Ram Sevak woke up from his slumber at 4 am on Tuesday, 26 December, 2023 due to some disturbing strange noises outside his thatched house in Athkona village in Kali Nagar tehsil of Pilibhit district. He peeped outside. It was pitch dark and foggy. Pilibhit, lying in the Himalayan foothills has unusually thick fog during winters. Yet, he could see a shadowy figure in his courtyard. Its size betrayed that it wasn’t a dog. Then a mild roar and deep grunt indicated it could be a tiger at his door.
What followed in the next 8-10 hours was a tamasha on a grand scale, which made him an instant celebrity. His village was soon trending on social media with everyone expressing concern over man-tiger conflicts escalating of late in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) bordering Nepal on north-western side, Uttarakhand on north, and the world famous Dudwa Tiger Reserve on the eastern side.
Though it is not yet of the proportion being witnessed in Maharashtra’s Tadoba and Chandrapur, where over 85 humans have been killed by tigers this year, PTR tigers, too, have killed seven persons so far this year. Two tigers, too, lost their lives to enraged crowds during such conflicts in PTR.
TECHNOLOGY SAVED THE DAY
Coming back to today’s incident, a catastrophe was averted due to the introduction of technology in PTR. Field Director of PTR, Mr. Navin Khandelwal, instituted a network of trained informers around the tiger reserve, naming them Bagh Mitra (Tigers’ Friend). They would alert the forest officials after spotting a tiger near human habitation and forest staff would mitigate the crisis.
The network managed to hasten its speed with the introduction of a mobile app of the same name three months ago. Bagh Mitra app was launched by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in October this year. These trained volunteers would take photograph of a pug mark of a strayed big cat and would upload on the app.
THE BAGH MITRA APP
Forest officials get an instant alert due to the uploads which also gives away coordinates of the person uploading the photograph or the video. Forest officials then reach the place equipped with all the necessary gear to mitigate the crisis.
This is exactly what happened on December 26, saving the day for the forest officials. As soon as they were alerted by the Bagh Mitra app at 4 am, they rushed to Athkona village with veterinarians in tow. They sought permission from higher-ups to tranquilize the tiger and rescued it.
YOUNG & CONFUSED
“It was a very young tiger, bewildered because of sudden separation from its mother. It had never seen so many human beings and had never heard so much noises ever in its life,” PTR Field Director Navin Khandelwal told Indian Masterminds.
Unable to figure out its next course of action and frightened about its own safety, the tiger sat down on a wall. Gradually, weariness overpowered the fear and it dozed off, perched precariously on the wall itself. Finally, when the forest vet fired the tranquilizer dart, it was still half asleep. Losing consciousness gradually, it fell down into the ground, and was captured by forest guards and pushed inside an iron cage. It is now safe with the forest staff, and is taking stock of its new surroundings, fully awake and alert. Its blood report is awaited, and after its comes, a decision would be taken about the next step.
