Kerala's forest minister confirms the order to kill the tiger was issued due to the pressure from the local community, but it would be the last resort.
Published Dec 11, 2023 | 3:45 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 11, 2023 | 4:50 PM
Forest officials search for the tiger at Vakery in Wayanad. (Supplied)
The hilly district of Wayanad in Kerala is once again on the boil after a tiger killed and partially ate a dairy farmer on Saturday, 9 December.
After the incident, relatives of the deceased, M Prajeesh, 36, of Koodalloor in Vakeri, residents, and workers of various political parties gathered in strength and blocked the roads, which called for police intervention. They refused to receive Prajeesh’s body from the Taluk Hospital at Sultan Bathery until the Forest Department ordered the killing of the maneater.
The department, which earlier directed its officials to tranquilise and capture the tiger, revised the order after two hours. It ordered the killing of the animal if it could not be captured alive. But there was a catch.
The residents’ demand found wider resonance in the district — the Lok Sabha constituency of Rahul Gandhi — where tigers had killed seven people in the past eight years. Additionally, a news report said Prajeesh’s friend, Krishnan, 55, of Maramala Colony, collapsed on hearing the news of the fatal attack. He died while undergoing treatment at the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode on Sunday.
Forest Department officials were now combing Vakeri and its surrounding areas for the big striped cat, without knowing which one had killed Prajeesh.
Forest Minister AK Saseendran, who initially said the animal would be captured, directed the officials to issue the order to kill it by evening. After the order was issued, the protesters dispersed, and Prajesh’s relatives received the body.
A tiger inside Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. (S Parthipan)
However, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden D Jayaprasad included some clauses in his order.
The order directed the officials to put in maximum effort to capture the tiger by setting up cages or through tranquilisation. It also directed the officials to confirm the same tiger had killed Prajeesh. The man was collecting fodder for his cattle when he was attacked.
A tense situation prevailed in Wayanad on Monday, 11 December, as local farmers and settlers felt the Forest Department “watered down” its early assurance to instantly kill the tiger. They decried the clause that stressed on capturing and rehabilitating the wild animal.
Posters and banners appeared across the district. Farmers declared that they would not accept anything short of killing the “maneaters” roaming the forest fringe villages.
However officials and wildlife experts said it would not be possible to issue a shoot-at-sight order in case of tigers as the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines prohibited it. As per Section 11(1)(a) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act (WPA) of 1972, a tiger could be killed only after establishing it was a maneater.
Officials confirmed that three tigers have been frequenting the locality. They were clueless about which of the three had killed Prajeesh.
Moreover, they were yet to ascertain that the tiger that killed the farmer was a maneater.
Half a dozen tranquillizing experts have been deployed in the area, besides setting up three traps to catch the animal.
When contacted, Saseendran told South First that the department would strictly follow the rules and would not give in to the locals’ unreasonable demands.
M Jose, a cattle farmer of Mundakkolli near Cheeral in Wayanad guards his cow at night against tiger attack. (Jithesh Cheeral)
But when asked about the order, he said no shoot-at-sight was permitted. The tiger would be killed only as the last option.
He accepted that the department had just mellowed down on its approaches when the protests started taking ugly forms. Eleven months ago the minister and his department succumbed to a similar demand from the locals and then corrected it.
After an instance of tiger attack in Wayanad, Saseendran told an all-party meeting that his department would consider the demand for mass culling of all tigers in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.
He also said the government would approach the Supreme Court seeking permission to kill all tigers in Wayanad that posed a threat to human lives. When his statements courted controversy, Saseendran clarified that no court or authority could permit culling protected animals like tigers.
He had then told South First that he was responding casually to a question on whether the government would approach the Supreme Court seeking permission to cull marauding tigers in Wayanad. “No government or authority can demand culling of tigers except proven maneaters.”
“Even if we approach the Supreme Court with such a request, the court will not allow it. Nobody can permit the culling of protected animals,” he had then said.
Meanwhile, noted wildlife expert Dr PS Easa said a tiger cannot be declared a maneater based on a single incident.
In the latest instance, the tiger that killed Prajeesh has not been identified.
“Several formalities have to be followed before eliminating a trouble-making tiger. The NTCA has a standard operation procedure with stringent clauses,” Dr Easa said.
The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) is home to the largest number of tigers in Kerala. However, it has not been declared as a tiger reserve due to strong objections from the local community. As a result, the region has been losing out on conservation funds and steps to ease human-animal conflicts from the NTCA and other agencies.
Man-wildlife conflicts have been rampant in the region, with the general public becoming more inimical to wildlife protection measures.
The tiger that killed 14 cows in Cheeral and its surroundings was captured on 28 October, 2022. (Pratheesh Cheeral)
Conservation efforts were often dubbed as steps to make the local settlers unequal, less privileged, and inferior. The anti-tiger campaigners claimed that the number of big cats was on an upswing in Wayanad.
However, official data showed a significant decline in the number of tigers in Wayanad. There were 120 tigers in 2018, while just 80 were spotted in 2022.
According to environmentalists and experts, the forest department should act before a tiger attack or the consequent protests.
They mooted locality-specific conservation measures, specific strategies, and conflict mitigation measures in the long run by taking the local farming community and experts into confidence.
They also preferred enhanced surveillance and prompt identification of problem-making tigers. In Wayanad, such a move would be tough as human habitations and tiger-rich forests were interspersed.
CK Vishnudas, the director of the Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology in Wayanad, told South First that increased surveillance and monitoring would help in identifying troublesome tigers, and capture, and rehabilitate them.
At Kuppadi in Wayanad, the forest department has a tiger rehabilitation centre. He also advocated installing an advance warning system in Wayanad, helping the local people know about straying tigers.
According to Wayanad-based conservation activist N Badusha, the government must investigate why tigers enter human habitats. He said that changes in prey density and other ecological factors should be studied.
Farmers protest outside forest office at Pazhoor near Sulthan Bathery seeking protection for them and their livestock. (Pratheesh Cheeral)
He also favoured tiger reserve status for the WWS and sought a Wayanad-specific conservation strategy with support from the NTCA. He opined that farmers and tribespeople should be made stakeholders in conservation efforts and they should benefit economically.
“The impact of climate change on Wayanad’s wildlife is heavy, and habitat fragmentation remains another major concern. There must be clear-cut follow-up actions on the part of the forest department on every tiger-related conflict incident seriously,” Wayanad-based farmers’ leader PT John said.
Forest officials in Wayanad said the biggest challenge was the scaremongering by political and religious groups and vested interests against conservation in general and wildlife protection in particular. Though located in Kerala, Wayanad is an integral part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (BRS), comprising Mudumalai, Bandipur, and Nagarhole tiger reserves with a combined tiger population of 570.
Many locals attributed the growing conflicts in Wayanad to poor wildlife management due to a lack of funds.
Farmers claimed at least 26 people were killed by wild animals on the WWS outskirts since 2010. During this period, animals injured 106 people.
Residents said 19 incidents of cattle-lifting were reported within WWS limits in the current financial year. The number of such cases was 62 in 2022.
