Mangaluru: A growing demand for wild meat for supply to hotels and resorts catering to some elite customers is proving a huge threat to the wildlife in the Western Ghats with animals like the sambar deer, wild boar and Indian bison now being increasingly poached, going by wildlife activists.
The bisons are particularly under threat as they are heavy animals and provide a lot of meat, according to NCEF secretary, Shashidhar Shetty.
"A good adult bison gives you about 1,000 kgs of meat. There are hotels and resorts that hire poachers to get this meat and pay them about Rs 300 per kg for it. Poachers can easily make about Rs 3 lakh by killing one bison," he said, revealing that the poachers trapped the animals near the water bodies in the forests using crude weapons.
"There are elite customers for the meat of wild boar, bison, deer and even wild rabbit. Some resorts or hotels serve this meat secretly to these customers, who are ready to pay quite a bit for these dishes,” said sources close to the hotel industry.
Forest officials admit that poaching of animals like sambar and boar could be on the rise in the Western Ghats, but say they are doing their best to curb it.
"We are taking measures to ensure that there is no poaching in the Western Ghats through our anti-poaching camps. We have come across cases of sambar and deer being poached in some places, but have not heard of bisons being killed recently," said a forest officer.
But Mr Shetty says the poaching has led to a decline in the population of bisons in Ramangudda near Charmadi. While it had about 18 bison five years ago, today it has only eight , he notes.
