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Over the past two months, three chilling incidents of wildlife deaths in Karnataka's forests have raised alarm.
In early August, villagers in Hanumanthapura in the state's Tumakuru district found 20 peacocks dead under mysterious circumstances.
Just days earlier, in July, over 20 bonnet macaques were discovered poisoned and dumped in sacks along the Kandagale-Kodasoge road, within the buffer zone of Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Chamarajanagar district.
On 26 June, a tigress and her four cubs were found dead in Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary which also falls in Chamarajanagar district.
What’s the common thread linking these three tragedies? The use of deadly pesticides.
A Case of Poisoning
The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report confirmed that the tigress and her four cubs died after ingesting cattle flesh laced with extremely high levels of toxic insecticides—phorate and carbofuran.
The FSL report is awaited in the case of the 20 bonnet macaques found dead, but the preliminary investigations by the forest department revealed pesticide poisoning. In the case of peacocks, the Karnataka forest department is awaiting the FSL report to confirm the type and quantity of pesticides used, but has not ruled out their use.
With the available details, it is assessed that the peacocks’ deaths could have been due to accidental exposure.
“Laced with pesticides, the seeds were sown only that morning. Expecting rain, the farmers did not irrigate. But the skies stayed dry, and the peacocks that fed on them died,” Prabhash Chandra Ray, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden of Karnataka, told The Quint.
“Peacocks are often killed for their feathers that see high demand during Krishna Janmashtami. But the ones found dead had their feathers on,” added Rahul Aradhya, former chief naturalist of Karnataka Eco Tourism Board, affirming their accidental deaths.
When Prohibition Has No Meaning
The peacock, India’s national bird, is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, with offences attracting up to seven years of imprisonment. That's the reason why experts are cautious about attributing their deaths to intentional killing. However, legal protection isn’t always a sufficient deterrent, and the ground reality is different.
For instance, phorate, a perilous organophosphate, was one of the 17 pesticides prohibited for sale, import, or manufacture by India’s Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry in 2018.
“Phorate and carbofuran are among the deadliest pesticides known—capable of killing life in minute doses. A granule can kill. Their use on wildlife, often deliberate, has killed birds, predators, and even tigers, leaving entire ecosystems reeling."Donthi Narasimha Reddy, public policy expert
In an investigation conducted at the fringe villages of Chamarajanagar district—which houses Biligiranga Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur Tiger Reserve, and Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary—it was revealed that there has been zero restriction in the sale and use of phorate, even seven years after the Central government prohibited it.
Kumar (name changed to protect identity), a small farmer from a fringe village near Bandipur Tiger Reserve, revealed that he heavily relies on phorate to keep the pests off his crops. “I mix phorate with urea and cow dung, and then use it on my fields regularly. The strong smell keeps the insects away,” Kumar, who has been cultivating vegetables and sunflowers in his four-acred farm for the past 15 years, told The Quint.
From his farm, Bandipur Tiger Reserve is just three kilometres away, and often, wild boars and elephants have wreaked havoc on his fields.
“I use phorate once every two months. The agriculture department, through loudspeakers, asks us to use fewer pesticides, but ironically, it is the same department that reiterates on using them while distributing seeds to us. It is very confusing.”Kumar, farmer in Karnataka’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve
There have been no wildlife fatalities reported in his farm but in his neighbour’s farm, hares and deer were found dead a few months ago.
In a fringe village next to the Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, Surendran (name changed), a 41-year-old farmer, has been cultivating corn, onions, and other vegetables on his two-acre farm for the past 20 years.
He, too, has been using phorate to control pests for about five years.
“Phorate is very effective in controlling nematodes and thrips [roundworms and insects] in onions. I had no clue that it is prohibited because the fertiliser shop in my town always recommends it,” he said.
Fertiliser shops often sell the pesticide in the black market to their trusted customers, and hence, when this reporter made calls to three fertiliser shops in Chamarajanagar district, all of them denied selling phorate.
“Chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate insecticide, can be used as a replacement for phorate. Phorate is banned in the country,” said an employee from Kannan Agencies, a fertiliser shop in the district.
"These pesticides need to be banned completely given their usage on unsuspecting wildlife and for their extreme toxicity. A intermediary solution can be to ban over-the-counter sales, and complete sale restrictions in villages or towns surrounding wildlife sanctuaries,” public policy expert Reddy told The Quint.
Addressing the Long-Standing Conflict
Except for the peacocks, human-wildlife conflict appears to be the common factor behind the other two incidents reported in Chamarajanagar district.
The Karnataka forest department has been holding awareness sessions to educate farmers on human-wildlife conflict. It has also fast-tracked compensation for farmers who lose cattle to wildlife attacks.
“Earlier, it used to take even years, but now, the department issues compensation ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000 for the death of a scrub or hybrid cow within three months, or even sooner,” said Sunita Dhairyam, founder of The Mariamma Charitable Trust, Bandipur which works on wildlife conservation in and around the area.
Through her trust, Sunita provides financial assistance ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 2,000 in compensation to farmers, whose livestock (cows, goats, or sheep) are killed by wildlife on the very same day.
She sees this as a way to ease the financial shock and, in turn, reduce the anger that fuels human-wildlife conflict.
A dry, arid region, Chamarajanagar district relies almost entirely on seasonal rainfall, with farmers continuing to cultivate crops even when it brings little to no profit.
“It's a dry area and many cannot afford borewells to irrigate their lands. These factors worsen conflict and make the death of cattle an irrecoverable loss to farmers.”Sunita
The onus now seems to be on other departments to step up in mitigating the conflict.
“The panchayat raj department should work on creating a people's biodiversity register to have a fair idea of the life in the region. The horticulture and agriculture departments should ensure that prohibited pesticides are not used in the fringe areas,” said Aradhya.
Following the recent incidents, the Joint Director of the Agriculture Department has issued a communication to all offices in the state to document the purchase of phorate and carbofuran. “Details of every purchaser, along with the quantity procured, will be documented,” Ray stated.
(Laasya Shekhar is an independent journalist from Chennai with 10 years of experience in print and digital media, predominantly covering environmental, energy, and women's issues.)