Two months ago, a tigress killed three people, wounding one, in Nugu, Karnataka, leading to a safari ban, miles away in Kabini and Bandipur and a rightful clean up of the system. During the clean-up, few tigers were removed from the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ), the very areas intended by law for the tigers to extend their territory. I quote the former Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) of Karnataka, AK Varma, “The surge in human–wildlife conflict has forced authorities to capture (often termed “rescue”) at least 22 tigers, including cubs, in the Mysuru–Kodagu–Chamarajanagar landscape. Many cubs have since died.” 

The unfortunate removal of these tigers from the ESZ has raised a few questions of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), our leading tiger conservation body; what is the precedent you have established by allowing the tigers to be relocated? One can understand a man-eater being shot or captured, but did all the other tigers have to be traumatised and removed from their home territories? Cubs killed? Can India afford to lose so many tigers? If our tigers are not permitted to establish territory in the eco-sensitive zones, why have this zone at all?