‘TIGERS CAN TRAVEL LONG DISTANCES IF CHASED OUT OF THEIR TERRITORY BY ANOTHER CAT OR BY ACTIVITY SUCH AS ROADBUILDING’
are often helpful in luring predators. After 16 days, they were replaced with pigs, considered more tempting as bait.
The tiger has studiously avoided the cages, even though pug marks have been found nearby.
“Any trap or cage is a foreign object and a big cat can recognise this,” says Mallik. “In some cases, a tiger goes for the prey anyway because it is desperate. Here, there is enough prey for the big cat in the forest. There is plenty of boar and deer. So it can afford to ignore the traps.”
***
At tea stalls, bus stops and chaurahas, the big cat is all anyone can talk about. Everyone has a pet theory about where it’s come from, why it’s here and the best way to catch it.
“There is no tiger,” says Anubrata De, a sales executive in his 40s taking a break at a tea shop gathering in Midnapore town about 40 km away. “The Maoists don’t want people to enter the forest. That’s why all this talk of a tiger.”
“What about the pug marks?” says another man at the stall. “Have you seen them yourself?” De shoots back. “How can a tiger not go for prey for so long?”
Paresh De, a chemist in Midnapore Binpur 1 WEST MIDNAPORE DISTRICT Forest area
JHARGRAM TOWNJHARGRAM DISTRICT MIDNAPORE TOWN ting. “I explained that the forest is out of bounds right now, because of the tiger,” he says.
The staff at the Rajbari government guest house in Jhargram say their visitors are asking about the tiger too.
Tourists generally come here for the peace and quiet, the hills, forests, and forts like Jhargram Raj Palace and Kurukbera. “We read the newspaper and got curious. Since we were here, we thought why not at least try to spot the majestic Royal Bengal tiger,” says Saikat Das, one of the bikers who approached Karmakar.
LALGARH
***
Conservationists think the big cat travelled here from either the Simlipal tiger reserve in Odisha, about 255 km away, or the Palamu tiger reserve in Jharkhand, 400 km away.
“Tigers can travel long distances for a range of reasons,” says Joydip Kundu, general secretary of the conservation organisation, Society for Heritage and Ecological Researches (SHER) and member of the state wildlife board. “A stronger tiger may have chased it out of its territory. Sometimes, a disturbance like mining or road-building can prompt a move.”
For the villagers, the reasons and origins are academic pursuits. They want to be allowed back into the forest.
“Our lives depend on the forest. We get food and fuel from there. Our cattle graze there. How long can we keep them tied up at home?” says Gopinath Murmu, 60.
Murmu claims to have seen the tiger before the traps did. “It was the size of a big calf but smaller than a cow. I just saw it for a few seconds in the forest. Since then I have not taken my cattle there,” he says.
PUG MARKS FROM THE PAST
***
The tiger hardly anyone has seen is now starting to affect the local economy. Couples like Murmu and his wife, who work as farm labour in harvest season, earn an additional Rs 50 a day collecting sal leaves, which are used to make plates, and twigs for sale as firewood.
With the forest out of bounds, these earnings have stopped. “Now, some days we earn nothing. How will we eat if this goes on,” Murmu says. In the markets of Lalgarh, eateries are paying double for the sal leaf plates and dry wood fuel. “Supply has really dipped,” says Shyamal Mahato, who supplies sal plates from Lalgarh to Jhargram and Binpur 1.
***
The three policemen from Kolkata are
does not mention a big cat sighting in this region, folk history in the area does contain stories of tigers. “On our Bondebota puja which happens at the end of March, we worship the tiger. Every five years, 52 villages in the area get together to worship Bondebota or the tiger god,” says Indrajit Singh, 62, of Kakrajhor village in Jhargram.
is found in the local history of Laljal village. The people here worship a saint named Ram Swarup who is believed to have lived in the village 85 years ago and to have had a pet tiger. Images of the saint feature the pet tiger too, and a cave believed to be the home of the big cat ashram is considered a holy place.
still in Binpur 1, meanwhile.
They have to stay put as long as the drones remain in the region. “We were received well by the people when we first arrived,” said one. “But since then, we have had little to do.”
The villagers say they are losing patience with all the official talk and want to see some action.
“We are traditionally a community of hunters. If the department has failed let us do the job,” said one villager who has been volunteering with the forest department to help keep villagers out of the forest. “Why put our lives and livelihoods in danger?”
The forest department reiterates that they are doing all they can. “The tiger though has not moved out of the area,” says chief conservator Sinha. “We can only ask that people in the area to cooperate for their safety.”