7 held in poaching of tigers, leopard on MP-Rajasthan border

The Centre on Monday told Parliament that seven people have been arrested in connection with the poaching of three tigers and one leopard along the Madhya Pradesh–Rajasthan border.

Authorities recovered more than 225 body parts of big cats from the accused in June this year.

Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh said, “As reported by the State, a total of seven accused have been arrested in two registered cases by the State Tiger Strike Force, Madhya Pradesh. Action has been taken under the relevant provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.”

He also said the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) will launch tiger reserve-level monitoring using camera traps to keep a photo ID database of individual tigers.

“NTCA is preparing a national database of individual tiger photos to establish a linkage with body parts of seized or dead tigers,” Singh said.

The NTCA’s Leopard Status Report had pointed out that big cats in Maharashtra are in conflict with humans and are targeted for poaching for their body parts.

“While leopard populations thrive in Madhya Pradesh, ongoing effective vigilance is essential to address both targeted and unintentional poaching. Jharkhand needs to control prey poaching for bushmeat consumption,” the NTCA said in a report.

Singh said the NTCA has developed a framework for carrying out the assessment of security threats and for formulating a site-specific security plan, which has been completed in 25 different tiger reserves in Phase-I, and action has been initiated for the remaining tiger reserves.

Madhya Pradesh has been in the news for reports of poaching and senior forest officials being reprimanded for dereliction of duty. Early this month, a Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat was reprimanded by senior officials for keeping the death of a tiger a secret.

In Balaghat, the body of a tiger was found floating in a drain. Sources revealed that the junior forest staff burned the carcass and the DFO did not take any action.