ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[Rishi]

@peter It took a longer than i'd anticipated.

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After the few man-eater debacles & losing almost 100 people or year to conflict in the last few years, the govt. it's now concentrating on developing QRTs (Quick Response/Reaction Teams). But the problem cats are often very careful & hard to locate.
Also, as tigers are spreading out out of designated reserves the is a need for more accurate patrolling, ie, not coming the whole area but locating & tracking individual tiger's movements.
Then there are the poachers. It's impossible to keep them at bay over a huge tiger landscape, as they are usually post of the local populace. So, the more efficient techniques turned to be trailing & apprehending them on foot patrol.

For these India is aggressively raising K9 squads, consisting mostly of Labrador retrievers, German Shepard (widely & cheaply available in India) & Belgiun Malinois. Plans are to induct bloodhounds in future.

At least 43 trained dogs have been deployed in the tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries in 13 states so far including MP, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar and Uttrakhand. "The dog-squad is also being deployed in Sikkim and Andamans now," said director of Traffic India and IFS, Dr Saket Badola.

The canines have been trained in obedience so that they respond to the call of their master without fail and in deciphering and sniffing out the wildlife products like bones, skins and the carcass to keep a check on wildlife crime. "Tracking is another skill that the dogs have been trained in so that they could keep a watch on poacher movements and routes," said Badola. 
They have been trained in tracking, sniffing and guarding. They can sniff out tiger and leopard skins, elephant tusks, deer antlers and skins. Also they can follow the smell trail & lead the personnel to poachers hideout from a tiger/rhino/elephant carcass...

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Most of the dogs have been provided by the international wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. Their handlers and trainers, all forest department staffers, have also been trained by TRAFFIC.

Senior project officer of TRAFFIC-India Amarnath Choudhary said: "This is the sixth batch that has graduated under this special project. In this batch, there were 13 dog squads — 13 dogs and 26 handlers (two handlers for each dog). They have undergone training for almost nine months, starting in April. All of them are aged between 18 months and 24 months."

TRAFFIC, a joint initiative by World Wildlife Fund and International Union for Conservation of Nature, spends almost Rs 3 lakh to train each dog.
An official said the sniffer dog training programme was started in India by TRAFFIC/ WWF in 2008 and, since then, more than 50 dogs and 100 trainers have been trained.
The nine female German Shepherds and four male Belgian Malinios dogs between the age group of 6-9 months, along with their handlers, began their nine month long training in April, 2017.

Some feathers in the canine crown:

Quote:MP’s dog squad sniff out lapses of Chhattisgarh forest department
By Ejaz Kaiser  |  Express News Service  |  Published: 08th December 2017

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RAIPUR: A trained dog squad from Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha tiger reserve was roped-in to assist in a probe into the
poaching (killing) of sambar deer in Chhattisgarh but in the process sniffed out an apparent failure of authorities in
safeguarding tigers and other wildlife in the Bhoramdev wild life sanctuary at Kawardha district, the home district of
chief minister Raman Singh.

As the sniffer dog got engaged to track down the culprit involved in the hunting of deer inside the jungle, the
trained canine led the handler team to couple of dwellings where nails of tiger, bear, bones of pangolin and other
wild life animals were found.

“While inquiring into the death of a bison in the sanctuary, we apprehended those who were accused of killing sambar
deer. We sought assistance of dog squad from Kanha tiger reserve and incidentally traced the nails of tiger and bear.
Six accused have been taken into custody. Further investigation is on”, said Prabhat Mishra, Kabeerdham district
forest officer.

Couple of months ago the State Wildlife Board chaired by the state CM took a decision to convert the Bhoramdev
sanctuary into the fourth tiger reserve of Chhattisgarh and had sent the proposal for approval to National Tiger
Conservation Authority (NTCA). The decision was also taken to increase the sanctuary area from 350 sq km to 624 sq km.
However the sniffer dog exposed the level of preparedness of the state forest department on the advisories and
recommendations of the NTCA following the recovery of nails and other remains of wild animals.

In April this year, Chhattisgarh high court categorically asserting on one of the petitions on Bhoramdev sanctuary,
stated that there should be requisite deployment of beat guards and other officers and staff to monitor the movement
of tigers in that sanctuary.

“Once the area is identified and notified as wild life sanctuary or the tiger reserve identified all requisite steps
should be taken to effectuate the object sought to be achieved through those notification”, observed the double bench
headed by the Chief Justice T B Radhakrishnan.

“It’s irony that the sniffer dog highlighted the negligent approach and poor preparedness of the forest officials for
Bhoramdev sanctuary when the decision was taken to create a new tiger reserve”, said wildlife enthusiast Nitin
Singhvi, who had then filed a petition in the high court.

Citing the wild animal anti-poaching database of Chhattisgarh, Singhvi revealed that 16 cases were registered in the
state on recovery of tiger skin and 44 other lodged over the seizing of leopard’s skin and teeth between 2006-2017.
"These many deaths of tigers then go unaccounted", he asserted.

Quote:Sniffer dog dies a night after it traced a tiger poacher in Pench reserve: Report

Handlers suspect the Labrador, named Clue, inhaled or ate the pesticide the poacher sprayed on a cow he used as bait.

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A three-and-a-half-year-old sniffer dog in Nagpur’s Pench Tiger Reserve died a night after it led forest officials to a man accused of poisoning two tigers, The Times of India reported.

The handlers suspect the Labrador, named Clue, inhaled the pesticide the poacher sprayed on a cow he used as bait to kill the tigers.
Her colleague, a Doberman named Soldier, was safe & healthy even though he ate some of those tigers' scat, leading the vets to believe so.

Two tigers – a male and a female – and a cow, were found dead at Pusda, in the Paoni range of the reserve on Friday. Clue tracked the main accused, Anandrao Madavi, on Saturday afternoon. Madavi told the police he sprayed thimet, a poisonous pesticide, on the cow to kill the tigers as they have been attacking his herd. The handlers suspect this is what caused Clue’s death too.

Wildlife veterinarians who conducted the post mortem said Clue died of poisoning as some of the dog’s organs had turned dark.

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