March 25, 1999, Thursday, sunny,
19-37C
[19:38 @ Rm.12, Bandhavgarh Jungle
Lodge]
Another
safari, another tiger sighting. In
spite of its ills, Bandhavgarh is holding true to its 100% success rate
offering to me. Bandhavgarh is pure
magic and truly deserves to be called the tiger sighting capital of the world, for
now. It would be a crime of
monumental proportions if little Bandhavgarh is ruined, let alone wiped out.
This
time it is two of Mohini’s three large cubs crossing a grass field, then
thickets, then the road. Of course,
hoards of tourist vehicles followed them around, some taking side roads at high
speed to try to intercept them. At one
point, when the big male cub was trying to cross the road, the jeeps and
Gypsies were so bumper-to-bumper thick that he physically couldn’t. Faiyaz was exasperated, in fact furious, at
the slackness of the enforcement of park wildlife viewing policies. No wonder the tigers are so easy to poach
here. They are just too habituated to
human presence and in fact human interference.
But
I’m even more concerned what we encountered in the park this day - hundreds if
not thousands of villagers pouring into the park on foot carrying baskets of
food on some annual pilgrimage to the Vishnu shrine deep in the heart of the
park. So once again, religion and old
traditions take precedence over wildlife conservation.
After
brunch, at my request, we drove to check out one of the six in-park
villages. We were dismayed, though not
surprised, to see the grass largely grazed out in the fields surrounding the
village, and cattle trooping through the surrounding forest, and fields of tree
stumps. In short, no different from any
other village outside of the park.
Farther out, we found vast expanses of the forest floor burned to
cinders. This was done perhaps to
encourage new grass growth – for the cattle - but in doing so, it could
decimate many other plant species, including tree saplings, and of course
animals. None of these can be good for
the tiger and its ecosystem-mates.
Other
than this, nothing happened of great note today. At noon, we were invited by some park officials to visit the
school where nature guides and park guards (“front line workers”) from various
national parks are trained. It is
equipped with an overhead projector, a TV/VCR and, wonders of wonders, a
Pentium computer. We were given the
grand tour by the school director who attended my slideshow day before
yesterday, very respectfully I might add, and Mr. A.K. Nagar was there as
well. We arranged to have the Champions
of the Wild video shown there tomorrow at 18:00 to those park guards who missed
it the first time.
This
afternoon, Faiyaz and Anne worked to translate some more Hindi articles into
English straight into my laptop. In
them, Mr. Nagar featured quite prominently, but not in good light, as does the
park Field Director Mr. S.C. Sharma.
See the following:
Article from “Detective Eye” newspaper
Umaria, 8 March 1999
Three
tigers killed in four months in Bandhavgarh National Park
Bad park management by Director R.C. Sharma allows
poachers to enter park
Umaria –
Just one month after the world famous
tigress, Sita, was killed, another dead tiger was found in the Machkheta area
of the park. This shows the inability of R.C. Sharma and S.D.O. A.K. Nagar to
protect the park.
While
Mr. Sharma does nothing to protect the park, he also fools the government into
thinking he is doing a good job. Thus
there is an urgent need to suspend this man, or the wildlife and forest will
soon vanish. The poaching of three
tigers in four months clearly shows that Mr. Sharma is not doing his job.
Isn’t
this enough proof to take legal action against Mr. Sharma? Don’t forget that Mr. Sharma, who is 58,
benefited from the government scheme which raised the retirement age from 58 to
60. Thus Bandhavgarh will suffer under
his management for 2 more years. It is
evident to the people that he is irresponsible but he is being protected.
One
particular fact deserves investigation: Mr. Sharma lives and works 33 km away
from the park, in Umaria. When he wants
to visit the park, he must travel by jeep to and from Umaria. This not only wastes expensive petrol, but
illustrates the adage: “When the cat is away, the mice will play.” It’s like the Prime Minister of India trying
to govern. India from Canada.
The
construction of new buildings surrounding the park shows that Mr. Sharma is
more interested in construction than in sound park management.
It
is reported that on March 4, when the Deputy Director, Mr. Singh, came to know
about the death of the tiger, he went to the spot with a few local lodge
owners. But it was not clear how the
tiger died. The people of the area fear
that the forest officials will falsify the post-mortem report to protect
themselves from blame and to save themselves the effort of an investigation.
If
a tiger is poached, it is essential to catch the culprit. But such a task would prove too daunting for
Mr. Sharma and his officials. There are
hard-working and honest officials in India, but unfortunately Bandhavgarh is
stuck with Mr. Sharma and his deputies.
The
park officials have tried to convince this newspaper that Sita has not been
killed, but were not able to offer any proof to that effect. If Sita is still alive, then where is she?
How
can officials who do not understand human behaviour hope to understand animal
behaviour? They have said that Sita’s
disappearance is typical of tiger behaviour, and that she is still alive. But
if we look at what the experts say about tiger behaviour, it is clear that she
must be dead.
The
relationship of Charger and Sita was like that of husband and wife. There is no power on Earth that could stop
their continued union except death.
This alone proves that Sita is no longer alive.
Why
would Sita, who was always seen by tourists and villagers alike, suddenly
disappear after November 1998, when she had not finished training her cubs how
to hunt?
Article from Deshbandhu newspaper,
Jabalpur, March 11, 1999
Dead Bandhavgarh Tiger Sent to Jabalpur for Autopsy
Shahdole (Deshbandhu), M.P. –
The
corpse of a tiger which appeared to have died in suspicious circumstances was
sent to Jabalpur for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
According
to a source within Bandhavgarh National Park, Dr. A.B. Srivastava, a wildlife
health expert from Jabalpur, was initially contacted to conduct the autopsy at
Bandhavgarh. However, he had been
called to Sidhi to treat an elephant calf and so the autopsy was instead
conducted for Jabalpur.
It
is widely accepted that three or four days ago a tiger died in suspicious
circumstances and the corpse was found lying in Chui compartment 283 in
Bandhavgarh. Surprisingly, the higher officials did not know about it until two
local tribal people, Surat Singh and Bharat Singh, tipped them off.
This
is not the only example of negligence on the part of the officials at
Bandhavgarh. The most famous tigress in Bandhavgarh, Sita, has been missing for
a few months and no-one seems to know whether she is alive or dead. The local people and the press have been
demanding information, but so far their questions remain unanswered. The villagers fear that because of the negligence
of the forest officials, Bandhavgarh itself may be doomed.
Speech given by Sri Narendra Pratap
Singh, M.L.A. of Tala, Madhya Pradesh, to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative
Assembly on 11 March 1999
Bandhavgarh
National Park is a world-renowned park which attracts tourists from around the
globe. But at the rate that tigers in
the park are being killed, the time may not be far off when there will be no
tigers in Bandhavgarh. I want to draw
the attention of the Minister to the plight of one famous tigress called Sita
who has been the subject of numerous films worldwide. Four months ago, she was poached from Bandhavgarh. The forest officials maintain that she has
simply moved from her home range and they have begun an investigation as to her
whereabouts. At the same time, these
officials seized the bones of two poached tigers on February 17 and 19,
1999. The officials maintain that these
bones are not the bones of Sita, but rather those of male tigers. There has been no test to verify this assertion. I maintain that if these officials are so
sure that these bones are not those of Sita, then they must know where Sita’s
bones are.
On
March 3, another tigress was poached inside the park, although the official
cause of death was listed as choking on a piece of meat. I ask the honourable members, how can a
tigress choke on something she is so accustomed to eating? It makes no sense. The autopsy on this tigress was not performed by a veterinary
doctor, but a Public Works Department sweeper.
The vomit should be properly analyzed by a laboratory so that we can
determine whether this was a case of poisoning or death by another cause.
Bandhavgarh’s
fame around the world has meant that it has been, and continues to be, the
recipient of a great deal of international attention and foreign aid. However, this is also the place where four
tigers have been killed in four months.
So, although today Bandhavgarh is famous for its high density of tigers,
tomorrow the tiger may be gone from the
park. I would like to draw to the
Minister’s attention the misuse of World Bank funds which have been injected
into Bandhavgarh for the purposes of eco-development. Money which should have gone toward development of the local
villages has instead been used to construct an open-air theatre, which is the
first of its kind in Madhya Pradesh, the likes of which is not seen even in
Indore or Bhopal. Who will watch these
movies --- the wild animals, or the
tribal people?
Another
Honourable Member: The Minister will
watch the movies.
I
request that the Minister and other honourable members come to Bandhavgarh to
witness for themselves the misuse of funds.
I would like to give you one more example: a school bus was supposed to
have been purchased for the children of the park staff, permission for which
had been granted by the state government.
Instead of a bus, however, the money was used to buy a Mahindra Voyager
air-conditioned jeep for the use of the officials.
There
is still time to save Bandhavgarh if we act now. I ask the Minister to listen to what I have said and to take the
appropriate action so that the money sent to the forest department is utilized
properly. Otherwise, all of the
wildlife in Madhya Pradesh will suffer the same fate as Bandhavgarh.
In
a lull of activities, Faiyaz asked me what I thought the Universal Organism
would be like.
“How powerful
is an amoeba?” Raminothna asked him.
“Very
powerful, but only in the opinion of the bacterium it is about to devour,” he
said. “From our point of view, of
course it is not powerful at all.”
“How
much more powerful is a human being than an amoeba?”
“Almost
infinitely.”
“How
many levels apart are they?”
“An
amoeba belongs to the Cellular level of organization, and a human being belongs
to the Metabion level. So they are just
one level of organization apart.”
“How much more powerful is the United States than the village of Chichrunpur?”
“Almost
infinitely.”
“How
many levels apart are they?”
“The
U.S. is a National organism and Chichrunpur is a Tribal organism. So, they are two levels apart.”
“How many levels above the United States is the Universal Organism?”
“According
to your system, above the National level are, in ascending order, the Planetary
level, the Stellar level, the Segmental, the Sectoral, the Galactic, and three
more levels to the Universal. So, all
in all, the Universal Organism is eight levels above the United States.”
“So, how much more powerful would you think the Universal Organism is than the United States?”
“I
would say that ‘almost infinitely’ is a the understatement of the
millennium. So let me say ‘infinitely’.”
“Where
would this Universal Organism be?”
“Everywhere. Whether we go, we would be within in.”
“And
what would it know?”
“Everything. Its knowledge would comprise every word in every book in every library on every planet of every galaxy.”
“So
now, how would you describe the Universal Organism?”
“All-present,
all-knowing and almighty,” said Anne.
“Omnipresent,
Omniscient and Omnipotent,” said Faiyaz.
“Indistinguishable
from… God,” whispered Anne, from a Christian culture.
“Or
is a new God unto Itself, may Allah forgive me,” whispered Faiyaz, who is
Muslim.