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“Tigers, except when wounded
or when man-eaters, are on the whole very good-tempered...Occasionally a tiger
will object to too close an approach to its cubs or to a kill that it is
guarding. The objection invariably takes the form of growling, and if this does
not prove effective it is followed by short rushes accompanied by terrifying
roars. If these warnings are disregarded, the blame for any injury inflicted
rests entirely with the intruder.”
“A tiger's function in the
scheme of things is to help maintain balance in nature and if, on rare
occasions when driven by dire necessity, he kills a human being or when his
natural food has been ruthlessly exterminated by man, he kills two percent of
the cattle he is alleged to have killed, it is not fair that for these acts a
whole species should be branded as being cruel and bloodthirsty.”
― Jim Corbett
Though many people frown by
mention of a tiger as gentleman, but these words are not written by some
amateur or WhatsApp PhD holder (sarcasm) but by the man (Jim Corbett) who has
spent more time of his life with the tigers than the humans & has survived
with no protections of the modern world. Indeed, he carried a gun but never used
it unless it’s for the right cause, on any wild animal & that’s why
Corbett’s name is a legend when the subject is tiger! Of-late tigers are again
in the news but as usual for wrong reasons as summer was at peak in central
India, thanks to our rampant deforestation & encroachment on wildlife but
the outcome of which is price paid by the tigers (read as wildlife) &
humans staying with them! Reason behind this sharing (no though its
tiger but not about tadoba) is news in media, especially of a young RFO (range
forest officer) in Ranthambore tiger park, Rajasthan as well humans killed
around tadoba & in Assam also by the tigers. Agreed, when its tigers
Tadoba you can’t be kept out of the sharing yet this time my main focus is on
the news of a young ranger who lost his life in Ranthambore & sole object
is how can we save these precious lives of humans as well of tigers! As in
tadoba, within span of a week nearly seven to 8 humans got killed by tiger
& agitation was so much that the villagers tried to burn the section of
forest where majority of these deaths has occurred & in Assam case nearly
thousands of villagers hacked one tiger (hope it’s the right tiger, I mean any
tiger would have been wrong only, yet) who was supposedly responsible for death
of a villager & even ran away with claws & canines of that tiger!
What you make out of all
these incidents (many will ask, what we have to do in the first place for such
incidents) & I am asking this as a common logical (lol) thinking human
being & not as wildlife expert, which I am also not one. Answer is
simple, tiger’s numbers are increasing which indeed is a good thing but we are
unable to adjust ourselves to live with the tigers! And the outcome
is, increasingly deaths of humans as well of tigers because we can’t expect the
tigers to change or train themselves & live in the harmony of the humans,
which actually they are trying to do in much better way than the humans but
tigers have their limitations. First, a tiger is equally intelligent
(rather more) in comparison with a human & that’s why it avoids humans in
the best possible way; in the same way that we avoid conflict with stronger
enemies or say we avoid our creditor when we have no money to repay back (ask
the builders)! I have seen in my many
trips, a tiger hiding in the thickset whenever it senses humans (especially on
feet) which is a common thing in the buffers & coming out only when it
feels humans have gone away. Even when a tiger is walking on forest roads which
it prefers more than to walk on dry leaves or grass & if it sees or hear
human even from long distance (which a tiger is master doing at), it will
silently walk inside the forest along the road & all you will see is its
fresh pugmarks in the dust! It’s the humans which do exactly the opposite
as they will try to block tigers’ way or shout or do things which a tiger will
get disturbed or even afraid & in that mode it attacks the respective
humans. At the same time tigers avoid the timings of the day when humans are
out in the open in more numbers but humans don’t follow even such simple rules.
They wander in tiger’s areas on the time of the day or night which is its
hunting time & accidently get killed by the tiger! If you check in all the
above three incidents which are core subjects of my sharing then it’s the
humans who ventured in the tiger’s area without any protection of right
knowledge of doing so & eventually got killed is a fact!
Yet, lives have been lost
& somebody is going to pay price as somebody has paid a price & that to
be paid one is needless to say the tiger, that’s why this sharing. Coming to
Ranthambore RFO case, which is more alarming as villagers I can understand are
not aware enough even though they have been born & brought up around a
tiger & this makes them over confident or many a times their needs for
living overcomes their fear & makes them exposed to tiger at wrong time in
wrong way. But, a trained RFO doing so & losing his life, is definitely
indicates something is very wrong the way we are training our forest staff (
Its applicable to all States’) as they are supposed to know how to behave
in the presence of a tiger or any wild animal & a RFO is a senior position
in forest dept rather most important link between ground staff & upper
ranks, & this can send wrong message about safety of the ground staff
working with bare minimum protection in the forests where tigers, leopards,
gaur & sloth bear roams! Many stories are roaming about the incidence
of Ranthambore & one includes, respective forest dept feeding an injured
tigress with cow/ buffalo calf as the tigress can’t hunt in present condition
& it has small cubs. So, the other tigers in the locality came to know of
this feeding thing & they too started waiting around this tigress &
while transporting such food, a tiger attacked the RFO which was walking
unarmed around! Whether this is true or not I don’t know but it’s possible
& most importantly before this incident happened social media was flooded
with reels of tigers roaming around right among parked gypsies at very same
spot means they are no more afraid of humans around, a very alarming signs
which most of us has ignored but not excepted from the respective forest staff
of which the said RFO was very much part of! I am not blaming or naming any
system & have full sympathy for the deceased RFO but with the right
training, this could have been avoided is my sharing’s subject.
In the recent past during my
forest trips in various States’ I have met many young forest-guards & RFO’s
& many of them come from city/ urban life & has joined forest dept as
it’s a govt job & nothing wrong in it. But this job is not like joining
some municipal corporation or public work dept, or a bank, this is forest &
just like military here a mistake can cause you your life & one must be
extremely disciplined & trained in the right way to deal with wildlife, is
this being taken care, is my question to all the concerned? As earlier most of the
forest guards, Dy. Rangers posts which are supposedly the ground staff &
has most exposure of the forests directly used to get recruited from the
natives which are well versed with the forests. At the same time a
fresh graduate from college who has cleared some State exam & has become
RFO, how can you put him in-charge of core or buffers of project tiger as he or
she has never seen even a wild boar or sloth bear leave apart a tiger in life,
something which forest depts’ top bosses must think & act on! No
wonder these youngsters with stars on their shoulders (rank) walk in the
forests just the way they walk in some mall or city roads, & I have seen
this!
Just few years back I was
waiting in gypsy in Tadoba near Telia lake & the Big Boy Baghdoh (male
tiger) was relaxing in grass & two guards came on bike, parked their bike
at some distance & started walking where the tiger was sleeping casually
just to show off, even when tourists were yelling don’t go ahead. Fortunately,
the tiger got up by their movements but walked to the opposite side of the
lake, gentleman it is but imagine if the tiger was in mating or the tigress
with cubs then things would have gone bad. What I wanted to share is the
attitude of forest staff that could make them fall in trouble in the forest
& this is only because one, the city background & two, some lacunas in
training while they get posted in real forest like project tiger! I repeat, I don’t doubt
intelligence, smartness or commitment of these young forest officers or guards
but somewhere we can’t ignore the importance of experience in any job &
unless it’s there we shouldn’t post them at such position is what I feel &
this could have avoided life of the young RFO in Ranthambore!
At the same time the dangers in the forests are not only tigers but
snake bites, flash floods of rivers. Animals like wild-boar, poachers &
many such. The training of every forest person must have exposure to all these
threats as well dealing with them. I don’t know whether climbing on any tree is
part of training in the forest dept but it must be, is what I feel. At the same
time why are we not giving guns to every forest staffer, is my sincere question
as poachers won’t think once while attacking the forest people & you can’t
expect to handle poachers with a stick, right? And in case of attack by gaur or
wild-boar, firing in air can scare these animals away, yet for reasons known
only to some seniors in the govt as even RFO rank officers rarely carry a gun
in the forest, is my observation!
Now coming to another aspect
of experience which is the case of tadoba & Assam incidences, those who are
beyond fifty year of age, & are natives of villages around project tigers,
they have grown up seeing tigers around men & women, both & knows how
to live with a tiger. But a generation whose villages have been moved out of
sanctuaries or core areas, they now are not allowed to go inside these forests
the way seniors in the village have done in the past & this has made the
younger generation to lose the exposure of living with tigers for a while. And
now, tigers’ population has increased, they are roaming free not just in the
core but in the buffer forests as well outside of it but the humans are not
used to the freedom of the tigers & unable to accommodate them &
outcome is death of humans or the tigers! This is sheer analysis by going
through the various mishaps as most deaths of the humans by the attack of a
tiger has happened in late evenings or early hours of morning & those which
have happened in day time that too alone person working in the field types.
Where is the training to the locals, especially the younger lot to behave when
a tiger is moving around, is my question, keeping full respect for the forest
depts’ efforts. And do mind any coexistence is achieved only by setting certain
rules & following them to the fullest which I call discipline & at
which we the Indians are very poor is a fact, may it be obeying red signal in
the city or walking alone in the areas where tiger moves! The concerned depth
(forest) & others must focus on making people aware about the way they
should change their lifestyle where tigers are part of it, & I know it's
not easy but that’s the only logical & right solution! As even tigers
follow rules of coexistence & try to live by them as I have already
mentioned above but it’s like dealing with a small child or an old man, above
certain limit you can’t expect a tiger to improve its behaviour but we the
humans only has to do it, if we want the tiger to survive, right? We can (read as, must) take
help from the right people to achieve this objective of coexistence & for
that training, training & training is the only way! Let’s think over this
aspect of the deaths which tigers have caused (vice versa too) & work
together for the right outcome which will make both humans & the tigers
live with each other at peace, adios with this dream!
* Interestingly, there was news about a lady
farmer being killed by a leopard in Junnar, Pune which actually was murdered by
her relatives over property dispute, is what came to light in the police
investigation. The relatives thought they could fake her murder as a leopard
kill observing increased leopard movements around the village; just wow, we
humans are, aren't we!
-
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
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