Kerala tiger shooting: Did the Rapid Response Team follow the necessary rules?

Thiruvananthapuram:  The shooting dead of a tiger in Kerala’s Idukki on Monday has raised questions after Kottayam Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) N. Rajesh cited self-defence as the reason, with experts maintaining that the extreme step can be taken if the animal in question has been declared as vermin.

There is a specific protocol to declare any animal as vermin and the questions, coming against the backdrop of increasing cases of man-animal conflict in the state, which has led to several fatalities too, include if there are special rules for forest officials.

According to the rules, an animal can be eliminated only if it is declared as vermin, and if this act was done by a common man under the same pretext of self-defence, a case will be registered against the person.

It remains to be seen if a case is going to be registered against the Rapid Response Team which was operating in and around the Gramby Estate for the past six days.

It was on Monday the RRT’s scheme of things to capture the tiger, which was creating panic in the locality, went haywire.

The plan was to tranquilise the tiger and on Monday, the RRT spotted the elusive big cat in a tea estate.

Soon, the RRT fired a tranquiliser shot at it – and this step too has come under criticism as normally tranquiliser shots are fired from a distance, but on Monday, visuals show it was fired from close range.

After the first tranquiliser shot was fired, the tiger, which already was limping, reared up and a second dart was also fired.

It was at that time the tiger attacked the RRT and then, the armed team members opened fire at it, leading to it collapsing.

Soon the RRT officials wrapped the tiger in a net and transported it to the Thekkady wild reserve area but soon came the news that the tiger had died.

The RRT was expected to release the post-mortem report soon and then it will be known how many gunshots pierced the tiger’s body.

Meanwhile, the forest officials have defended their act by saying that the team fired a 12-bore pump action gun and generally in the case of healthy animals, its fire will not lead to death, but since the tiger was weak, the shot is expected to have led to its death.

It remains to be seen if this explanation holds up.

–IANS