Just a few days back, Senior Indian Forest Service officer Ramesh Pandey had shared a Manas Tiger Reserve’s post on a Shaurya Chakra Awardee who is lost in history, on Twitter. Mr. Pandey had written while tweeting: “Foresters also have got gallantry awards. Here is a forgotten story of grass cutter from Manas who got Shaurya Chakra in 1989. Before him, M Kamal Naidu was given Shaurya Chakra in 1988. P Srinivas, who was killed by Veerapan, was conferred with Kirti Chakra posthumously in 1992”.
The Shaurya Chakra is an Indian military decoration awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice while not engaged in direct action with the enemy. It may be awarded to civilians as well as military personnel, sometimes posthumously. It is third in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards and comes after Ashoka Chakra and Kirti Chakra.
The grass cutter who received this honour used to work in Manas and had received one of India’s highest gallantry awards in peacetime, for fighting off a tiger to save his colleague’s life. He is Mr. Kalachand Sarkar.
Indian Masterminds traced Mr. Sarkar to his home in Barpeta Road in Barpeta District of Assam, where he is leading a peaceful retired life.
While speaking to us, he narrated the tiger incident briefly. “I and my colleague went looking for the elephants. I was walking ahead and he was following behind. After some time, when I turned back, I realised he was not there. On looking around, I saw that he was being dragged inside the forest by a huge tiger. I went running towards them and kept hitting the tiger with my stick but it didn’t let go of my colleague. So this time I took the khukri (curved knife used also for cutting grass) and attacked the tiger on his head. I kept hitting him with the khukri until he released my colleague from his grip and ran away. My colleague escaped with wounds on his back where the tiger had taken hold of him with his teeth.”
When asked if he was not afraid, Mr. Sarkar, who was then in his 20s, said that at that moment he only thought of saving the man’s life. “It could have been me also,” he added.
While saying that Mr. Sarkar is is not in touch with the Manas Tiger Reserve for any work or collaboration, except for the procedural works related to his pension, Manas Tiger Reserve’s present Field Director Vaibhav Mathur said, “He is so simple that he does not even realise the value of his award”.
Mr. Sarkar lives with his wife and son and survives on his pension. His wife is a homemaker and his son is unemployed. He does not want to work any more and prefers to lead a peaceful life at home. However, he has a wish. “We are managing somehow with my pension money. It would be nice if my son gets a job in the forest department,” he said wistfully. Hope the Assam forest department takes note of this wish of the valiant forest hero who had made them all proud one day by receiving the prestigious medal from the President of India, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
