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Tiger Ramesh
05-07-2009, 09:34 AM
All.

Its shocking and sad to know the healthy tigress captured in Kabini last week was found dead after it was released in Bhadra near lakavalli side.

Few questions bother me:

1. The Tiger was tranquilised. Was the dosage correct?

2.a. Why was the tiger in the cage for almost three days after tranquilising? Who was calling the shots?

2.b. I understand that some scientist wanted to radio collar the tiger and were waiting for the radio collar to arrive from pune or mumbai while precious time was running out. The tiger was however released without the radio collar since it was getting more fatigued.

3. Why was there a big confusion about (the location) where to release the tiger?

4. Why was the tiger not released in nagarhole that has high prey density? Bhadra has poor prey density. Who forced the choice of location as Bhadra?
Again i am told that some scientist and some wildlife NGOs forced the forest department to choose Bhadra instead of nearby Nagarhole/Bandipur.

5. Why did the Chief Wildlife Warden not accompany the tiger and oversee the whole process? What other work for him can be more important than managing this operation?

6. Will the government fix accountability and make all those who were involved responsible for this unfortunate incident and punish them? Why did the forest department allow outsiders to decide the whole strategy? Don't they have any capable talent at all?

7. Will all these guys get away scott free? After all we have a rich history of tigers dying after being tranquilised (in the past) and will this incident also be counted as one sequel and forgotten?

We have to now save our tigers not only from the poachers but from forest department officials and also from all the other outsiders associated with this operation.

God Save the Tiger.

Mrudul Godbole
05-07-2009, 03:08 PM
This is a very unfortunate incident. You have just highlighted the fact that the Forest department is highly negligent and careless. It can be seen that from the loss of one tiger amounts to nothing, else they would have taken proper care for its relocation. Even NGO's are now a part of this. So the care takers are the once who are causing more harm.

I think the matter needs to be raised else things will continue in the same manner. Thanks Ramesh for brining it to everyones notice.

Tiger Ramesh
06-07-2009, 09:35 AM
Thanks for writing Mrudul.

It looks like everyone else can kill the Tiger except poachers as long as they are scientists, NGOs or Forest Department without the fear of persecution.

The sudden silence (after the Tigress's death) from all those who were involved in this operation irks me. Imagine if the same tiger had been killed by a passing truck or by a poacher, the same people would have made noise in Delhi, shot off telegrams to the PM and also run to various courts. This incident has no funding value any way!!

Who said the tigers are safe by closing highways? We should protect the tigers from our very own protectors.

As I write this, today's newspaper says one more tiger found dead in Bandipur side (which is actually across the river) where they captured the tigress in Kabini. We still do not know the reason for its death and we sincerely hope that the truth will come out after today's post mortem.

AB Apana
06-07-2009, 12:19 PM
Ramesh,

I don't think the highways issue and this matter should be brought together.

Although I was in JLR that day nobody informed me when the tiger was brought outside Cicada, but I later saw a video and the animal was clearly traumatised with hordes of people crowding around the cage.

Apana

Tiger Ramesh
06-07-2009, 12:58 PM
Mr Apana.

No. I did not mean to club the road issue.

What i meant was, people who make a hue and cry asking to shut down roads to protect tigers are also the people who keep quiet when a tiger dies during such operations because they themselves are involved. Thats the irony. Please see my earlier comment from this perspective.

Sabyasachi Patra
06-07-2009, 03:04 PM
This is an unfortunate incident. I am sad to hear it. One can find a few details from this link:
http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_rehabilitated-tigress-dies_1271459

Why was the tiger brought to Cicada? For display?

Was this tiger baited and it got into a cage? How was the process done.

I am never too happy with the ability of our wildlife Vets in India. Most of the times the dosage is not correct and hence the animals die during tranquilising. There have been instances of tiger deaths after tranquilisation in some of our other National Parks. Overdose may be a possibility. Mishandling is another.

In this report Dr Ullas Karanth was quoted as saying, "Forest department officials had contacted us to radio-collar the tigress, but we did not do so as she was stressed and was emanciated. She was not eating properly as well".

One sad incident doesn't mean that any good work done by them like the closing of road was also bad. I hope this sad incident serves as an alarm call and leads to restructuring and strengthening of our forest service.

Am looking forward to the post mortem report.

Sabyasachi

AB Apana
06-07-2009, 04:16 PM
From what I heard, the tigress had been in the area for about six months and was a cattle lifter. I heard that she had been tranquilised near Cicada and that's when the drama started.

Apana

Vikram Nanjappa
06-07-2009, 07:10 PM
The tigress a few hours after her capture taken at the Sunkandakatte Forest Rest House.

Tiger Ramesh
07-07-2009, 09:58 AM
Hi.

The Tiger was tranquilised and captured in a village very near to the resort. The tiger has been living in that area for a few months and has been lifting cattle.

The tiger was put in a cage not by baiting but after tranquilising.

The issue is, the forest department has made a huge display circus with this tiger. Instead they should have kept the cage in wilderness and helped the tiger calm down.

Department officials tell me that the radio collar had still not reached from Maharashtra by the time they reached Bhadra.

Also they said that they wanted to release the tiger in Nagarhole but decided on Bhadra due to "external" pressure.

Karnataka Forest department is very poor in tranquilising. A simple Google search reveals that many tigers have died in Karnataka (especially Nagarhole) after tranquilising and radio collaring operations. Therefore we can't treat this as "one sad incident". There has been many such incidents in the past and we don't seem to have learnt from it. After all, even our memories are short lived.







This is an unfortunate incident. I am sad to hear it. One can find a few details from this link:
http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_rehabilitated-tigress-dies_1271459

Why was the tiger brought to Cicada? For display?

Was this tiger baited and it got into a cage? How was the process done.

I am never too happy with the ability of our wildlife Vets in India. Most of the times the dosage is not correct and hence the animals die during tranquilising. There have been instances of tiger deaths after tranquilisation in some of our other National Parks. Overdose may be a possibility. Mishandling is another.

In this report Dr Ullas Karanth was quoted as saying, "Forest department officials had contacted us to radio-collar the tigress, but we did not do so as she was stressed and was emanciated. She was not eating properly as well".

One sad incident doesn't mean that any good work done by them like the closing of road was also bad. I hope this sad incident serves as an alarm call and leads to restructuring and strengthening of our forest service.

Am looking forward to the post mortem report.

Sabyasachi