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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
P Naveen | TNN

Madhya Pradesh: Tribal eyes & smart tech to protect cheetahs at Kuno National Park

BHOPAL: The cheetahs of Kuno — when they do arrive and finally prowl the wild — will face competition for prey, not only from leopards but also from game-meat hunters in surround ing villages. Hunting is banned in India but poaching is very much a painful reality. Forest officials are concerned by a possible three-way tussle — between cheetahs, leopards and predators of the two-legged variety — for cheetal, deer and other prey.

Experts have found that the settlements around Kuno have a significant percentage of people who eat meat at least once a week and several who eat meat every day. Bush meat consumption is prevalent in the region — as reported by Ranjitsinh and Y S Jhala. The cheetah action report says that people in the area own country-made guns, bows and arrows and catapults. “To enhance the natural prey population in the area, these poaching proclivities have to be controlled. Collaborations with the animal husbandry department would be made to introduce poultry farms in the area for providing easy access to meat for local people,” experts have recommended.

Ring of protection

A ‘protection regime’ against poaching by firearms, snaring, trapping, poisoning and electrocution and deaths due to road accidents should be initiated urgently around Kuno, project experts have recommended. They emphasise patrolling (in vehicle and on foot) and use of smart monitoring systems like MSTrIPES. Patrolling squads will be led by a subdivisional officer / assistant conservator of forest / range forest officer (SDO/ACF/RF) and comprise 2–3-armed guards, including a woman.

A couple of police constables can accompany them when required.

Tribal intelligence

The cheetah action report suggests roping in local people of Mogiya and Sahariya tribes, one in every village, on daily wages to develop a “landscape-level informal informant system”. Intelligence gathering should be conducted at bus stands, roadside dhabas, liquor shops, hotels and railway stations through a network of such local contacts, it says.

The identity of such informants would be kept secret and they will be rewarded with monetary incentives for information.

The informants will report directly to the local range officers about any suspicious vehicles/people, illegally electrified fences/snares in the farmlands, poaching, animals that need rescue and about livestock predati on. This information network will play an important role in preventing poaching in and around Kuno, the report says, suggesting a watch on illegal mining, illegal fishing and hazardous electric conn ections in villages and farmlands. Checkposts, with CCTV cameras, should be erected at strategic points on PohariGwalior, Pohari-Shivpuri and Pohari-Sheopur highways to monitor vehi cles, it says.

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