New Delhi: A Supreme Court-constituted Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has highlighted gaps in patrolling due to staff shortage in the forests of Male Mahadeshwara Hills (MM Hills) Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka, where an adult tigress and four of her cubs were found dead last month.
This comes a week after the Karnataka government ordered the suspension of Y Chakrapani, deputy conservator of forests (DCF), MM Hills Wildlife Division.
The carcasses were discovered within the Kollegal Forest Division, now a part of the MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, a significant ecological corridor connecting the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve, Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve.
In its report submitted to the top court Wednesday, the CEC pointed out that in an area where tigers have been documented across multiple ranges, patrolling is constrained by severe staff shortage. The SC has sought the Karnataka government’s response and directed the Centre to come up with a permanent solution to the human-animal conflict.
Providing a break-up of the staff shortage in the Hoogyam range, one of the ranges in the MM Hills sanctuary, the CEC said there is 51 percent vacancy in the posts of beat foresters and 80 percent in forest watchers. Nonetheless, the field staff and watchers continue to patrol regularly.
“While patrolling is ongoing, resource and manpower gaps significantly limit surveillance effectiveness, underscoring the urgent need for staff augmentation and infrastructure support to enhance protection,” the CEC report submitted.
The report is based on the findings of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Karnataka government to determine the reasons behind the deaths of the tigress and her cubs.
The SIT’s probe, the CEC report said, also revealed that the outsourced watchers in the anti-poaching camps of the MM Hills Wildlife Division had not received their salaries for the past three months. This, the CEC said, demoralised the staff and affected the patrolling in the area.
‘1st incident of retaliatory poisoning in MM Hills’
According to the agreement between the government and contractor, the latter was bound to pay wages irrespective of government fund release. However, the contractor failed to make the payments for March-May 2025, citing financial burden.
Though budget allocations were sanctioned and released in May-June 2025, delays in disbursement and procedural issues contributed to the crisis, the CEC has noted in its report. Quoting the SIT’s findings, it said that many watchers had taken high-interest loans to support their families, and yet continued to patrol diligently.
On Wednesday a bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai perused the contents of the report that was placed before it by senior advocate K Parameswaran, who is assisting the court in forest-related matters.
The tigress and her cubs were reportedly killed in an act of retaliation by local villagers after a cow was killed by the tigress. The toxicological analysis, carried out by the SIT, confirmed the presence of pesticide, Carbofun, in both tiger and cattle samples.
In the CEC’s view, this is the first incident of retaliatory poisoning in MM Hills. Similar cases occurred in the nearby areas such as the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in 2019-2020.
Three persons, arrested in connection with the offence, have admitted they had poisoned the cow’s carcass to kill the tigress in revenge for the loss of their cattle, mentions the report, ruling out involvement of any organised wildlife crime.
The carcasses of the tigress and her four, year-old cubs caused major public outcry. CEC’s report also flags the complex situations involving human-wildlife conflict, leading to incidents such as the present one.
80% forest watcher posts vacant
The CEC report has annexed the detailed SIT findings along with its report. As per the SIT’s probe in terms of the state government’s agreement with the contractor M/s. G.B.Ranganatha, Electricals and Engineer, Mysore, the latter was bound to make payments to his employees for up to six months irrespective of release of funds from the government.
Though the agreement was to operate between 16 August 2024 and 31 March 2025, one of the conditions of the contract required him to continue his service until further order beyond March 2025. Since the next tender had not been finalised, the contractor, according to the contract, was bound to pay salaries until further orders from the DCF, MM Hills division.
The contractor was told to make payments for the months of April, May and June. However, on verification with the outsourced forest watchers working with the anti-poaching team, it was found that no wages were paid to them.
Upon enquiring, the contractor informed the SIT that payment of wages for three months’ cost him Rs 90 lakh, which was a huge financial burden on him.
The SIT report also shows that 63 percent posts of Range Forest Officers (RFO) and four percent of deputy FRO are vacant in the MM Hills Division. Furthermore, as against 129 sanctioned posts for beat forester, only 63 are filled. In the category of forest watcher, 80 per cent of the 56 sanctioned posts are vacant.
The SIT’s inspection revealed that in the Hoogyam range, seven beat foresters and one forest watcher manage 147.99 square kilometers of area.
On analysing the staff deployment in the Hoogyam range, the SIT found that the existing frontline staff were holding additional charge of another beat due to shortage of staff, resulting in much larger jurisdiction.
“It is noted that given the limited frontline staff and the large area under their jurisdiction, it is physically difficult to cover all areas on a daily or weekly basis,” the SIT report said.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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