Superstitions lead to killing of 11 tigers in India’s central state since 2018

NEW DELHI, May 20 — The police in India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh have found out that people belonging to a tribal community allegedly killed as many as 11 tigers over the past one year for superstitious reasons, an English daily reported on Monday.

The police arrested as many as 19 tribalists who – during interrogation – revealed that they offered body parts of big cats to their deities under the superstition that the practice would ward off the evils from their homes and lives, and bring in good fortune.

“Body parts of the big cats, like claws, teeth and whiskers, were being offered to local deities in the superstitious belief that they would help ward off the evil eye, improve health and bring prosperity,” the English daily Hindustan Times quoted the officials of the Wildlife Department as saying.

Such practices have been blamed for the killing of at least 11 tigers, besides several leopards since January 2018 in Madhya Pradesh alone, the daily newspaper said.

The forest department officials reportedly found that most of the big cats whose parts were used in the rituals were killed by laying traps rigged with electric wires, or by poisoning them in the buffer zones of tiger habitats with the help of informers paid for the job.

“Most often, after getting information about tiger movements, they would lay electric wire traps near water sources,” he said. As soon as tigers would get electrocuted, the poachers would remove the paws, claws, whiskers, skin, and teeth and bury their bodies, a senior official in the Wildlife Department said.

Meanwhile, another senior official of the state’s Wildlife Department reportedly said the department was trying to create awareness against such practices in the wildlife areas and telling the tribals about the legal consequences of killing the big cats.

“We are pasting posters in the villages to make them aware. But we are also ensuring strict punishment to offenders to teach others a lesson,” he added.
According to the figures of the “National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)” released in May 2019, 31.5 percent of the 656 tiger deaths reported in India were due to poaching and electrocution between 2012 and 2018.

Police arrest poachers regularly across several states in a bid to conserve the big cats. – XINHUA