon forest areas in the last 26 months. Two elephants are already stationed in Pandharkawda,” Ahmad said.Meanwhile, wildlife lover and petitioner Dr Jerryl Banait and others have questioned role of Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, in the entire episode. The strict directions from the minister states that both officials will participate in the day-to-day tigress monitoring and should not leave the headquarters till T1 is captured.The forest minister has also asked to deploy trained teams under them.

Nagpur: In an unprecedented move, the state government has directed chief wildlife warden A K Misra and APCCF (wildlife) Sunil Limaye to shift to Pandharkawda till problem tigress T1 is tranquillized and captured. Separate tigers have killed 13 people in the Ralegaon forest areas in the last 26 months. The government did not give much-needed support to handle the volatile situation in the last two years and now have suddenly geared up.“Recently, forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar himself invited sharpshooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan from Hyderabad, even before the apex court order came in and now after backlash from media and wildlife activists, is showing as if he is very serious about capturing T1,” said wildlife experts.As reported by TOI, sharpshooter Khan has been told to keep away from the entire operation. He had taken a two-day break for Muharram and was to join the operation on Saturday.The decision to shift headquarters of both the top wildlife officials was taken on Friday when they had a closed-door meeting with Mungantiwar and forest secretary Vikas Kharge at Mumbai. The strict directions from the minister states that both officials will participate in the day-to-day tigress monitoring and should not leave the headquarters till T1 is captured.The forest minister has also asked to deploy trained teams under them. PCCF and APCCF have also been asked to hold regular meetings with local public representatives and MLAs to win their trust that serious efforts are being taken to rein in T1. He has also sought reports from the field after every three hours.“It’s an emergency situation and affected villages should feel the forest department is serious about capturing T1. We need to win lost trust among the people,” Mungantiwar said.After representations by wildlife activists to People for Animal (PFA) chairperson and Union minister Maneka Gandhi, she talked to Mungantiwar and assured all help from Madhya Pradesh to capture T1. She had also requested to remove Khan from the operation.In another development, chief wildlife warden of Madhya Pradesh, Shahbaz Ahmad told TOI that he had talks with PCCF (wildlife) Misra on Saturday.“Accordingly, we are sending a team of vets from MP and two more elephants in two days. Two elephants are already stationed in Pandharkawda,” Ahmad said.Meanwhile, wildlife lover and petitioner Dr Jerryl Banait and others have questioned role of Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, in the entire episode. “The WII, which is earning crores in the name of tigers, too has expert wildlife vets but they come to Maharashtra only when there is need to install radio collars,” said Dr Banait.“This is the last chance to capture T1. If tranquillizing efforts fail, there will be no option but to shoot the tigress,” he added.

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