Tigers that recently killed people in India

Close to the foothills of the Himalaya four tigers ventured out of forests and killed 11 people in the past five months. The killings have challenged the official understanding of man-eaters. Unlike the man-eaters of Kumaon Jim Corbett wrote about, these were not rendered incapable of hunting by either old age or injury. All four tigers were young; two were adolescents.

The 10-year-old tiger – they usually life for 14-15 years in the wild-in Corbett National Park killed Bhagwati Devi of Dhikuli village in the buffer zone of the park on February 6 when she went into the forest to collect firewood. The villagers said the tiger attacked the 50-year-old from behind as she sat collecting wood. Following protests by people, the chief wildlife warden of Uttarakhand issued orders to kill or catch the “man-eater”. The forest department trapped the animal and sent it to a zoo in Nainital on February 10.

Bhagwati Devi’s husband B C Nainwal, however, does not blame the tiger. “It is the policies of the government that made the tiger a victim of public ire,” he said. “The tiger was roaming near Dhikuli for four-five months. The main reason was elephant safaris by resorts here. They are known to throw meat in front of the tiger to increase the sighting of the big cat.” Continue reading »

Filed under India, Travel, WildLife | Tags: Elephant, India, Tiger, Tiger Conservation, WildLife, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) | Comment (0)

Census on Captive Elephants in Karnataka

A study on captive elephants has concluded in Karnataka. The first-of-its-kind study aims to take into account all aspects of management regimes and health care of captive elephants in India and create a database.

“Inventory of existing captive elephants will help us know the facilities they have in terms of health care, nutrition and training. We will then come up with a set of guidelines towards effective management of captive elephants,’

says Raman Sukumar, the founding trustee of Asian Nature Conservation Foundation (ancf). ancf along with the Bangalore-based ngo Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (cupa), initiated the study.

After the study, a manual has been prepared in Karnataka. It contains body measurement, dung circumference and weight, details of space, water, bath, interaction, training, behaviour and veterinary doctor’s availability for 158 captive elephants in the state along with their mahuts and their socio-economic status, Suparna Baksi Ganguly, vice president of cupa, said.

“The social status of mahuts is very low. The government doesn’t want to build infrastructure for them. We need to raise their standard of living so that they take interest in the animal,’ says Sukumar. Continue reading »

Filed under India, Research, WildLife | Tags: Animal Diseases, Elephant, India, Karnataka | Comment (0)