A supari was paid for a tiger skin in Chhattisgarh’s Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, turning a poaching attempt into what looks like a commissioned wildlife hit, as reported by Times of India. Forest teams say the targeted tiger, identified as Udanti_U93619, survived after anti-poaching teams acted on intelligence, set up camps near the Odisha border and tracked suspect movement before the strike surfaced.
Seven accused from Katfad village in Nuapada district were arrested. Six were allegedly caught red-handed near Ranibarjhola nullah while lacing a forest stream with poison.
This was not hunger hunting. This was calculated crime.
The danger went far beyond one tiger. The supari logic turns wildlife into a contract market, but poison turns an entire ecosystem into collateral damage. Officials recovered poison vials, dead fish and dead crabs, evidence of contamination at a shared water source used by multiple animals. Investigators said the plan involved poisoning water frequented by tigers and elephants before finishing the hunt with bows and arrows.
That method is cowardly, indiscriminate and ecologically brutal. A poisoned stream does not select its victim. It can kill prey, scavengers, birds, reptiles and unseen life that keeps a forest functioning. The intended victim survived, but the forest was seconds from a wider wound.
This Supari Must Bring The Highest Sanction
The first clue reportedly came when an elderly man, Raman Herna, was detained with deer antlers. During interrogation, he revealed a larger conspiracy, naming handlers and describing a plan to poison water sources and finish the hunt. That information led teams into Odisha’s Katfad and Kusumkhunta villages and back into reserve forest where the final act was underway. Forest officers deserve credit for moving before the tiger became skin. But this also means a cross-border network had organised local operatives, selected a method and reached protected forest with poison already in hand. The plot was active, not theoretical.
This supari for a tiger should be prosecuted as organised crime, not reduced to routine poaching paperwork. Under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, poaching or conspiracy to hunt a tiger can invite up to seven years’ imprisonment with fines. Authorities should seek the harshest sanction available under law for every person involved in commissioning, handling, poisoning, transporting, financing, purchasing or protecting the operation. If investigators believe more members are still at large, the case must move up the chain. Catching those at the stream is necessary. Stopping with them would be a gift to the syndicate and an insult to the tiger.
A Supari Is An Attack On The Forest
The reserve has now sounded high alert, with thermal drones scanning dense patches and patrols intensified along the inter-state border. That urgency is justified because officials believe more players may still be outside custody. The surviving tiger should not distract from the scale of the threat. A nullah could have become a death channel without a gunshot. A syndicate can contaminate the forest, let animals drink, and return later for a body or skin.
That is why poisoning cases should trigger ecosystem-level charges, not only tiger-specific outrage.
Borders between states can become weakness zones. The accused were from Odisha, while the target was inside Chhattisgarh’s reserve. Supari criminals do not care where one jurisdiction ends and another begins. They use those seams. Enforcement must therefore be cross-border, intelligence-led and permanent, not temporarily dramatic after arrests. The forest department’s early action saved Udanti_U93619 this time, but one successful operation does not end a market. Demand for tiger skin, body parts and prestige killing remains the engine. This market will keep returning until buyers and financiers fear prison more than profit.
The phrase “tiger zinda hai” should not become a celebration that softens the crime. The tiger is alive because officers interrupted a poisoning attempt in time. That is relief, not victory.
A real victory would be dismantling the full network and making the punishment severe enough to terrify the next handler. Any Supari belongs inside the machinery of tiger trafficking, where killing begins long before a tiger falls. India must treat this as contract murder against an endangered species.
Anything less tells the next syndicate that the forest is still negotiable.
Source: Times of India, India
Photo: Times of India, India
