Kaveetaa Kaul
One of the most elegant, royal, majestic, glorious animal to ever grace our planet, the Tiger when televised nationally depicted as pitiable, weak, drugged, bound, dangling from a tree , prodded, stoned, beaten by villagers gloating over their acrylic sense of power over this hapless creature, makes for a vision that benumbs you. Incongruous to the tall claims of ‘Save the Tiger’ campaigns zealously advertised , passionately adhered to, one wonders just how legitimate and sincere are efforts on to actually save this dangerously fast dwindling tribe…recent figures though controversial suggest a paltry 1500 approx.
In a bizarre incident which occurred in Bengal the big cat went through a death defying time matching strength with humans perilously close to violently robbing her of life and that of her yet to be born cub. Yes, this was a tigress and a pregnant one at that. Doesnt get any worse does it ?
The tigress had strayed into human habitations in the Sunderbans and had injured three persons in South 24-Parganas district’s Deulbari village. Enraged villagers stoned the animal.
The frightened big cat, which had to swim across two rivers, Matla and Makri, to reach the village, climbed atop a banyan tree.
Forest guards encircled the tree with a net hoping to trap the animal. But the locals set the tree on fire. On seeing the flames, the scared animal jumped on the net, tore it apart and escaped to an abandoned village hut. Later the tigress became unconscious and forest officials captured it. It was put in a cage and bundled onto a waiting launch. The forest guards were also pelted with stones by the villagers. Five of them are injured.
Frankly the above is a watered down version of actualities as televised. The maniacal glee on the faces of villagers as they pelted, prodded the ensnared animal reminded one of ‘Gladiator’ and the days where the cry for blood excited ones senses as none other. Neanderthal instincts abound albeit masked.
One would have inferred sine qua non that in a situation where a national clarion call has been sounded for over a decade to promote measures not just to save the present numbers but dedicated efforts for further breeding (which have thus far failed), actions that even remotely meant peril would have been circumvented at any cost. So is one therefore to conclude that Bengal and the villagers of 24 parganas are not a part of evolved India or are living in the Stone Age , oblivious to the endangered species and therefore abonimably gathered en masse to satisfy animalistic instincts present inherently to a greater degree than the animal they thus chose to denigrate and violate?
Shameful!! And all this when forest officials were present as mute spectators or at best impotent, incapable professionals who due to their lack of planning, foresight and ineptitude wrought misery on this poor creature.
A read through of the present situation on “Save the tiger” is a must in the circumstances to glean the picture better and if I may add fire the angst.
Save the tiger..from humans!!
Sachiniti 
Indeed shocking!! Surely the lines of distinction between man and beast are fading by the day.
Comment by Krishnan — February 20, 2008 @ 9:33 am |
these guys are all frustrated. its human nature that when a powerful creature is in front of you at your mercy you then wat to vent out your frustrations just to feel powerful.Curses on these villagers. No wonder they are where they are,i wonder if anywhere else in the world no matter how poor the country or uneducated would people ever behave this way. India is pathetic in these respects.
Comment by Neha — February 20, 2008 @ 12:55 pm |
that is just plain cruel!!!!! how wud they like it if sum1 did the same to them they shud all be put in jail and given severe punishment so as to learn there lesson
Comment by xyz — February 28, 2008 @ 1:23 am |
Tiger eating MAN !
Comment by laxmi — March 6, 2008 @ 8:21 pm |
One of the reasons why i do not wish to return to India is this ‘jahaalat’ I find there..this junglee mentality.. i hate it.
Comment by aman — March 13, 2008 @ 10:39 am |
Kaveeta – Sitting in our comfort zones, its easy to comment on poor villagers. Most of them are not literate enough to understand that tiger is endangered. In parts of Sunderbans, tigers do attack villagers and kill them. so it was their reaction when they saw the tiger.Day by day as our population is growing, the pressure on land is growing and so the fight between man and animals is increasing. This is a global phenomenon..Also what do you expect 5-10 forest officials to do when they are facing 100 villagers.. by following your logic we will have to call Para military/Reserve police or army for handling each case. I can tell you tiger is still revered in bengal as he is the vehicle of goddess durga.
Comment by Rajeev — April 2, 2008 @ 1:04 am |
This ‘comfort zone’ thingy is so oft repeated and beaten to death on the web..nothing more original to begin your rant with?
And btw..Where are you talking from… the midst of the jungle with the tiger prancing around in the background ?
Ignorance is often an excuse but sometimes a handicap. Rajeev please keep that in mind while commenting on issues which apparently you know nothing or little of. Have you seen the clipping? No way!! have you read the post at least in detail? Not a chance!
From your comment it is more than clear you are reacting more for the heck of it and not because there is anything substantial to say. By your logic therefore a mob which decides to attack you is within their rights, if they fear attack, not just to defend themselves but even after you are tied and bound, continue to pelt you and clobber you and it is perfectly understandable if 5-10 police officials stand by gaping..after all you are not important enough for the para military /reserve police to be brought in!
Comment by kaveetaakaul — April 2, 2008 @ 5:25 am |
As you have rightly assumed, I am not talking from the midst of the jungle… Tiger Conservation is one the burning issues in India and I know some thing of it if not everything. before writing, I read your story in detail and also the movie so that negates the assumption that I wrote with out reading anything. I am also a tiger lover. Now talking about the logic of me getting attacked by a mob.. I am not a supporter of mob violence but in India leave alone tigers, there are instances where govt. has failed to protect its citizens also. Gujarat riots and khairlanji massacre are some of them. These 2 happened in 2 of the most prosperous and Industrialized states of India. By Law, I expect the state to protect me from all mob violence but we have to accept that there are parts of India where people are deprived of these basic things too.. So the purpose of my writing was to bring forth some of the harsh realities and challenges which India is facing today. Nevertheless, this does not excuse anybody to absolve himself/herself from protecting tigers. But would also like to put forth that the issue of tiger conservation is just not about protecting tigers but it also involves resolving the issues of livelihood of villagers living in the vicinity of tigers. Now I am not assuming but I dont know if you have watched the films made by National Geographic on conservation of tigers in India(it covered sunderbans) or lions of africa. There they have presented a 3D image of whats going on there and it shows the challenges which a modern India faces.
Comment by Rajeev — April 2, 2008 @ 7:31 pm |