UP polls: When a tiger scares away 350 voters

MALIHABAD (UTTAR PRADESH): The overzealous state machinery might be sparing no effort to facilitate safe voting for a security-conscious Chief Minister Mayawati inside the premises of a school in Lucknow. But, just 28 km away in rural Malihabad constituency, people are afraid to vote, living as they do in the fear of being stalked by a tiger on the prowl.
The apathy on the part of local authorities was clearly spelt out by Lucknow DIG Police D.K.Thakur, who told mediapersons Sunday morning: "Why should people be scared of the tiger during the day, when the animal has been striking only at night?"
"After all, they have been living with the tiger around for so many weeks and it has not attacked a single human being," said Thakur, when asked if any special arrangement was being made to restore confidence of the people against the tiger menace.
Helpless villagers are least enthusiastic about venturing out to poll and risk their lives. "Why should I go to vote when the government has not cared to rid of this tiger who has made our lives miserable for the past one-and-a-half month," asked 25-year-old Sanjay of Urlapur village.
According to Ram Sewak, 57, of Dugauli village, "The route to the polling booth is so deserted and so close to the forest where the tiger has been hiding that we rather keep ourselves inside our homes."
What was strange that even wildlife authorities have failed to do anything concrete to relieve the villagers of the tension on account of the tiger, which has devoured and attacked their cattle on several occasions. The village is located in the midst of a tiny forest patch in Rehmankhera, around 150 km away, where the tiger had apparently strayed from the thick of the wild.
"The authorities do not seem to be serious because the wild cat has not eaten up any human being, they are only waiting for that to happen," said a villager.
Another villager Ramesh told IANS: "Neither political parties nor officials were bothered, because there were only about 350 votes here."
People were seen working in the fields, children were playing about, men were going about on bicycles and motorcycles, but clearly, they were scared of trudging along the 2 km road running along the forest patch to reach their polling station. A residents of Ulrapur claimed, "Even most candidates were afraid to venture out in the forest to campaign and ask villagers to vote for them."
The last round of the seven-phased election to the 403 member assembly in India's most populous and politically crucial state will be held March 3 and votes counted March 6.
Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/UP-pollsWhen-a-tiger-scares-away-350-voters/articleshow/11948837.cms

Tiger Tourism - Good or Bad

Tiger tourism was started so as the forest department can earn revenue after ban on wildlife game licenses in India. One of the biggest advantages here was that without disturbing the wild animals and their population we not only earn revenue but also generate awareness amongst visitors and till date it has proved right on both points. Another advantage had been revenue generation amongst local people by way of activities and employment.


Tiger at Kanha National Park

If tiger tourism is stopped poachers will be at an advantage since our forest department is not having enough staff to protect the reserves. With tourists taking a round inside the park they also act as patrols to keep a check on movement inside the park and we do not need lot of people to keep a watch on them since the guides accompanying each vehicle is responsible to handle the tourists and normally the vehicle drivers are also vigilant enough. A very good example is from Kanha where some tourists had seen a tiger with iron clamp (certainly put up by poachers and not tourists) stuck on its feet and this was immediately bought to notice of the department which by taking timely action could save the beautiful animal and he survived for next couple of years.




Inviolate doesn’t mean that visiting the area is forbidden but that all human settlements from the area should be removed. An excursion by tourists is for limited time and in certain areas only within the designated tourism zone of the core area of any tiger reserve. Here the forest department has its patrolling parties which keep a watch on tourist activities and take action against the guide and vehicle drivers as and when required if they fail in doing their duty as laid down by the department.




I believe, in places like Kanha and Bandhavgarh tourism infrastructure has grown beyond the stipulated capacity of the park and needs to be checked urgently. Certainly tourism needs to be controlled / regulated but banning it will be bad to the point of no return and we will lose most of our tigers soon. A few questions we need to ponder upon: Why we have good tiger population in tiger reserves with good tourist inflow and not in once with lack of tourism infrastructure? How do we propose to help local population in income generation once they lose their employment? What is Inviolate here?

In a recent article I read in a very prestigious magazine I was shocked to know that the field directors think that radio collar being put on wild tigers to check their movement is a problem and reason behind the unsuccessful mating. Now I am bit bewildered by this statement since it is well known that Tigers at Panna and even Kanha were radio collared and they mated and had cubs. So, why this move to stop radio collaring?

My idea, at this point may be farfetched but, I do feel that all this is being done under a strategy where tourists are being kept away from the forest, thereby local people losing their income and soon all ask to bring in industries and other so called developmental activities to the area. Since all our tiger reserves are source of natural resources and putting any industry in the vicinity is not possible due to regulations best remove the biggest obstacle – Tiger. Panna and Sariska are biggest examples where mining industry is facing problems due to Tiger reserve status.



Tiger at Kanha National Park



Once Tiger tourism is stopped the forest department will be free to give any report of its liking and we will have to believe it since no one is going in and keeping a check on the activities. No one knows if we have tigers left or not. No one falls in love with our natural heritage or the mighty Tiger since we do not see it, sense it or live it.


They need to regulate tourism and not ban it, it is due to tourism that we have visited tiger reserves and seen a tiger with the consequence of falling in love with the big cat and other denizens of forest. Or, it has been a photographer who visited one of these tiger reserves and clicked a photograph which made us fall in love with this majestic animal. If tourism is banned it will be the worst decision possible.

Note: A very important question is what is the number of Tigers in the tourism area of core zone and in non tourism zone? As per my knowledge most tigers in Kanha and Bandhavgarh are in the tourism zone.