Jairam Ramesh holds Bandhavgarh officials responsible for cub’s death

Apparently holding the Bandhavgarh national park administration responsible for the recent death of a tiger cub, Union Minister of Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan saying that the incident could have been ‘avoided’.

Ramesh in the letter has mentioned that a resident male tiger has reportedly killed the cub and the incident was unfortunate. He has reminded the Chief Minister that as he (Chouhan) must be aware that the Centre had alerted the park management and had advised on May 31 to protect the cub by putting up an in-situ enclosure but this did not happen, claimed the Minister in the letter.

Though he appreciated the efforts of the park officials but requested Chouhan to direct the officials to urgently cordon off some area in the park till a regular enclosure was erected for safeguarding the remaining two tiger cubs.

The slackness on the part of the park administration is quite evident in the death of a tiger cub in the attack of a male adult, as claimed by the park administration. The park management had decided to keep three cubs after the death of their mother in an accident in May, in their original habitat in the Chorbaira area of Tala range, despite the fact that the area was full with hills and gorges. This was the reason why fencing was not done around the entire enclosure and few locals even claim that the contractor deputed for the job had not completed the task and the park administration also did not pay any attention on the remiss.

Interestingly, CK Patil, Field Director of the park, is in New Delhi on Tuesday for learning ways of conserving wildlife. Volunteer activist Shehla Masood informed the she met Patil in New Delhi on Tuesday and the former claimed that the remaining two siblings of the dead cub were safe and assured to upload their pictures on the department website on Wednesday.

On the other hand, Patil’s deputy KS Alawa claimed that the enclosure was incomplete due to the difficult terrain of the area but added that now the area has been fenced properly. Alawa also informed that the two siblings of the dead cub have been spotted inside the enclosure.