Imagine being dislocated from your home and being a wanderer without knowing the destination you are heading to, and suddenly realising that you are unwanted and percieved being a threat for the residents of the area you thought is your utopia.this exactly is the plight of the Tiger who has been making headlines for the past one month in the state and national dailies and news channels in India.
To give you an idea I am talking, about a Tiger about two to Two and half year old who started his wanderlust about a month ago from the jungles of District Pilibhit in UP, india and after covering a considerable distance it reached the outskirts of Lucknow, the capital city of state of Uttar Pradesh in india that is when it became a serious threat to the citizens of the State.A large posse of wildlife officials and four elephants drawn from national parks and sanctuaries of UP were deployed to track it down and the plan was to tranquilise and capture it.A considerable time passed and in the period it was sighted over 30times but the experts were unable to capture it.
Suddenly the life of the Tiger took an unexpected turn In its hideout in the jungles of Barabanki it came face to face with the child of the species it was hounded by and losing its temper it attacked him and killed him.That was the defining moment in his life his one act of misdemeanour gave the wildlife authorities an excuse to declare him a maneater and shoot-at-sight orders of the Chief wildlife warden and cash award of Rs.5000/- could end his life in a day or Two.Also as per newspaper reports as a result of official announcement ,villagers have started firing on the Tiger.
In this Grim scenario Some sane voices have emerged The National Tiger Conservation Authority has dispatched two missives to Forest officials In UP to revise their Decision of shooting down the Tiger as a single incident by a Tiger under stress, and him killing a human being on a chance encounter cannot be a ground of signing his death warrant. It has also requested the dept. to make more efforts to trap the Tiger alive and if the situation warrants help of Wildlife institute of India can also be taken.
I am closely following this story on daily basis and till the time of posting this blog there is no bad news which has emerged from the jungles of Barabanki and I pray for the safety of the Tiger and long life
2 comments:
Thanks Sanjay for alerting us to this important news. We hope the tiger will be re-located to a safe area of national park where he can live out the rest of his days naturally.
Shelley.
I was moved beyond words in reading your post - 'The case of a stray tiger'. I would imagine it is an eye-opener against the authorities who have arbitrarily issued shoot at sight orders, perhaps realising the futility of the attempt to trap the animal, which as everyone knows is a laborous and often life-threatening process. This raises a moot point. Are animals to be castigated just because destiny has foisted on them the ungainly sin of being 'man eaters'? By that benchmark, we too should be taken to task for we have been permitted to indulge in the unlawful, unethical act of killing 'live species'. I think it is high time that we all overcome such invidious distinction between humanity and wildlife and express the same level of empathy to safeguard the lives of both human beings and animals in order to maintain parity with our eco-system.
I must reiterate that your write-up touches a deep sensitive chord of human illumination and wisdom. In fact, your entire blog is a highly commendable effort and makes us aware of how important it is for us to shelter our endangered mammal and bird species in a current-day paradigm shift of human disposition and a serious drift away from time-tested values and ethics. I loved going through your meticulous listing of personal experiences and am surely going to enjoy them in the future too. Bravo for creating and developing a fine blog.
Jay Subramanyam
Lucknow
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