Indian forest authorities have arrested three people over the poisoning of five tigers in southern India’s Karnataka, an incident that makes up the highest death toll for big cats in one day in the state.
Five tigers were found dead inside a wildlife sanctuary in southern India’s Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary. With the bodies of the tigers – a mother and her four cubs – all found close to each other in the wildlife sanctuary in Chamarajanagar district on Thursday.
Wildlife officials say they also discovered a dead cow nearby, and that a subsequent investigation has revealed that villagers in the nearby Koppa village laced the cow’s carcass with a locally available fertiliser in order to poison the tiger and her cubs.
Three villagers, identified by officials as Konappa, Madaraja and Nagaraj, from Koppa village have been arrested over their alleged direct involvement in poisoning the tigers. The case is an example of a “retaliatory killing” by villagers who killed the tigers for hunting their cattle, said Kumar Pushkar, the additional principal chief conservator of forests (administration and coordination), according to The Hindu.
Forest authorities have arrested the three men under the sections of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and Indian Forest Act 1969, and the three accused have been produced before a magistrate.
Joseph Hoover, a former member of the State Board for Wildlife and an activist in Karnataka, said the methodology in this case appeared to be a textbook example of a targeted wildlife poisoning. Tigers are most often the targets, he told The Independent, although other large animals such as leopards and elephants have been known to be killed in this way too.
Villagers in such cases typically deploy a poisoned cow or goat carcass to target tigers for preying on their livestock, or even posing a threat to the farmers and villagers themselves.
“These five tigers were poisoned and killed barely 871 metres away from the anti-poaching camp and main road. It manifests the degree of negligence from the forest officials,” he said.
The Independent has reached out to the MM Hills deputy conservator of forests, Chakrapani Y, for comment on the incident.
During the investigation, the cattle owner was found to be in the possession of the same pesticide – typically used in marigold cultivation – that was used to kill the tigers, reported Indian daily The Hindu.
Officials have sent samples collected by the forest veterinarians to forensic laboratories in Bengaluru and Mysuru for an independent verification of the kind of poison used, the report added. Another set of samples has been sent to a zoo in Mysuru for further analysis.
“Killing tigers by poisoning the carcass of their kill is increasingly the biggest reason behind the unnatural deaths of tigers in Karnataka. It is followed by setting up snares, used to capture deer and wild boar but in the bargain, even leopards and tigers are captured and killed,” Mr Joseph told The Independent.
Pesticides used in farming are available cheaply, he said, and typically results in the immediate death of the tigers that consume it.
There are also cases of villagers killing tigers by shooting them, he added, as was seen in Shivamogga in Karnataka in February this year where a postmortem of a dead tiger revealed a pellet lodged in its neck.
Such incidents appear to show cases of human-animal conflict are on the rise in the state, Mr Hoover warned. “It is extremely alarming and the conflict has escalated to an extent where forest authorities are unable to manage the situation,” he said.
India has lost a total of 103 tigers this year, according to India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority, though the net population of the big cats is steadily rising.
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