Quite disappointing
Killer tiger on the prowl on Bhopal outskirts, 90-man team tasked to track it
Three teams of experts placed over 100 cameras in and around 36 villages in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district as they hunted for a killer. Several officers and experts also scanned a digital map of the Ratapani wildlife sanctuary, which borders the villages, as they looked for clues. A red alert has been issued.
The victim was 62-year-old Maniram Jatav, a farmer and father of six. He was killed Wednesday at Neemkheda village while he was out picking tendu leaves.
The culprit is a tiger. It was for the first time in several decades that a tiger has killed a man in the area, which is just around 32 km from Bhopal.
Divisional Forest Officer Vijay Kumar is pulling out all the stops to track the animal. He formed the expert teams that have also been running an intensive awareness campaign in the villages.
“We have at least 90 people helping us track the tiger from morning to evening. We found fresh paw prints and are tracking the animal, which has moved towards a new area,” the DFO said.
On Wednesday’s killing of Jatav, he told The Indian Express, “It appears that the tiger was resting when the farmer was collecting tendu leaves on all fours. It must have gotten spooked and attacked the man as he came close. Portions of his thigh and hips are missing and there are canine marks on his neck.”
It would be wrong to call this tiger a “maneater”, he said, adding, “It is very rare for a tiger to kill a man.”
When Jatav ventured out to collect tendu leaves at around 7 am Wednesday, the tiger was hidden in four-foot-tall grass, where wildlife officers speculate it was resting.
When Jatav did not return home even after three hours, his family began searching for him. It was at around 3.30 pm that the body was found.
“I found my father’s body was badly mangled. The forest officials then blamed us for going into the forest. In March, a tiger came outside our house and the warning signs were there, but no real steps were taken to protect us,” said 33-year-old Deepak, Jatav’s son.
Friday was Deepak’s wedding anniversary, and the family was set to celebrate the construction of their new house on that day. “We were supposed to celebrate a house warming, but are instead in mourning. My children are scared to step outside,” he said.
Maniram Jatav was relatively well off – he had just finished constructing his new five-room house, bought a tractor and a keep, and had nine acres of land where he grew moong and gehu. His family said he did not need the additional income of Rs 400 that could be earned by collecting 100 stacks – each containing at least 50 leaves – of tendu leaves. They had forbidden him from going towards a mango tree farm that had served as a gateway to the forest.
However, it was by the mango tree farm that Jatav was found. Near the farm is a house surrounded by barbed wire. Its occupant, 70-year-old Hari Narayan Meena, carries a wooden stick for protection and said he knew the tiger had been in the area.
“There were pug marks all over the place. I made adequate preparations to protect myself. Maniram went alone and unarmed,” he said.
Jatav’s elder brother, Durga Prasad, had even captured a cellphone video of a tiger roaming in their fields just two months ago.
“My brother was a creature of habit. He became rich, but could not leave his old habits behind. Collecting tendu leaves had become a means for him to pass time,” Durga Prasad said.
Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, in the Vindhya Range, is spread across 825.90 sq km in Raisen and Sehore districts. The sanctuary also encompasses a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the prehistoric Bhimbetka rock shelters.
Following Jatav’s killing, the DFO formed one team comprising animal trackers, another team that has been setting up camera traps and pug impression pads, and a third team supervised by the local Sub Divisional Forest Officer, that will analyse field data and formulate strategy.
After narrowing down the location of the tiger, tranquilisers and trap cages will be used to capture it. Two additional forest teams are patrolling villages barring people from entering the forest.
SDO Sudhir Patle has been busy formulating ways of tracking the tiger with the help of two wildlife researchers – Amit Kumar and D P Shrivastava. However, the question on Patle’s mind is why a tiger would kill a man.
“A tiger rarely attacks a human. It usually does so when it is injured and cannot hunt for itself and has no option during old age. But even that is rare. There are abundant cattle in that area. Why would it attack a human? We think Maniram was crouching and must have resembled a four legged creature,” Kumar said.
D P Shrivastava, the researcher, said the four-horned antelope, wild boar, and nilgai were abundant in the area, which has an estimated density of 2-3 prey per square kilometre. “There has been historical evidence in the Sunderbans of tigers killing humans, but it has been rare in central India. The evidence in this incident suggests it was an accidental kill,” he said.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Aseem Shrivastava said it was unlikely for the tiger to go on a killing spree. “We don’t think the tiger will go on a spree killing other humans. Once we track the animal, we will study its behaviour and later relocate it. It can be monitored to see whether it is a danger to other humans.”
Anand Mohan J – 2024-05-17 19:29