Human Animal Conflict - Nagarhole Tigers

Why in news?

In one month, seven tigers including a six-month-old cub have died in the Nagarhole-Bandipur reserves in Karnataka.

Where is Nagarhole National Park?

• Nagarhole National Park also known as Rajiv Gandhi National Park, is a national park located in Kodagu and Mysore district in Karnataka.
• This park was declared as a Project Tiger tiger reserve in 1999.
• The reserves form an integral part of the Nilgiri biosphere which holds world’s single largest tiger population estimated over at 570 tigers.
• It is located to the north-west of Bandipur National Park and the Kabini reservoir separates the two parks.
• Bandipur and Nagarahole hold more than 221 tigers cumulatively.
• In terms of tiger mortality, however, the two reserves have taken a huge hit since 2010, with 68 deaths .

What is the reason for the deaths?

• Protection against poachers and habitat manipulation has seen the prey base increase.
• With the increase in the weaker tigers (injured or older tigers and younger males) are pushed to the periphery.
• Coffee and areca nut plantations are prevalent near Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.
• Tigers enter the plantation in search of rabbits and wild boars.
• They get caught in the barbed-wire fence cannot extricate itself from the wire and dies.
• They also get trapped in the snares setup by humans.
• The snare is a loop of wire in the form of a noose.
• When an animal enters the noose, any slight weight on the dangling string makes it tighten. The more the animal struggles, the tighter it gets.

Why snares have been set up?

• The snares are often set for rabbits and wild boars.
• They are source of food for locals and the estate owners encourage it as a way to deal with the crop loss due to boar raids.
• They result in killing the tigers, and the panicked people who set the trap, dump the body of the tiger and clears the evidence of the snares.
• Forest officials ended up in this speculation because the body of the tigers dead are left with nails, claws and skin untouched. This rules out the role of poachers.
• The post-mortem of some dead tigers showed that they have had lost their canines and their stomachs were empty.
• This confirms that the tigers that are unable to hunt in the wild, move to the peripheries to hunt slow-moving livestock.
• The recent government order allowing hunting of wild pigs to reduce crop damage may be a prime driver for the increase in the number of snares.

What has been done?

• The forest department resolved to weed out all these traps.
• Elephant camps have been mobilised to aid the search. Over 200 snares were found in the first two days.
• The operations are concentrated around Lakshmana Tirtha river.
• There is no way to find out who has placed the traps.
• Also the forest officials do not want to antagonise locals as they need them for conservation.
• This trend will continue as long as “unscientific” ways of dealing with crop loss continue.
• In the reserve and surrounding areas, the anger among the people is generally against wild boars and elephants.
• Dynamites and Pellet Guns have been used against elephants, while cases of electrocution have also been witnessed. This also should be seriously addressed.
• But the presence of the tiger is largely tolerated.
• These lands are considered as sacred groves and the big cat are worshipped.
• They do not want the tiger killed. They only ask for was protection for the people and livestock.
• This sentiment should be harnessed and enough awareness about snares should be made to conserve tigers.

Source: The Hindu