the goan I network
PANAJI
Stating that forest official’s timely intervention could have saved four tigers from being killed, Goa Forward Party on Thursday came down heavily on the lethargic approach of the forest department in resolving the human-wild animal conflict in wildlife areas.
Goa Forward vice-president Dilip Prabhudesai in a press conference on Thursday demanded action on senior wildlife division officials which did not act in time to compensate farmers whose dairy animals were earlier killed by tigers.
This apathy of forest officials compelled livelihood-losing farmers to resort to poison the tigers, he added.
“On December 22, a tiger killed a cow and this was reported to forest officials. Also a buffalo was killed by a tiger on December 30. Junior forest officials reported this to the higher officials. These officials just informed their subordinates to lay a camera trap for census of tiger. No compensation was given to farmers and this frustration resulted in the poisoning of tigers,” elaborated Prabhudesai.
Prabhudesai demanded the government give compensation to the farmers immediately and try to avoid human-animal conflict in the wildlife area. He sighted an example of how Karnataka forest officials gave immediate compensation in two days to a farmer in Kuveshi jungles whose cow was killed by the tiger.
Stating that Goa is in the national news for the killing, Prabhudesai said that this is the biggest tiger killing incident in the country after the infamous 2005 Sariska (Rajastan) tiger poaching case.
He demanded that the incident be probed at the highest possible level. Pointing that one of the tiger’s claws are missing, Prabhudesai also demanded that the poaching angle be looked into. He also demanded an investigation into whether forest officials were acting under pressure to hide the existence of tiger in the area as different lobbies are opposing the proposal to declare the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary as a tiger reserve.
He alleged that forest officials failed to take action on the suggestion given by then forest minister Vijai Sardesai to replace the nuisance creating acacia plants with fruit-bearing trees and have small dams across nullahs in the forest to create ponds.
He also raised a question as to why Round Forest officers from Sattari are transferred frequently alleging that the MLA does not allows RFOs to complete their normal tenure.
He demanded an inquiry into who has allowed cashew plantations in forest areas.
