People fight against tiger census

People fight against tiger census

 

4 Jan 2008, 0422 IST, Manjaru Mishra, TNN
SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates

LUCKNOW: The fight over tigers among men seems to be getting wilder in Uttar Pradesh. Even as the state government awaits the tiger census report by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, due this month, animal activists are up in arms against what they call “a doctored document, made to order”.

On Thursday, Billy’s ark – Wildlife Protection Group (SOS Tigers), an outfit floated by expert on big cats Billy Arjan Singh, came out openly to trash the report. “According to our information, there is so much disparity between official figures provided by the UP state forest department and the WII estimate that the latter is virtually stumped.

WII, he said, is trying to devise a middle path to save the government from facing embarrassment. This is also the reason behind the delay in the submission of the report which was originally slated for release in June, said Kaushlendra Singh, secretory, SOS Tigers.

The organisation even questioned the “cover-up exercise” by the UP forest department which has yet not released its bi-annual census report of 2007. As per the last state census conducted in 2005, there were 273 tigers in Dudhwa and the then chief wildlife warden Mohammad Ahsan had declared that “census 2007 will come up with rosier results as more tiger cubs have been sighted in Dudhwa.”