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Tiger attack incident takes a new turn

JAIPUR: The much talked about incident of a tiger attacking a forest range officer on the outskirts of Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur area this past Friday has taken a bizarre turn now with the authorities filing cases against 19 villagers and Dharmendra Khandal, a conservationist from the NGO, Tiger Watch.

While the victim of the attack, Daulat Singh Shaktawat, is under treatment at Sawai Man Singh Hospital here, there is a debate raging in conservation circles about the whole incident as well as the State Forest Department's response to an emergency situation like this.

While the conservation fraternity all over the country is unanimous about Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's gesture in sparing a State aircraft for airlifting the ranger who was mauled by the tiger in the process of trying to tranquilize it, there are differences of opinion over Mr. Shaktawat's “audacity” in getting dangerously close to the animal. The act of “bravery” by a committed officer who has put in more than 30 years in the tiger sanctuary is being termed mere “bravado” to the disappointment of many.

Embarrassment

What came as a big embarrassment to the forest authorities here, however, was a blow-by-blow account of the attack captured by Mr. Khandal, who normally carries a camera with him. Photographs made available by him to newspapers show the whole system in a poor light. Perhaps, unwittingly for Mr. Khandal, conservationists who are not seemingly on very good terms with the top forest officials in Rajasthan made use of the photographs and a video footage -- taken by local cameraman -- in what appeared to be a campaign.

Now there is a dispute over the role of Mr. Khandal as forest authorities accuse him of instigating villagers to hurl stones at the tiger. “Nobody who knows my work will say I can pelt a stone at a wild animal, not to talk of a tiger,” Mr. Khandal told The Hindu talking from Ranthambhore on Tuesday. “I was there for over an hour from 11-15 a.m. to 12-30 p.m. Mr. Shaktawat was attacked by the tiger at 12-25 p.m. on Friday,” he said.

“I have been named in the FIR along with others just because I exposed certain glaring blunders committed by the forest authorities in the operation. First of all there was no mob control mechanism when thousands of villagers had assembled, some out of curiosity and some out of anger against the tiger killing a buffalo in the Bhuri Phadi village earlier. In fact, the Forest team failed to communicate among themselves. While Mr. Shaktawat was attacked, the seniormost official present there ran away and I have photographic evidence on this,” he said.

Loopholes

Mr. Khandal also pointed out that Mr. Shaktawat was not wearing a helmet while trying to get closer to the animal which was already in panic. “He should have used the tranquilizer from a vehicle or a tree. He could have made use of a tractor standing not far away,” he asserted.

“The case against Mr. Khandal is not for taking pictures. The case against him is for provoking people and for getting this close to the tiger to take pictures. His whole aim was to get better pictures of the tiger and in the hour of crisis he did not act like a true conservationist,” a senior forest official said. “If he says that he was 200 metres away from the tiger at the time of the incident the clarity of the pictures belies this. He was only 15-20 metres from the tiger,” he asserted.

There is anguish among local conservationists over the attempt of “certain groups” in Delhi to “denigrate” Mr. Shaktawat's “bravery”. “He risked his life for the sake of tiger. Otherwise the villagers would have stoned it to death,” said Rajpal Singh, Member, Rajasthan Board for Wildlife. “It is all dirty politics,” he lamented.

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