Click to play videoPanna, Madhya Pradesh: The Indian tiger is on its way to extinction—that is clear from a CNN-IBN special investigation in what is touted as India’s best tiger habitat.
The Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh has only five to seven tigers left, and all of them are males. The reserve, which was once home to 30 tigers according to government figures, has lost all its breeding tigers. For over a month no females have been sighted here.
Conservationists were alarmed when tiger scientist Raghu Chundawat submitted evidence of over 23 tigers missing from Panna in 2005.
The Wildlife Institute of India, which photographs the animals, has not sighted female tigers for months in Panna. A tigress called the ‘Jardhova Female Cub’ is now presumed dead. This tigress named ‘Number 52’, which was over 16 years old, is presumed dead. Her daughter, too, has not been sighted for two months.
Tiger scientist Raghu says even the government knows that the tiger is on the verge of extinction in Panna. “The Forest Department asked me on my last visit (to Panna) if they can get tigers from Bandavgarh for breeding. I asked them why you want that unless there is a problem here in Panna,” says Raghu.
Villagers living near the reserve know something is amiss. “Tigers used to lift our cattle quite often but now our animals roam in the forest freely,” says Ram Yadav, sarpanch of Hinota village.
Lalu Adivasi, a resident of Hinota village, says officials see one tiger and “write 10”.
A watchman, who has worked in the tiger reserve for 20 years and didn’t want to be named, admits figures are fudged. “They say 14 (tigers) in government reports—but how? Where are the tigers?” he says.
Photographs of other animals caught in poaching snares clearly suggest that poachers are active in Panna. Top Forest Department officials admit to the threat.
G Krishnamurthy, Field Director for the Indian Forest Service in Panna, admits poachers are active in Panna. “We conducted a raid and found tiger meat and claws on a gang in Satna,” he says.
Tigers once hunted freely in Panna—now they are the hunted.
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