Visakhapatnam: The tiger population has come down in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. The tiger strength in 2006 was around 95 but by 2014, the number reduced to 68 as shown in the tiger census. During this period, there was an increase in the total tiger population across the country from 1,411 to 2,226.
Poachers are active in both Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh and three tigers were lost this year alone. Two tiger skin seizures took place on January 5 and 24 in Telangana state.
A tiger was found dead on April 17 near Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh. The case is still under scrutiny. Both the poaching cases in Telangana were reported and the tip-off was given by Traffic India and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.
The large number of vacancies in the forest department in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is to the advantage of the poachers. The Telangana government has recruited about 1800 forest staff, but there are no recruitments in Andhra Pradesh and nearly 50 percent of the posts in the department are vacant. It is impossible to take on the organised gangs of poachers with depleted staff.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, State Director, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Farida Tampal, said, “We can’t blame the forest officials, the government should be blamed for it as there is not sufficient manpower in the department. The forest staff should be given intensified training to protect the animals. Presently the forest departments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are doing some extraordinary programmes. Com-munal policing near tiger reserves is one of the best programmes where the Chenchu community is working with the forest department in both Amrabad tiger reserve and Srisailam-Nagarjuna-sagar tiger reserve. But state governments should start supporting the forest departments.”
