Posted on 05/29/2012 8:24:42 AM PDT by JerseyanExile
A state in western India has declared war on animal poaching by allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight in an effort to curb rampant attacks on tigers and other wildlife.
The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime. Forest guards should not be "booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers," Maharashtra Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam said Tuesday. The state also will send more rangers and jeeps into the forest, and will offer secret payments to informers who give tips about poachers and animal smugglers, he said.
No tiger poachers have ever been shot in Maharashtra, though cases of illegal loggers and fishermen being shot have led to charges against forest guards, according to the state's chief wildlife warden, S.W.H. Naqvi.
But the threat could act as a significant deterrent to wildlife criminals, conservationists said. A similar measure allowing guards to fire on poachers in Assam has helped the northeast state's population of endangered one-horned rhinos recover.
"These poachers have lost all fear. They just go in and poach what they want because they know the risks are low," said Divyabhanusinh Chavda, who heads the World Wildlife Fund in India and is a key member of the National Wildlife Board, which advises the prime minister. In many of India's reserves, guards are armed with little more than sticks.
India faces intense international scrutiny over its tiger conservation, as it holds half of the world's estimated 3,200 tigers in dozens of wildlife reserves set up since the 1970s, when hunting was banned.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
poached poachers?
Bounty of 10,000 rupees , what part of the tiger poacher do you have to turn in to get the money
What is that, about a buck and a half?
It’s 179 dollars at current exchange rates.
Now that is the way to do it. All it will cost India is a burial expense and problem solved.
Poachers will change their primary targets.
“Indian state OKs shooting tiger poachers on sight”
Some good news for a change.
For the really bad poachers tie a couple of mewing tiger cubs to them and send him out to visit mama tiger.
Animals are more valuable than people! Tiger life worth more than human life!
This is an enviro-whacko’s wet dream. Other intellectual perverts, all drooling out of control in ubison, over the Indian decision are animal rights whacko’s, Liberals, Progs, Cat Ladies and Obamoids.
Wildlife is a major revenue generator in some parts of the world. They’ve been killing poachers in Africa forever.
Not quite. Think of it this way, certain animals are worth more alive than the people who would kill them. Would a person be justified in killing a person who was attempting to kill a champion racehorse or prized breeding bull? If you walked into your paddock or barn and saw a man with a gun to the head of either of those animals, would you be justified in killing him? You may argue that you would, given the concept of personal property and your right to protect it. But does the state have the right and responsibility to protect the people’s resources by what ever means necessary? And when those resources are as limited as tigers, shouldn’t the action to protect them be vigorous?
No question about that. I’ve done some wildlife research in Namibia, and the approach to poachers is extreem. American and European hunters pay major coin for big game, far more than a poacher could make in a hundred years, and that money directly benefits the local tribes. They use the funds to develop conservancies, build infrastructure, and as income for tribal members. If poachers go in and clean an area out, they’ve killed the goose that lays the golden eggs. A single managed white rhino could probably support a village for a year, but if a poacher has bagged it and cut off its horn for a 100 bucks just so some rich guy in Shanghai can think he’s going to get rock-hard, everybody loses.
The world wildlife fund wants people killed? Liberals - they don’t mind guns at all as long as they get to determine who the guns are pointed at.
Tigers are few because they eat people. Americans cheering for the tigers is not unnoticed in the Second, Third, and Turd World areas.
Can you say “Ugly American”?
Try - you can do it. See! It didn’t hurt all that much did it?
;-)
Jokes aside, their land, their people being eaten by tigers. And, the Anglosphere chappies took away all their guns. How do you think they feel about being poor, weaponless, and knowing tigers eat lots of Indians every year?
Just wonderin’.
“Wound them, disarm them and release them back in the wild. The tigers will thank you for the slow, soft prey without much in the line of teeth or claws.”
Excellent idea.
Thank you.
“They’ve been killing poachers in Africa forever.’
That’s good news too.
Thank you.
“Tigers are few because they eat people.”
To bad. Maybe this can be turned around.
47% of our moochers should take note.
Bring in the tigers and fatten them up.
Money is more valuable than people! Cash retention worth more than human life!
I wonder what the response would be if I posted something like that on a thread discussing a homeowner shooting a thief sneaking into his garage to steal his car, or a bank guard shooting a perp who snatched money. After all, is money 'worth a human life?'
These tigers are THE key hard currency resource for these areas, and in some places the only hard currency resource. Every tiger killed is an economic blow to the people, and one that cannot be afforded. In India, the lions of Gir forest (the home of the Asiatic lion and the only place one can find them outside Africa) they had to take similar steps to save the population - and the tourism that stems from it.
As for your later comments on how tigers should be killed since they 'eat people' (amazing logic!) I wonder if the same applies to deer (145 Americans per year) or dogs (which kill more humans than all big cats from all continents combined)?
Anyways - these 'liberal' measures are supported by the local communities who clearly understand that tourists will not spend their hard earned dollars and Euros to look at trees - but will do so to see tigers.
Absolutely - this is not the same as the Western US where wildcats, mountain lions, pumas, and the like are more and more frequently killing pets and then people because the enviro-leninists stop their management. This is regarding wildlife preserves where the cats are SUPPOSED to be.
And don’t think that any of those poachers would lose a minutes sleep over killing any and all forest agents who try to stop them. This just gives them freedom to do their jobs without fear of being second guessed when they return from the field with the body of the poacher strapped to their jeeps.
What we should be doing on the southron bordor.
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