M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, March 27: The tiger spotted in the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) after a gap of two years a few days back has evoked the joy of selfies with the big cat and the fear of life too.
It has attacked at least three persons so far.
PTR Field Director Kumar Ashutosh said, “I have one great concern. It’s picking time for Mahua fruits. Men, women and children just rush to jungles for collecting the fruits with which they brew illicit liquor. These people are now vulnerable. They throw their caution to the wind.”
Referring to the injuries of Manager Bhuiyan at village Chungru on Friday last he said he was collecting Mahua fruits and he was pawed on his back by this tiger.
Ashutosh admitted people who collect Mahua fruits in the jungles of the tiger reserve here get unmindful of the dangers coming from wildlife.
Some teenagers were taking selfies with the tiger on Friday when the tiger was first eye sighted in the jungles of Chungru.
Their joys were unbound. They took pictures of the tiger walking down the jungles as if the tiger were their old friend said sources. The tiger too did not mind being shot with cell phone cameras.
Manish, a GPS and camera trap handler in the directorate of the project tiger and two of the members of the Wild Life Institute of India Dehradun who are in the PTR for a long time had found youngsters taking selfies with the tiger on the prowl. It was a dangerous moment for the youngsters, said Manish.
He said, “We warned them not to be so casual in the jungles as a tiger is a tiger and no pet cat at all.”
Manager Bhuiyan was collecting Mahua fruits and was in a bending position in the jungle. The tiger must have taken this man in a bending position and thought of him as prey there instead of a man and the tiger just injured the back of the man with his paw.
The pawed man ran for home and the tiger too followed him but not with any lethal speed to kill the man.
Manish said his team, the forester’s team and three or four dozen villagers who were collecting fruits there, at that time, made a huge hue and cry all to keep the tiger at bay from entering the Chungru village.
The PTR field director said “Manish and two of the Dehradun based WLII (Wild Life Institute of India) members were first to reach Chungru and there this team rescued the injured villager Manager Bhuiyan. He was rushed for medical treatment.”
Ashutosh further added, “We have been warning people not to take any liberty with the tiger. Be alert and cautious. There is no chivalry to get into the line of the movement of the tiger.”
Meanwhile, the tiger has also posed a question on its domicile status.“It has come from Chhattisgarh, no doubt. But this tiger might have been our resident which migrated from here some years ago only to come back,” the field director believed.
Ashutosh said the tiger has come here through a well-trodden corridor which confirms this tiger knows its dwelling and route.
On being asked what if it returns to Chhattisgarh, the field director said “Nothing to do. It’s free to decide. It came here on its own. It may go out of this place on its own. But as long as it will be with us, it will be our most valued wild life.”
