Tiger petting case set for burial

Tiger petting case set for burial

Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN 9 September 2009, 05:18am IST

NAGPUR: It was as brazen a violation of rules as you would ever see. A Maharashtra minister entered a cage of tiger cubs at the Maharajbagh zoo in Nagpur along with his supporters on Independence Day and petted the animals as TV cameras rolled.

It made national headlines. Yet, with all authorities including Union minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh deciding to look the other way, the case is set to die a natural death.

Maharashtra agriculture minister Balasaheb Thorat entered the tiger cage with city Congress chief. Once the violation became public, the authorities went through the motions to probe the matter but none has shown courage to initiate action.

The forest officials, Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, the police department, Central Zoo Authority and now finally the environment minister Jairam Ramesh have all found excuses not to act. Ramesh, who had told this newspaper that action would be taken against those found guilty after the receipt of CZA report, seems to be quiet and reluctant to act.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Tiger-petting-case-set-for-burial/articleshow/4988580.cms

http://bigcatrescue.org