The hunters become the hunted: Indian state sanctions shooting animal poachers

NEW DELHI — A western Indian state has declared war on animal poaching by sanctioning its forest guards to shoot hunters on sight in an effort to curb rampant attacks against tigers, elephants and other wildlife.

The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.

Forest guards should not be “booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers,” Maharashtra Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam said Tuesday. The state also will send more rangers and jeeps into the forest, and will offer secret payments to informers who give tips about poachers and animal smugglers, he said.

India holds about half of the world’s estimated 3,200 tigers in dozens of wildlife reserves set up since the 1970s. But illegal poaching remains a serious threat, with tiger parts sought in traditional Chinese medicine fetching high prices on the black market.

According to the Wildlife Protection Society of India, 14 tigers have been killed by poachers in India so far this year — one more than for all of 2011. The tiger is considered endangered, with its habitat range shrinking more than 50 per cent in the last quarter-century and its numbers declining rapidly from the 5,000-7,000 estimated in the 1990s, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Eight of this year’s tiger poaching deaths in India occurred in Maharashtra, including one whose body was found last week chopped into pieces with its head and paws missing in Tadoba Tiger Reserve. Forest officials have also found traps in the reserve, where about 40 tigers live.

Tiger parts used in traditional Chinese medicine are prized on the black market, but dozens of other animals are also targeted by hunters across India, including one-horned rhinos and male elephants prized for their tusks, and other big cats like leopards hunted or poisoned by villagers afraid of attacks on their homes or livestock.

Encounters are rare, however, between guards and poachers who generally hunt the secretive and nocturnal big cats at night, according to Maharashtra’s chief wildlife warden, S.W.H. Naqvi.

“We hardly ever come face-to-face with poachers,” he said Wednesday, predicting few instances where guards might fire at suspects.

Instead, he predicted that the state’s offer to pay informers from a new government fund worth about 5 million rupees ($90,000) would be more effective in curbing wildlife crime. “We get very few tips, so this will really help,” Naqvi said.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/23/the-hunters-become-the-hunted-indian-state-sanctions-shooting-animal-poachers/

'Animal is always loser in man-animal conflict'

KANPUR: The ever-increasing incidents of man-animal conflict has always been worrying the wildlife lovers and the environmentalists. The loss of the animal habitat and increased human interference in the forest area have been attributed as the reasons for such encounters. The results of such man-animal battles have given shocking results, either the animal is being poached by the villagers where it enters or else the man has to lose precious life. Following the laid rules, the wild-animals when rescued by the forest officials are thereafter rushed either to Kanpur or Lucknow zoo where they are administered medical treatment for keeping them alive.

It is in this very regard that the Kanpur zoo received a female man eater from Bahraich on Saturday. Taking the records into the account, the Kanpur zoo which has a good record of housing the rescued animals is now presently taking care of the maneater leopard. The leopard, which had entered into a village in Bahraich, had attacked people therein leaving them critically injured. Then the forest officials rescued the leopard and referred it to Kanpur zoological park for treatment.

Talking to TOI as to how the wild rescued animals are given medical care, director, Kanpur zoological park, K Praveen Rao said: "When-ever there is man-animal conflict, the looser is always a wild animal. The wild animals are loosing their preferred natural habitat due to human interference which leads to escaping of the animals to the nearby areas. There by they get trapped and later are thrashed badly. It is after this, such animals are sent to the zoo where they live their rest of the life as a rescued animal."

"Though we give them the best possible medical care, there are always chances of not recovering from the ailment due to trauma. Even if they recover, they are not in a position to survive in the wild. As a result they are confined in cages and are not put to display for the visitors as its against the laid down norms," added the zoo director.

Rao further said these maneaters after recovering cannot be released in the wild due to prolonged captivity. They will not be in a position to combat their predators or else they will no stop from attacking the human beings. As the jungle rule says, only those wild animals survive there who are more dominant than the other. "Therefore, such rescued animals are to be maintained in the captivity," said he further.

Rao also maintaines as there is no change in the behavioral pattern of the wild animals when they are ailing, it becomes all the more difficult to diagnose an ailment. As a result, signs of disease appear only when they reach the later stages of ailment. On the other hand, studies have been conducted on the diseases taking place in the domestic animals. "Thus, we go for expert advice from the veterinary doctors of the various zoos across the country, premier veterinary institution like IVRI in Bareilly, veterinary college in Mathura and the local, senior experienced veterinarians so that the ailing animal can be cured," he said

Jiah Khan in shackles for freedom of animals

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nishabd-jiah-khan-people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals/1/151101.html

Crouched in a cage wearing a leopardprint bodysuit and tied up in chains, her message is clear: "Wild Animals Belong in the Wild. Not In Zoos". Nishabd star Jiah Khan will now be seen in a brand new ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ( Peta), India.

Shot in London by ace photographer Karl Grant, the ad aims to sensitise the world to the misery of wild animals, who are ruthlessly picked up from their true habitat to be put on display for the benefit of the world. Peta wishes to spread the word that it is impossible to appreciate an animal's true behaviour when they're in captivity.

"Actors choose to entertain, but animals locked away in zoos are given no choice," Jiah said, talking about her campaign. "All beings treasure their freedom above all else, and that applies to animals too," she added.

Recent inspections by Peta on zoos across India revealed the horrific conditions in which animals are kept there, including scarcity of food, drinking water, housing, veterinary care, environmental enrichment and safety.

In 2009, Jiah had posed as a wounded bird wrapped in string to request a ban on the glass- coated thread used to fly kites, which often injures birds in flight. The ad had the caption " Cut the Glass- Coated Manja, Not Birds' Wings".

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nishabd-jiah-khan-people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals/1/151101.html