“This is ridiculous, these big cats only turn man eaters when their other meat has been had for tea by the villagers or gone off elsewhere due to the habit forever decreasing!! The people that live around there don’t wait for officials as it is…so God help the poor animals that the villagers catch up with now!! It hardly seems fair, I mean the tigers were in the forest before people started popping up all over!”

“The big cats habitat is being destroyed at an alarming rate, so what are they supposed to do for food? Obviously they are going to take a villagers goat or cow for supper; they wouldn’t attack & eat humans if they had plenty meat running around the forest! If the villagers don’t want their livestock eaten, they should build bigger fencing; or better still, don’t  live in the tigers domain! Don’t kill the tigers because they got too close to humans; it’s the other way around, the villagers got too close to the animals. Perhaps more birth control wouldn’t go a miss, for all the women of these small villages; that appear to be sprouting up all over the tigers domain!!”

“Going on past history, the villagers have not waited for the forest department to come & capture a tiger or leopard that has attacked & or killed a human or cattle! I can understand their hate toward the big cat; but killing it won’t bring a person back. Capture & release into another part of the forest is the best for all concerned. If only the powers that be, could arrive much quicker, perhaps the villagers would not take matters into their own hands; therefore the whole scenario could be defused without harming the animal!”

 “Now with the added go ahead as laid-out below in the news post, it’s almost giving the villagers more of a green light to kill the animals themselves; which is the worst thing that could happen! The villagers go into a mob mode & I have seen the violence they inflict on the animals they capture; they go absolutely crazy! It’s almost like a celebration, they have caught the cat & so, inflict their own means of punishment towards it! Even if officials are there, they can’t control the mob mentality of the crowds, who seem to come from nowhere? Pushing & shoving, camera phones held high; all waiting to get a glimpse of the killer about to be killed.”

“There are some horrific videos, of villagers who have caught, what they assume is the animal that killed their cattle; whilst in a frenzied mode, they repeatedly club the cornered cat to death! These villagers don’t need even more of a loop hole to kill the big cats. What needs to be done ASAP is have more armed rangers in & around all the villagers, with phones to request backup & trucks that hold cages & more importantly sedatives; ready at a moments notice to rescue a big cat that the villagers have cornered, timing is of paramount importance ! I’m not sure what the forest rangers have by way of authority over the villagers…but that also need to be changed.. as it is very clear the villagers are not afraid of the forest rangers, as is evident in so many videos, where the rangers appear to be doing nothing at all! Perhaps it could be down to numbers, if it’s only 3 rangers to 300 villagers; they are probably more scared of the swelling mob & their safety, than they are of retrieving the cat!!

“I have posted a video, which happens to be one of the worst things I have ever witnessed, it will forever haunt me in my dreams. Just the thought of it brings tears to my eyes. I’m showing it so that people can see, just how heinous the attacks on the big cats that are caught, really are; it is the cats that need the protecting, for sure! I find it hard to believe, in this era, that so many humans could want to inflict such formidable & macabre acts! Please note I have put the video at the very end, so those who don’t want to see it, will have to stop scrolling down at a certain point.

NEW DELHI: Tigers and leopards, accorded highest protection under the Wildlife Act, may now be killed with due permission from authorities if they pose a threat to human life or are disabled or diseased beyond recovery.

Tigers are thriving in and around India’s Nagarhole National Park, with a regional population of 250. “If we do everything right, we can have 500,” says big-cat biologist Ullas Karanth.  Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Fight-to-Save-the-Tiger.html#ixzz1qG95oEf7

This is part of new guidelines issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in the wake of increased incidents of man-animal conflicts.

“Tiger as well as leopard are categorized under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, with highest statutory protection against hunting under Section 9 (1) of the said Act.

“Hence, such species can be killed if they become dangerous to human life or are so disabled/diseased beyond recovery,” the guidelines for declaration of big cats as ‘man-eaters‘ state.

As both tigers and leopards are known to turn into man-eaters, “such confirmed ‘man-eaters’ should be eliminated as per the statutory provisions provided in Section 11 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.”

The guidelines state that the chief wildlife warden of a state alone has the authority to permit hunting of animals which have become dangerous to human life or disabled or diseased beyond recovery.

As per the statutory requirement, a chief wildlife warden has to give in writing the reasons for permitting elimination before hunting, they say.

According to the NTCA, there are several reasons for a big cat to get habituated as a ‘man-eater’ including disability due to old age, incapacitation due to serious injury or loss of its canines, among others.

“However, there may be several exceptions, and hence specific reasons have to be ascertained on a case-to-case basis,” the NTCA said.

The tiger bearing forests and areas nearby prone to livestock depredation, besides having human settlements along with their rights and concessions in such areas, are generally prone to ‘man-eaters’, the guidelines state.

Loss of habitat connectivity in close proximity to a tiger source area owing to various land uses also foster straying of tiger near human settlements, eventually ending up as a ‘man-eater’.

“This is very gruesome & hard to believe human beings could be capable of such a despicable violent act; to an animal already caged. I have sent this video to a friend of mine in India who is an animal advocate & Media Adviser of OIPA in India / PFA Haryana; he will forward this to the right people if not already done so; I read it was filmed in 2008, so it could have already been dealt with. Please note the quality of this video including the sound is very bad quality, it settles after a minute or two!

“WARNING – View Discretion Is Strongly Advised”

 Leopard being burned alive in Uttarkhand, India, PLEASE DO SOMETHING!
PLEASE READ THIS DESCRIPTION IN FULL!
A leopard that was killing cattle and local villagers was caught, caged and burned alive in the summer of 2008. It remained alive for several hours after, writhing in agony while the police and forest officials watched. I have the list of people who did this. Forest officials, police, and people of the village. You can download it here:
http://www.beyondclix.com/files/Uttar…
We got the information but are at a loss for what to do. Please help!!!!
Please share! Please spread the word! More people should know about what happened. People who can do something about it should do try to do something!
PLEASE!Additional Note: I should have mentioned. Sorry. I did not shoot this video. Someone posted this in FB and we picked it up from there. We shared it with our friends and one of our friends then contacted Indian government under Right to Information Act asking for info on those forest officials. After waiting 6 months they sent the details. The link to download is in description. Then I tried to contact and even tried to meet many politicians and celebs but no one interested yet.
Still trying.Additional additional note: PLEASE don’t make this some country-bashing or religion-bashing thread. You’re taking away from what I’m trying to do. This has nothing to do with poverty or rich, rural or urban or any country in specific. This is about animal rights, empathy and sensitivity of all humans the world over. And I need you to spread the word. That’s all.
Please speak with people about it, online AND offline. Share it with top people. Share it with activists. With celebrities you may know. Your parents. Your friends. Your teachers. At parties. At meetings. Most of all share it with leaders and politicians. I need some help from powerful or important or even famous people. The Indian legal system isn’t much for animal rights in general yet, unless someone important is involved. Thus I will only achieve justice for that animal if you help!