POACHING CASE Seized tiger skin to be scientifically checked
DEHRADUN: Forest minister Harak Singh Rawat has directed Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to identify whether the tiger skin seized in Nepal in December 2015 was of a striped cat from Corbett.
The letter, a copy of which is with Hindustan Times, directed the institute to compare the stripes of seized tiger skin with the database of Corbett tigers.
Rajeev Mehta, chief functionary of NGO Operation Eye of the Tiger-India, had written in a letter dated June 6 that the tiger skin seized from two Bawariya men originated from Corbett.
“WII has a database of tigers of Corbett as well as Uttarakhand. I have asked them to match the stripes and report the matter to me as well,” Rawat told Hindustan Times on Friday. The duo was arrested at Itahari in Nepal’s Sunsari district. The NGO head had claimed the duo are from the same Bawariya gang of whose another member was arrested with five tiger skins on March 14 in Haridwar.
Rawat claimed the same nexus of poachers was involved in both these cases. “Both incidents are linked. The WII investigation will establish veracity of my claim,” Mehta asserted. Claiming lackadaisical attitude of top forest officers, Mehta had requested Rawat to order a fresh probe into the matter. Subsequently, a three-member committee was set up for investigation the case.
“The committee hasn’t done the investigation yet,” a forest officer said. Corbett had 190 tigers as per the 2014 population estimation. In mid-2015, the then minister had declared the presence of over 200 tigers in the protected area. Corbett has always been at the radar of poachers.
The last poaching case was reported at Savalde range in 2012. Security was strengthened but tigers straying away from the reserve are still vulnerable to poaching.