‘Don’t take this tiger family away’
Milind Ghatwai
Indian Express, May 10, 2007
BHOPAL, MAY 9
Amid frequent stories of poaching in wildcats across the country comes
an unusual tale of how villagers forced forest authorities to put on
hold a plan to relocate a tigress and its cubs from Bandhavgarh
National Park.
The tranquilising guns and cages were ready to shift the tigress and
two cubs from Chor Behra area to Bhopal’s Vanvihar National Park
because the tiger family was involved in a couple of conflicts with
human beings.
In February, the tigress killed a woman who had strayed into the
national park to collect wood. Last week, a cow was killed in the
forest lodge, following which the forest authorities hastened their
relocation plan. A rescue squad was waiting for orders to tranquilise
the wildcats when villagers and tourist guides moved in and threatened
to take to the streets.
A letter with more than 50 signatures was faxed to the forest
authorities in Bhopal and to the New Delhi office of Project Tiger.
“We will lose our livelihood if the tigers are taken away,”
said Laxman Singh, one of the signatories who heads the Deendayal
Antyodaya Committee in Manpur village. Villagers said the woman was
killed only because she entered the tiger’s territory.
Field director Aseem Srivastava said: “There is no immediate plan
to shift the family. We are monitoring the mother and the cubs.”
Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/30555.html
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