Tiger Reserves

Two and a half years after the formation of Telangana, the Kawal Tiger Reserve and the Amrabad Tiger Reserve will finally have their official custodians working from offices in the field and not from the city.
The government on Friday issued marching orders to the field directors of the two tiger reserves to move out of Hyderabad and set up their offices in Nirmal for Kawal Tiger Reserve and Achampet for Amrabad Tiger Reserve respectively . Both are towns are located close to the reserves.
It may be recalled that TOI on December 6 reported how the field directors for the reserves have been, based in Hyderabad, leaving the field level staff of the two tiger reserves to fend for themselves. It was the lack of field level supervision, offi cials admit, that led to deteriorating conditions for wildlife in the two tiger reserves.
On December 3, a threeyear-old male tiger was discovered killed in the Nilwai forest area leading towards Chennur in the south of Mancherial district. Senior wildlife department officials in-charge of protecting animals and forest in that area had then confessed that killing could be the re sult of inadequate mo nitoring of the tiger that moved south from Kagaznagar forest area. This tiger, refer red to as Jyeshtha, was born in the forests of Maharashtra and mo ved to Telangana. The department staff had also previously recovered a tiger skin in Bejjur area of Adilabad district on November 22.
Chief Wildlife Warden of Telangana Dr Manoranjan Bhanja, asked about steps taken in the wake of Jyeshtha's killing, said on Saturday that the department launched an intensive com bing of forest in Kagaznagar, Mancherial and Jannaram to locate and remove traps laid by people to hunt wild animals. In addition to the searching for snares and traps, villagers from these forest areas are being counselled against hunting or attempting to kill wildlife. A system of receiving tip offs to the department on illegal activities in the forest has also been initiated, he added.
Further to the arrest of four persons so far in connection with Jyeshtha's killing, two forest department staffers the forest section officer and the local beat officer who were posted in the area Jyeshtha was found dead too have been suspended for negligence of their duties. Some conservationists, however, are aghast that two lowly staffers were made scapegoats for the tiger's death. The government, they said, should instead take action against officers up the chain of command and vested with immediate responsibility of protecting wildlife in the area.