Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu): Their very name is enough to send shivers down the spine. Such is the notoriety of the Bawariya criminal gangs, which have now spread their tentacles into wildlife poaching in Tamil Nadu. From committing dacoities, they have now stepped into the lucrative illegal trade of poaching tigers. The recent arrest of four members of the Bawariya gang and seizure of tiger skin and traps in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) has rattled the Forest Department.
Having caught a tiger with their trap, they were planning for their next strike, which landed them in police net. The gang of four, which had been staying on the outskirts of Arasur village in Erode district abutting STR in a temporary tent, raised the suspicion of the locals, who tipped off the forest department officials. A team of the forest department, in disguise, kept a watch on their activities and last week took them into custody and seized from them a tiger skin and nails and teeth besides traps as well as barbed wires. They were keeping them in gunny bags.
During the interrogation, it was revealed that they had poached the tiger on the Nilgiris side of STR. They had abandoned a leopard, which was also trapped since its skin had been damaged in the big cat's struggle to get out of the trap. Now, all four, Ram Chandar (50) of Rajasthan and Rathna (40), Mangal (28) and Krishnan (59) have been put behind bars. But, the question that remains utmost among officials and conservationists is whether they are linked to the Chinese mafia engaged in wildlife trade.
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It was a Kollywood thriller of the late 90's, “Theeran Adhikaaram Ondru”, which made popular the name Bawariya. In the movie, the hero, an honest and daring police officer tracks the gang involved in gruesome murders and dacoities and catches them. The community, now being stamped as a den of dreaded criminals, was originally part of a Rajput clan, but notified by the British as a criminal Nomadic Tribe in 1871. It has robbed them of their traditional livelihood of hunting. Spread over many parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, they remain marginalised without education and are classified as a Scheduled Caste. Between 1995 and 2005, nearly 200 cases have been registered against Bwariya gang members.
About their modus operandi, Field Director of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) Venkatesh explained, “They used to come in small groups and engage in the sale of woolen blankets among other things and study the area before striking at a place. They would also take up odd jobs in the farmlands to evade scrutiny. In the poaching case, they camped in the Emerald area and took advantage of the movement of elephants, which prevented locals from entering the forest.”
Admitting that the entry of the Bawariya gang is a new development, he said, “We have strengthened surveillance in areas where tiger movement is there. Our personnel will carry out combing operations for a fortnight. A camp, housing five persons, will be set up so that they can stay with all requisite equipment and accessories besides guns and walkie-talkies for communication. Furthermore, CCTV cameras will be installed for effective monitoring.”
In the last decade, 70 tigers died in Tamil Nadu, home to five tiger reserves. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), there were 229 big cats in the state in 2014 and their population had increased considerably. But, there is also concern over poaching and its wider ramifications.
