Tiger Deaths & Closing of Roads through Nagarhole and Bandipur

Friends.

We all know that roads through bandipur and nagarhole have been closed inorder to prevent animal deaths. Various organisations provided various figures and got these roads closed. I also obtained under RTI and posted that there were no records of animal death (last 10 years) in Mysore Mananthavadi road except a spotted deer, with the Hunsur DCF. The closing of roads has resulted in affecting the livelihood of local villagers.

This week I read with shock, some articles that appeared in many news papers (i am posting one of them here) on 25th Nov (bangalore editions of Indian express, deccan herald etc).

Please read this one (attached). I sincerely hope that this matter gets thoroughly investigated.

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/re...tigers_1316151

It seems this issue has now again come to limelight. There were tiger deaths after radio collaring. This was hotly disputed by the researchers and NGOs involved in the process of radio collaring of tigers. I hope the actual reason comes to light.

The amount of dosage administered need to vary. I guess, in the initial period there might have been trial and error and a few tigers paid the price. Even if this were true, it needs a lot of strength of character for a person involved to admit this. In his book titled Field Days, Dr A J T Johnsigh has mentioned that in one case a tranquilised lion was never found and in another case the tranquilised elephant fell on a ditch and died. I am not sure, if all the researchers have the strength of character to come clean on issues knowing that people will accuse them.

Personally, I am all for science, but I don't like invasive field techniques like radio collaring. Ethically, I can't justify it.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Indian express article:


http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/s...ZRCAUTQ==&SEO=

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...e-allowed.html

The charges against Dr Karanth and others are serious.

Quoting from Deccan Herald report:
"The petitioner has contended that Dr Ullas Karanth controlled several environmental organisations for promotion and self interest and the activities of all these organisations were not open to public. The petitioner further said that the main objective of floating these organisations was to obtain foreign funds, to be used for personal gain and in some cases it had been used to acquire land".

There are lot of NGOs who have money as their primary motive. I hope that Dr. Karanth being a reputed researcher, is not one of them. Else, it will tarnish the name of all the researchers. I have no idea about these aspects, but I hope that this case gets resolved soon and we all can know the truth. There is lot of interest in the general public on this issue.

As far as the issue of radio collaring is concerned, I hope the truth on that also comes to light.

In his book titled Tiger Land, Kailash Sankhala (who was the first Director of Project Tiger) had written that John Seidensticker was involved in the tranquilisation and release of a tiger in Sundarbans. At that time it was a high profile event as such a thing was done for the first time. The tiger was nick named Sundar. It was found dead soon after release. The death was attributed to infighting with another tiger and the case was closed. There were some deep gash maks in the tiger carcass, so the death was attributed to infighting with another tiger. However, Kailash Sankhala says that he confronted John Seidensticker by saying that the deep marks are due to a wild boar's tush marks made while feeding on the dead tiger. The tiger had died due to overdose during tranquilising and the wild boar being an opportunist, had fed on the tiger carcass. John Seidensticker had reported to have agreed to that conclusion.

So it is easy to attribute death of tigers to infighting, where as the reason would be death due to drug overdose.

Look forward to the outcome of this case.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

It is sad to read the charges raised against Dr.Karanth. Tiger deaths due to improper tranquilizing for radio collaring is something I have no idea about and cannot comment on. But to say his efforts for conservation and support for forming Local NGOs is to get foreign funds and amass land is absolutely incorrect. I have met Dr. Karanth personally and have worked with many of his team from CWS while on the line transects in Nagarhole and am yet to meet a researcher who is as committed to conservation and an animal lover who loves tigers more than Dr.Karanth.

His tirade against the Plantation owners (most of who were compulsive poachers ) adjacent to Nagarhole from the 90s is well known. His efforts through Wild life first was responsible for most people around Nagarhole understand the importance of conservation and made the average Kodavu give up his Palate for wild meat. He played a pivotal role in making Nagarhole what it is today. His stand for restrictions on wild life Tourism and support for strict enforcement inside reserves seems to have naturally earned him many enemies. It does not come as a surprise that the PIL was filed by a Coffee Plantation Owner and the lawyer representing him is supposedly a defendant of the Timber Mafia. Using laws meant to deter criminals and poachers against researchers and conservation activist is not new in India. If im not wrong there is not a single well known conservation Activist who has not been accused of one Crime or the other. Check the link below kind of old but the persecution continues…
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?227901

I have the same view as Roopak has. Dr. Ullas Karanth is a reputed scientist and has played a pivotal role in increasing the conservation momentum in Karnataka. In Karnataka atleast the news on poaching incidences and other disturbing factors are made available and documented (much to the displeasure of forest department), while it is mostly unavailable from other Southern states.

Ullas's theories may be subject to dispute. Among like-minded people the disputes are common but the goal is always the same. He do not have good terms with forest department, but many good officers of Karnataka like S.G.Neginhal, Achiah, M.N.Jayakumar, Yatish Kumar etc have good terms with him.

Generally the conservationists, NGOs and biologists seldom have good terms with forest department as most of the staff are either corrupt or insensitive (with few exceptions).