In the current issue of Open, author Ninad D. Sheth explores the issue of poaching in India. Co-founder of Wildlife SOS, Kartick Satyanarayan, is quoted in the article. An excerpt:
There are those who think that the only good tiger is a dead tiger. At least two tigers in Corbett over the past one month and two more just last week in Ranthambore have been killed by anonymous villagers. They wanted to get back at the cat for killing their livestock.
Some four decades after India adopted its Wildlife Protection Act, that such killings should occur at all is a shock. But then, educating villagers on the finer aspects of Project Tiger would take too long; policing is needed, and right now. Wildlife fans say that such killings can easily be stopped if the state forest officers have the will. Aggrieved villagers could be compensated for their livestock loss to tiger drag-aways. “This should be done without bureaucratic delay, says Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder of Wildlife SOS, a non-profit group, India is spending crores on the relocation of villages from tiger parks. A fund of about Rs 5 crore a year will ensure that farmers don’t have any revenge motive. After all, a buffalo costs about Rs 25,000 and a goat Rs 5,000. These are not big sums for the Government but mean everything to the villager.”
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