Bigcats News

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(05-10-2015, 06:17 AM)'sanjay' Wrote: Here is more detail news by renowned wildlife photographer Aditya Singh, A must read story

According to him

Yesterday (8th May 2015) a dominant male tiger, called Ustaad or T 24, who is at the end of his prime attacked and killed a Forest Guard called Rampal Saini in the evening. There are lots of versions going around and few, if any of them, are close to the truth. I reached there 20 minutes after the incident happened and this is what I saw:

"I was on a safari in Ranthambhore national park with my friend Dharmendra Khandal of Tiger Watch. At around 1805 hours we were parked near a lake when we heard a wireless message in a Forest Department jeep that was parked next to us, about a tiger attacking a forest guard near the “barrier” (very close to the main gate of the park). We rushed towards the location and by the time we reached we were told that Forest Guard Rampal Saini was attacked and killed by a tiger. His was taken to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival. Everyone present there was talking about how a young tiger called “Sultan” (or T 72) had attacked the guard. However none of the people present there had seen this happen. In fact no one present there had even seen a tiger.
At that time we were not sure if it was a leopard or a tiger, let alone which tiger. A few minutes after we reached there Dharmendra spoke to the DFO Mr. Sudarshan Sharma, who was on his way back from Jaipur after attending a meeting of the state Wild Board. He told us to wait there for ACF Daulat Singh to reach and we did not have to wait long. Dharmendra, a few forest guards and I jumped into the ACF’s jeep and we went out to search for the tiger to identify the individual. In the meantime the ACF, who has a near lifetime of experience in handling man animal conflict, had evacuated the area and asked a few other Forest Department vehicle to park strategically to search for the tiger. While we ere looking around for the tiger, we got a message from one of the Forest vehicles that the tiger had just been seen where the guard was killed. We rushed back and found T 24 or Ustaad standing over the same spot where the guard was killed. We found him sniffing the entire area and then looking for the body. The tiger was in an aggressive mood and charged at the one of the Forest Department vehicles. After searching for the body for some time the tiger gave up and slowly started walking towards the Singhdwar gate, all the while marking his territory.
We followed in the ACF’s jeep and just as we crossed the Misradhara gate, Dharmendra fell down from the jeep as the driver braked hard to stop going over a big rock. The tiger instantly turned around and started coming towards our vehicle in a manner that could be only be explained as stalking. Dharmendra jumped back in the jeep just before the driver reversed back and the tiger sniffed the area where Dharmendra had fallen down. Around 1920 the tiger disappeared in the woods heading towards the Sultanpur area."

 

 

It seems like Ustaad like any person, can be in a bad mood. The stress of constant harassment probably boils over in him and he lashes out or blows a gasket if you will. The difference between a wild animal blowing a gasket and a human being is usually significant but we can't blame him. He doesn't live by our laws, there is no court in the wild, no guilty or innocent, no judge or jury, only life and death. It's a shame that humans feel the need to rule all beings the same since all beings live very differently from us. I think our laws should only apply to us, nothing else.
It's a shame that his feet will never touch the wild terrain again and he will be forced to live what little life he has left in a captivity. Like that video of B2 going crazy in captivity, wild animals don't belong there, they haven't had 100s of years to adapt to captivity, they are not mentally prepared for such imprisonment.
Very sad days in Ranth..

Very interesting read though @sanjay
TFS

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