Snare laid on edge of private land; authorities to take action against landowner

A tiger cub was strangulated in a snare laid for wild boars in Harihara village in Ponnampet territorial division in Kodagu district on Monday.

The cub was a male and reckoned to be one year old. The authorities, who confirmed the incident, said the snare was laid on the periphery of a private land and action would be initiated against the property owner.

Kodagu has protected areas such as Nagarahole, which is abutted by territorial forests as well as vast swathe of private estates providing good vegetation cover for animals to freely move from national parks to private land. Though illegal, snares are routinely laid to prevent wild boars from entering farms and damaging crops, but other animals get killed in the process.

In 2017, there were two tiger deaths owing to snaring, which led to an outrage and forced the Forest Department to launch a drive to remove the snares. More than 120 snares were dismantled on a single day and around 400 snares were removed during the entire operation, highlighting the scale on which the snares had been laid, mostly outside the forests and along private land and farms.

“The 2017 drive was a follow-up action following a tiger death owing to snaring at Srimangala which is near the same spot where the tiger cub died on Monday,” said a source.

Laying snares is rampant and widely prevalent across Kodagu. The coffee landscape abutting the national park and protected forests are permeable to wildlife. It is also a host land for wild boars which are tracked by tigers and it is likely that the tiger cub became a victim while moving from forest to private land, the source added. Wildlife activists, who expressed concern and dismay over the death of the tiger cub, said no action has been initiated in the past so as to deter the private property owners from laying snares. The laxity in taking up anti-snaring activity by successive officials is responsible for the menace and snare removal should be made part and parcel of the beat of forest guards and watchers. Around private land, territorial team should take up the drive, conduct special educational camps to highlight that laying snares is illegal and punishable under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, said the activists who wanted stringent action against the guilty.