| Biswo |
Posted
on 06-Jan-01 04:48 PM
Rajendraji:
I found 'Tiger Tiger burning bright' very interesting. May
be because I have also experienced such trips there, and afterall
that is my hometown also.
Though the article is not totally correct,eg: it says there
are only two hotels inside the park area, while I can name at
least three rightnow: Tiger Tops, Gaida and Temple Tiger and I
suspect there are more than five of such, the issue it is trying
trying to address is very interesting.(Dislodging them from
there has been a hot disputed issue these days.)
When Tirtha Maskey headed the wildlife department, I had
discovered euphoria among my local friends who worked in RCNP,
because he seemed very strict on poachers.In fact, I remember
a case when a local poacher was given 18-year-incarciration by
(notice,please) a local warden!Such was right invested to a
local authority, and as a local living there, I have never found
anybody grumbling that such sentences were framed to an innocent.
The only grumbling is:those who are sentenced are not the
persons who were in control.A few local political luminaries
of Panchayat era(some of them already dead, some are still
occasionally caught by police) were strongly suspected to have
been engaged in such malpractices.However,popular repugnance
against such people is so massive that ,I doubt, any politicians
ever will engage himself in the practice in future.
Surprisingly, I never heard of any such public incineration
while I was there.The mentioned incident took place,it seems,
when I was not there.But what was more understood in local
circle was that all the confiscated stuffs go to royal warehouse.
And royals,ah royals!, are never suspected to be illegal poachers
and beneficiary of such mean practices!It is said that the
consignment of such stuffs goes no longer to the royal warehouse,
but I don't know where it goes.
Sometimes, I wonder whether we should think of selling such
confiscated stuffs for dollars.The way Sauraha developed over
this decade,(When I was a child, I still remember going to
Sauraha just to see some huts, and a few tourists/lodges),it is
more than obvious that the animals there're also feeding us, and
,probably,because of our providing sanctuary to them. A lot of my
highschool friends have become guide there, some from wealthy
family have set up hotels/restaurants/pubs in the bank of
gorgeous Rapti river, and now Chitwan boasts a somewhat
cosmopolitan lifestyle.No wonder I found 'The Satanic Verses' in
a bookstore in Sauraha.Until now, nobody seriously think of
killing those poachers,because risks run high.But if we allow the
taste of comission from selling such confiscated stuffs,the
beaurocrats out there in KTM may be tempted to get more and more
of such tastes.I think sometimes it is safe to destroy such
remains of killed/poached animals.
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