Responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a wildlife activist, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the top brass of the Forest department, including the Kawal Tiger Reserve Field Director, to explain measures taken by them to protect tigers in the State.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy instructed the Chief Wildlife Warden, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and the Kawal Tiger Reserve Filed Director to personally appear before it and suggest steps taken for conserving wildlife. Along with tigers, all other wild animals, even birds, needed to be protected by the officials, the bench observed.
For this, Forest department officials and personnel working in the field needed to present their ideas and suggestions, the bench observed.
Petitioner’s counsel told the bench that recently, within a span of one month, two instances of tiger death had been reported. While one died in the Pembi forest, the other was found dead on the outskirts of Shivaram of Jannaram mandal in Mancherial district. Both died of electrocution.
The bench remarked that it should be ascertained if the two tigers died because of the electric fence set up by people living in the forest for their protection or poachers had fixed it to kill wild animals. The CJ observed that actually the electricity department officials should have been impleaded in the PIL. “How is power being supplied in forest area,” the bench sought to know.
The judges observed that at an international conference some speakers had expressed the opinion that tigers would survive if they were left on their own and there was no need for any special measures for their conservation.
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