Why the hell we should protect this stupid animal Tiger? – Beginning of an “END” for Wildlife
This article is posted verbatim from a facebook post of a friend Munuswamy Sathyamoorthy who was in the forefront of the efforts to capture the doddabetta man eater tiger alive. You an read more at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=650393984999336
Beginning of an “END” for Wildlife
When I saw the tiger been carried from the tea bushes to the village I felt my own son was killed this is my feeling when I saw the carcass. This place THE NILIGIRIS was once a grass land sholas a prime place for carnivore like tigers, leopards, wild dogs, wild cats, civets, Nilgirimarten,
Hunting was started by the Britishers that was the decline of wild life in Niligiris, the English men planted Exotic species like Bluegum, wattle, pine, Cyprus, with that we lost most of our grassland and sholas, other exotic plants like lantana, cestrum and whole bunch of species were introduced by the Britishers which changed to topography of the niligiris, then Tea, coffee, potato, cabbage, carrot and all sorts of English vegetables were cultivated by destroying the grasslands and sholas. The Britishers left India we Became an free country any one can settle anywhere in this Country, so a population boom started in Niligiris, people started to encroach every part of Niligiris ( By everybody) slowly the wild population declined dams were built towns expanded. In 1972 Then Prime Minister Indera Gandhi s period came the 1972 wild life act( one of the best wild life acts in the world) how ever hunting was not stopped but the encroachment in Niligiris continued, Mudumalai sanctuary and Mukuruthi national parks were formed now it is Mudumalai Tiger reserve, with efforts from NGOS Elephant corridors have been created. It all looks good on paper in reality nothing has changed each and every day encroachment takes place, wild animals are killed some are reported most cases are not reported this is the fate of wildlife in Niligiris the need and greed of land for humans is going up I don’t see any decline in this. In this scenario frequent dispute between human and wild animals takes place, always the humans are been victorious.
Why the hell we should protect this stupid animal Tiger?
There is every reason to protect it , if tigers are protected all the carnivores and Herbivores are protected the forest they live is protected we get rain by protecting this forest. Please keep in mind that only one% of water is consumed by the wild animals the remaining water 99% of which flows through the forests of Niligiris ( Upper bavani,Pandiyar and Moyar) is consumed by greedy humans. If we lose our tigers we will lose our forest with it our water sources. A day will come when there won’t be any tigers or any wild life all the forest will be converted to agriculture land or towns will be expanded. Then what happens ( this is a Global phenomena) no water to cultivate land, no drinking water for greedy humans even their domestic animals cannot survive (Cow, goat, sheep, pig, hen, horse, dog, cat) so no non vegetarian food will be available, without water no cultivation. What the hell will the greedy humans will eat.
“Cannibalism” that will be the only option because we would have lost all our wild animals ,domestic animals and agriculture lands, This will be the fate of our Great, great great great great grand Children in future.
The evolution will take a new turn a earth without humans.
Coming to the operation of catching the tiger near Dodabetta, the terrain was so difficult visibility was zero, the chances of seeing the tiger in open land was impossible the animal was so intelligent it never came out in the open, the tea bushes were more than 4 feet in height so it kept hiding there and everywhere you had lantana bushes with wattle trees. The first incident at took place in Solada village the forest was mostly cestrum, eucalyptus trees and sholas, seeing an animal was impossible. At the second place at Attabettu it was pine, thick patches of wattle trees and cestrum plants and at Kundachappai village (Third Incident) it was tea bushes, lantana wattle and eucalyptus, it was so difficult to dart the animal in this kind of terrain.
The only chance the forest people had was at Kappachi village where the Tiger killed the cattle, because the one side you had the village road down you have a private unused land which had thick lantana and wattle trees to the left and right it was small tea estates on the opposite side it was plain open agriculture land more than 100 acres, that was the place where you can dart the tiger. On 22nd when forest officials with the help of more than 100 villagers of Kappachi a team of 250 men entered the area to flush the tiger out to come in the open agriculture land but in spite of using drums all sort of noise the tiger dint come out. The villagers themselves realized the difficulty, they were upset and started to protest against the forest officials, so all operations were stopped . Luck came in the form of a cattle in the evening but agitated villagers (I understand their feeling) dint allow to do a planned operation things happened so fast, it ended up in killing the tiger.
Please keep in mind this animal has become a man eater, form 8th there was no human loss it was averted. If the animal was not killed on 22nd the surroundings villagers would have set fire to all the forest in their area and in future if they see any cattle kill they will poison the carcass this was avoided by killing this man eater.
The postmortem reviled that the animal had a fight with may be another tiger or a gaur it had injured its jaw few tooth were lost it was not able to hunt its regular prey, it saw humans as easy prey. I think the forest dept was not prepared for this kind of an operation lot of lessons to be learnt. Only a few dedicated staff worked in the field not every one, vigil was not maintained 24-7, lack of people at the right place at the right time was not seen. It is not a easy task so please don’t take forest,stf, ngos ,police and the district admin for granted. Sitting somewhere else and telling the animal should have tranqualised is simply stupid, idiotic and foolish.
I lost my dear son tiger” MAYAN”.
By Bala M
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