About 4-5 years back one of our friend photographed a Tiger sitting on road with a 4 inch long wire hanging out of his paw. I forwarded that photograph to concerned authorities and they simply denied it. Mahavats saw Lakshmi leaping over the fence and limping, this fact was never accepted and later even Mahavats changed their statements . It took me long time to be present at right spot at right time for this picture.
It looks easy but if you see the position of his forelegs and imagine when he will put his hind feet on the fence to balance himself for a friction of a second. Where he puts his hind feet and jumps is all a matter of chance. My picture shows fur flying all over around his hind feet while diving straight down on other side.
I still don't see those chain link supporters on FB now, are they there to see this? Will they please comment if this fence is useful for wildlife??
Park authorities has removed some of the fence from Dhobia Khol area. That tells us the whole story of it.
Obviously this fence is not good for wild life. For administrators and arm chair conservationists, this is a "solution" and something that everyone can see. It can work in places like Africa where everything is super managed and where wildlife outside is killed. Here where animals have to move large distances (what will the dispersing tigers of Bandavgarh do? - they will have to jump the fence - yet another impediment) they will try and go out and all our mega carnivores - tiger, leopard, dholes and even herbivores like gaur are known to disperse. The money spent on this oddity is better spent more meaningfully like employing more on the ground trackers by the fd.
ReplyDeleteFencing national parks and tiger reserves merely aggravates human animal conflicts. It also kills animals and affects their breeding success. Bandhavgarh should remove all those chain link fences and encourage people to move to more distant places, with their livestock.
ReplyDeleteMP Forest department is insensitive thats all i can say.
ReplyDeleteThey should be taught wildlife mangement.
Satyendra: Bittu Sehagal's and Shehla Massod's comment say it all. But let me add that I have yet to come across a more brainless idea than fencing a wildlife park.
ReplyDeleteDo the authorities not understand that every minute of being in the wild is a fight for survival. They're just making it tougher for the poor animals. All for their own convenience!
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