Bhubaneswar: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has asked the Chief Wildlife Warden of Odisha to submit a report on the violence by the people of Hatibari village inside Satkosia Sanctuary in Angul district following the death of a village woman, who was allegedly killed by Sundari, the Bengal early morning on September 12.
“In a letter, the NTCA has asked the Chief Wildlife Warden to submit a detailed report on the incident and the present situation in the village inside the sanctuary. NTCA will take the future course of action after receiving the report,” Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCD) and Field Director, Satkosia Tiger Reserve, Sudarshan Panda, told the media on Saturday.
Talking about the incident, Panda said that according to the village people, the woman who was killed by the tigress. The post-mortem of the woman has been conducted. But the Forest Department is yet to receive the report.
“The place where the woman’s body was found is inside the tiger reserve, which is about 3 km away from the village. If the tigress has killed the woman, it is purely accidental as she had no intention to eat her after killing her. Had this been so, the body would have never found in the area,” he added.
The Additional PCCF also asked the Forest Department to keep a strict vigil on the movement of the tigress. Accordingly, the department has engaged two monitoring teams and 10 field personnel. Besides, to ensure the security of the people, adequate armed policemen have been deployed in Hatibari village.
He also informed that prior to the incident, three monitoring teams comprising forest guards and the local forest staff had camped in Hatibari village. The teams had informed the people about the presence of the tigress about 3 km from the village. “Even a day before the incident, the forest staff led by the Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) had gone to the village in the night and advised them not to move inside the forest in the evening,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, a team of officials of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and NTCA, arrived at Satkosia on Saturday afternoon from Dehradun and discussed the incident with the villagers.
“The team will have an independent and on-the-spot investigation and submit its report. The state government will take a decision on the basis of their report,” Panda said.
Asked whether the incident would dampen the ambitious plan of the Forest Department to release two pairs of Royal Bengal tigers in the wild of Satkosia, he said Mahavir, the male Bengal tiger, who was released in the Satkosia reserve, is now moving freely with the two Bengal tigresses and has completely adapted to the environment. There is no report on the movement of these three tigers in the human settlement till date. “We are hopeful that with the arrival of the male tiger brought from the Kanha National Park, there will be an increase in the tiger population of the Satkosia Sanctuary. On the contrary, the Bengal tigress of the Bandhavgarh National Park has shown aggressive behaviour for which a Central team has arrived in the sanctuary for a thorough study,” he noted.
Not agreeing to the question that there is a possibility of shelving the tiger conservation project of the state government following the incident, Panda said that the project should not be construed as failed due to one stray case.
“The tiger supplementation programme will continue. However, sincere efforts would be made to safeguard the life and property of the people to ensure that no such incident takes place in the future,” he observed.
Panda also informed that the Bengal tigress has moved to the Athagarh Forest Range in Cuttack district. To monitor her movement, 10 field staff members of the Forest Department and some policemen have been engaged.
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