TEHELKA Magazine
Vol 9, Issue 15, Dated 14 April 2012

Sariska has refused to learn its lessons from the 2005 wipeout and is blowing its second chance. As Delhi and Jaipur watch, the reserve is losing its stripes
Jay Mazoomdaar, Independent Journalist

THE NOISE is deafening, breathing not easy and the sight blurred. Earthmovers are gnawing away at the rocky earth and tractors lugging heaps of construction material through the foliage. Jeeps are ferrying overseers and supplies for hundreds of labourers camping inside the tiger reserve. Off and on, dynamite sticks go off in silent blasts, spiking the air with a heady gunpowder stench. Welcome to Sariska. Its heart is ripped open, literally.
Coming up simultaneously are 22 giant anicuts, ostensibly to quench the thirst of animals during summers. NABARD is funding the project worth Rs 11.5 crore and the Sariska management has sought an additional Rs 3 crore for building another six. Never mind that the new structures are coming up a stone’s throw away from old, still-functioning water systems.
Outside the reserve entrance, angry villagers block the road and refuse to let this reporter through.
“Sit down and listen to our demands. We can’t sell our land. We don’t have roads, electricity, ration card, nothing. This is our forest these corrupt foresters are destroying,” snarl a handful of protesters. The rest of the crowd has taken their agitation to district headquarter Alwar.
Further down the road, a few forest guards man the reserve gate. One of them believes in plain speaking: “Why go inside? The forest is a construction zone. Forget tiger sighting, we are thankful that the big cats have not yet walked away. And people keep discussing why the tigers are not breeding!”
The magnitude of disturbance unfolds soon. Hundreds of headloads of firewood is moving freely. There is, in fact, a ranger in charge of collecting “protection money” from these village women.

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