A cattle owner exacted a cruel revenge when he reportedly poisoned a tigress to death after the feline killed one his buffaloes in the Guru Ghasidas National Park. Forest Department reported to have taken two men in custody in

the case.

The tigress had killed a buffalo grazing inside Guru Ghasidas National Park. After making the kill, tigress had wandered off to somewhere else, when the angry buffalo owner reportedly laced the insecticide in the carcass of buffalo. The tigress returned to consume her prey in the night, not realising that it would be her last meal. The carcass of tigress was found near the buffalo carcass on the next morning near village Salagwankala under Ramgarh Forest Range in Guru Ghasidas National Park. The tigress carcass was sent for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death.

Guru Ghasidas National Park is an extremely rich and biologically diverse forest. It provides refuge to some last remaining tigers, leopard, elephants, antelopes, jackals. But, dozens of villages settled inside the national park pose serious threat to this ecologically-sensitive zone. Despite all the warning, villagers let their cattle roam free inside the national park to graze, thereby destroying the precious food of antelopes that are natural prey of predators like tigers and leopard. When the natural prey dwindles down, predators pick on domestic cattle that are easy to catch and kill. In cases like these, Forest Department often burn the carcass of killed wild animal to prevent any smuggling, but a noted Biodiversity Researcher Anupam Sisodia has requested National Tiger Conservation Authority to change its policy regarding disposal of tiger/leopard carcass. Sisodia said, “Specimen collections are backbone of biology. Today specimen collections in India are far and few. Thus, CG must take a lead in correcting NTCA guidelines which asks forest department to burn the tiger remains. NTCA says its sole purpose for burning remains is to prevent them from reaching the illegal market. There are two ways a tiger’s body or body parts will reach any market. One is theft, if it is stolen by poachers, and two, through the forest department, if the officials participate in trade. Both ways, the question is, what are we then paying the forest department for? The very reason we pay the forest department is to protect our wildlife. Imagine police knocking on your door tomorrow, asking you to burn or otherwise destroy your valuables in order to prevent them from getting stolen”! “The destruction mandated by NTCA and WLPA (1972) demands scientific rationalization because currently, it screams incompetency, surrendering to international animal love pressure and disservice to budding students of life forms in the name of theft prevention. CG forest department has a chance to take a lead and correct matters”, said Sisodia.