Media reports from India indicate that the carcasses of 5 tigers found dead between 2012 to 2015 in the Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh between the period were found to
contain organochlorine pesticides notably DDT. It is thought that the tigers consumed
pesticide laced carcasses of dead animals which were used as baits which resulted in their death. Some of
the tiger carcasses were found to lack nails, forelimbs and whiskers. Tiger
parts are used for local occult practices and also have a lucrative market
in Tibet and China.
Precious wildlife like this are killed either intentionally
or unintentionally by pesticides. Pesticides are used by poachers
who illegally trade animal parts. Pesticides are also used by irate
farmers who lose their livestock due to the wild carnivores for taking ‘revenge’ . Sometimes, wildlife
stray into fields and crop estates and unknowingly consume crops laced with
pesticides resulting in debilitation and death.
5 years ago, two tiger cubs were killed in Ranthmabore NationalPark by villagers who allegedly killed the tigers by baiting them with goat laced
with the deadly pesticide Aldrin in ‘revenge’ of the tigers killing their
cattle.
Often wildlife is killed accidentally such as when
they consume crops laden with pesticides. In 2011, deaths of two pregnant elephants and other animals in tea estates around Kazinranga national park in Assam was
reported . The park is home to the Indian one horned rhinoceros and about 50 per
cent of the endangered Asiatic wild water
buffalo. The elephants had been killed
by eating insecticide laced grass in the tea gardens outside the confines of the national park. This highlighted serious problems in the area . Tea estates
are sprayed with pesticides, which drifts into the nearby areas onto the grass
and waterways. Wild herbivores and domestic livestock that feed on the grass contaminated
with pesticides often die. The deaths however do not end there though. Scavengers
including vultures that feed on the carcasses of the animals are then exposed to the pesticides which in turn results in more deaths.
Earlier in April of this year, an elephant was found outside the forest area in Mankarai,
Tamilnadu suffering from severe ulcers in and around its mouth, which prevented
it from feeding . Wildlife conservationists attributed this to the consumption of corps laden with pesticides by the hapless animal.
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