Keshav Agrawal, TNN | Nov 25, 2014, 09.21PM IST
PILIBHIT: More than 10 tigers are missing from Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. According to the tiger census report, in of 2010 the reserve had more than 40 tigers. In 2012, the tiger count was down to 30 and in 2013, the number has fallen to 23.
This rapid fall in the big cat numbers in a span of just three years has disturbed SP legislator from Barkhera assembly constituency of Pilibhit district Hemraj Verma. He has written to CM Akhilesh Yadav, expressing fear of largescale poaching and demanded a probe into why tiger numbers have fallen so drastically. On this serious issue where the divisional forest officer of PTR outright declined to give any official version, a retired chief wildlife warden of Uttar Pradesh, who had also been posted at Pilibhit as DFO about 30 years back, has not ruled out the possibility of illegal hunting of tigers.
Verma said in 2010, tiger counting had revealed the presence of more than 40 tigers and many cubs in the forest area of Pilibhit. This counting was based on pug marks and pictures captured by cameras installed by the WWF (India) and the forest department. The report of this counting had come out in 2011, the MLA has written.
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