Indians should coexist peacefully

INDIA is a crowded place where man and beast live cheek by jowl. With a population of 1.3 billion, it is second only to China.

Land is at a premium. Yet, Indians have found a way to live in harmony with nature. They love animals, be it monkeys, snakes, cows, leopards or tigers. Yet, the leopard and the tiger often attack humans.

The man-eating tigers of the Sundarbans kill 50 to 100 people a year, more than all the shark attacks around the world. Yet, they are protected. It is unlawful to kill a leopard or tiger in India.

Even though these dangerous predators will not hesitate to attack people in the wild, Indians worship them. Recently, we witnessed how attached they were to their animals when one of the most famous tigers died.

Collarwali, so named because she was the first tiger to be fitted with a radio collar, died recently of old age in the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. She was 17. Her final moments were caught on camera, and went viral.

She is seen taking a stroll along a river bank and then lying down and taking her last breath.

Game rangers put her on a funeral pyre and, with flowers and all the rituals of a funeral befitting a human, she was cremated. People wept and prayed. Tributes poured in from all over the country.

In her short stay on earth, she became a super mom who had raised 29 offspring, contributing to India’s conservation efforts of the endangered animal. Also, as the most photographed tigress, she had reached cult status in India and was as popular as a Bollywood actress.

Despite India being a land of great complexities, contrasts and extremes, it is known to be a peaceful and tolerant nation. If they can live in harmony with the leopard and the tiger, then why can’t they coexist peacefully with their fellow human beings? Why burn churches, mosques and ban the hijab?

Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party stoking the flames of religious intolerance? It’s so un-Indian.

T MARKANDAN

Kloof