A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed after a video clip showed a man approaching and touching tiger cubs at the Ranthambore National Park near Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur. The undated video of the incident shows a man entering a large water pipe in which the cubs were sheltering, playing with them and capturing it with his camera. According to park officials, the incident occurred near Devpura Dam in Phalodi Range, where tigress identified as T-2302 has birthed three cubs in a pipe. The FIR has been filed under sections 27 (restriction on entry in sanctuary), 50 (power of entry, search, arrest and detention) and 51 (penalties) of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 – the law that provides protection to the country's wild animals, birds, and plant species. “We are investigating how this man got so near the three cubs,” Ranthambore DFO Ramanand Bhakar. Officials have not identified the man. Tigers are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Launched in 1973, Project Tiger has been one of India’s flagship programmes aimed at conserving tigers and their habitats in designated tiger reserves – including the Ranthambore National Park, home to 80 tigers. Sunil Mehta, a wildlife conservationist and member of the World Wilderness Congress, told the Indian Express that it was a “very serious negligence on part of the park management”. “How could people just venture into the critical tiger habitat which is supposed to be inviolate? And when the department knows that there are cubs, isn’t it a standard procedure to enhance vigilance and put camera traps? Unfortunately, Ranthambore is in news for all the wrong reasons. The NTCA should take cognisance of this and ensure that NTCA guidelines are strictly adhered to,” he said. This comes after two people – a forest officer and a 7-year-old child – were mauled to death in Ranthambore within the span of a month between April 16 and May 11. Officials suspect a young tigress, Kankati, to be behind the killings.
