Shocked by the death of five tigers 鈥 a mother and its four cubs 鈥 at the M.M. Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has ordered a probe into the incident and constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for the purpose.
The carcasses of the five tigers were discovered on Thursday, June 26, in the Meenyam section of the Hugyam range of the sanctuary, following which the Karnataka government constituted a high-level team comprising officials and independent tiger experts, to investigate the matter. The Centre鈥檚 probe will be carried out parallel to the one conducted by the State.
The SIT will consist of V. Harini, Assistant Inspector General (AIG), National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Regional Office, Bengaluru, and Thenmozhi V., AIG of Forests, Regional Deputy Director, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.
The SIT has been mandated to carry out a detailed investigation into the death of five tigers and submit a report within two weeks. The State government has been requested to provide logistic support and other assistance to the investigating team, according to a communique from the MoEFCC.
The probe team formed by the State government comprises senior officials from the forest department, apart from an NTCA representative and Sanjay Gubbi, an independent wildlife expert.
The death of the five tigers has been described as one of the most alarming incidents in recent years, with an activist pointing out that mass mortality involving an entire tiger family is not only rare, but was reflective of a systemic failure.
Conservation activists want the two teams probing the tiger deaths to raise tough questions including shortage of staff, delay in payment to field staff, gaps in enforcement of forest management plans, etc.
Activists have constantly highlighted the imperatives of better protection mechanisms in forest fringes and greater community engagement to reduce conflict and retaliatory killing.
Meanwhile, one of the senior officials of the Forest Department, who is also a part of the investigating team, said that he wishes to take a broader view of the incident and try to go beyond identifying the culprits or identifying the immediate cause of the deaths. 鈥樷漌e need to understand what is driving some people to take recourse to such means, even after knowing the gravity of the crime. The tragedy underscores the imperatives of identifying and tightening the loopholes in the system,鈥 the official added.