By IANS
Jaipur : Issuing guidelines for the safety of tigers in Ranthambore national park, the Rajasthan High Court Friday said senior forest officials should be accountable for poaching incidents and all vehicles should keep a minimum distance from the wildlife.
The court said only CNG and petrol operated vehicles should be allowed to ply in the park and they too must keep a distance of between 30-50 yards from animals.
"For bigger animals the distance should be at least 30 yards and for cubs it should be 50 yards," the court said.
"Camera flash and other such equipment should be banned and the park should be closed at least twice a week, the court observed in its order, Mahendra Singh Kaccahwa, amicus curie of the court, told IANS.
"The deputy forest conservator and deputy field officer should be made responsible for any poaching activity in the park in Sawai Madhopur district," the court noted.
It called for a ban on industrial and commercial units in the vicinity of the park.
The court held that the phenomenal fall in the number of tigers – there are only 32 adult tigers in the park and 13 cubs – was mainly because of "vested interests" and said the authorities had failed to find out the "real fault and fix responsibility".
The court directives come close on the heels of the accidental deaths of two tiger cubs that fell into a step-well in the park Wednesday.
In December, the same court while hearing a public interest litigation had asked the state government to furnish a tourism plan for Ranthambore. The court had observed that tiger conservation was of prime importance.
The Rajasthan government is now planning to involve ex-servicemen for security purposes. These ex-soldiers are likely to be handed over the security of Ranthambore National Park, Sariska sanctuary and Bharatpur's Ghana bird sanctuary.
"Much before the cubs incident we had sent a proposal to the state government to involve ex-servicemen for the security of wildlife sanctuaries. Currently home guards are deployed in the Ranthambore and Sariska sanctuaries," R.N. Malhotra, chief conservator of forest, told IANS.
So far around 240 forest officials have been entrusted with the security of all the three major wildlife sanctuaries of the state.
"These ex-soldiers would help us keep a watch on the wildlife as well as poachers," he added.
The state government has decided to create a joint tiger cell comprising forest and police officials to save tigers from poaching. The cell is to be headed by the additional director general of crime branch of the Rajasthan Police.
Besides checking poaching activities, the cell would also undertake secret investigations against people who are considered a threat to the survival of tigers.
While earlier the poachers were believed to be from a local background, now they are said to have international links.
The state government had been roundly criticised in political and non-political quarters on the disappearance of tigers from the Sariska reserve. A report produced in March 2005 by the Wildlife Institute of India confirmed that there were indeed no tigers left in Sariska.
While an official census conducted in 2004 had indicated that between 16 and 18 tigers lived in the reserve, from the middle of the year no tigers could be seen.
Enquiries into the dwindling population of tigers have revealed that the tigers at Sariska had been wiped out by poachers. Other animals such as panthers had also been targeted.