Dehradun: The state government has for the third time reopened its inquiry into the seizure of five tiger skins from Corbett Tiger Reserve after the last investigation turned out to be “inconclusive”. The heist in 2016, one of the biggest poaching cases in Uttarakhand in the recent past, had shocked the state forest department which claims to have constant surveillance of the protected area.
After five tiger skins and skulls, jaws, and bones - a consignment worth over 80 lakh in the black market - were seized from a poacher who belonged to the notorious Bawaria gang, the forest department investigated the matter. In 2017, forest minister Harak Singh Rawat had admitted that the report submitted by the forest department was “weak” and had directed the then head of the forest force (HOFF) R K Mahajan to initiate an inquiry. After Mahajan submitted his report in January this year, Rajiv Mehta, former honorary wildlife warden of Rajaji Tiger Reserve, asked for a fresh probe to be set up citing that the investigation was “inconclusive”.
A fresh probe will now be undertaken by head of forest force (HOFF) Jai Raj.
Jai Raj told TOI, “The state government has asked me to inquire into the tiger poaching case. I have summoned complainant Rajiv Mehta. I will also question chief wildlife warden DVS Khati, the former divisional forest officer of Haridwar division H K Singh and the former director of CTR Samir Sinha will be questioned.”
The complainant, Mehta, said, “Just before he retired on January 31, Mahajan closed the case. The investigation was inconclusive. So I requested the state government to reopen the case.”
Mehta added, “At least 25 tigers were killed in Corbett and their remains disposed of by Bawaria gang. This is why wildlife officials are not allowing the WII, which has a data bank of tiger stripes for identification, to conduct a tiger population estimation in Corbett.”
Former HOFF Rajender Mahajan said, “I have clearly stated in the report which I submitted that unless the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) conducts an estimation exercise of tiger population in Corbett, the truth behind tiger poaching cases will not come out.”
The WII director VB Mathur had earlier told TOI that the institute had not received permission from chief wildlife warden to conduct a tiger population estimation in CTR. Khati had said that such an exercise would be inane as the CTR authority had already conducted it with the help of World Wide Fund (WWF) this year.
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