Many questions on tiger conservation have sprung up with the first clear pictures taken by “camera trapping” of a tiger moving in the forest track between Kerwan dam and Kathotia on Bhopal’s southern periphery early in the morning on November 2.
After sighting pug marks, the forest authorities used the camera trapping method and managed to photograph the tiger. They also got clear pictures of a wild bear and hyenas moving in the same territory.
Forest officers are worried about the fate of this tiger, which obviously strayed here from the Ratapani sanctuary, where the number of tigers has gone up almost 70 per cent since 2006. Their chief concern is the reckless way in which educational institutions have been allowed to come up in the buffer forest zone in the past few years by successive state governments in total disregard of conservationists’ objections.
A senior wildlife department official said while Ratapani and its surroundings, which has thick forest cover, was one of India’s best tiger habitats, there was an attempt to have this forested track declared as a “public-semi-public” (PSP) area in the new Bhopal master plan.
Even before this master plan could see light of day, educational institutions had been allowed to come up in this eco-sensitive zone, he noted. Forest officials had last month caught a gang of poachers in this area, seizing a trap and other poaching gear.
While one of those arrested was working with an educational institute in this area, another was working at the Bhopal municipal corporation. This gang is being interrogated to investigate if there is a larger conspiracy to remove every trace of tigers moving in this territory.