Man vs. Wild

A tiger killed last week in Lalgarh, West Bengal, has paved the way for an electric exchange of diatribes between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi. The tiger was first spotted on a camera trap in Lalgarh's Bagghora forest in the first week of March, was found dead in the same area a month later. The post-mortem report revealed the use of sharp weapons, a signature of local hunters. Consequently, as the body of the tiger was recovered from the depths of the forest, a mob gathered to catch a glimpse of the royal beast—plucking its fur and clicking selfies. Soon, there was reflexive outrage from animal rights' activists, who rightfully spoke out against the failure to protect animals' lives. The final encounter, though, was between Banerjee and Gandhi as the latter vociferously asserted the state ministry's failure in protecting animals and also playing into 'vote-banks' by placating the sentiments of local hunters. Gandhi did not mince her words as she referred to the 'Shikar Utsav' hunting festival, in stating, "Thousands of so-called tribals come to the forests around Lalgarh and kill thousands of animals every year." While Gandhi's cause is just, she may have overstepped her mark in deriding tribals by converging them in a unified 'so-called' subordination. The challenge of integration at the hands of the newly Independent India in 1947, will be familiar to most. The tribals, with their distinctions, were largely segregated from mainstream 'Hindu' society—in many ways, a tribal was a fringe person. This alienation played a pivotal role in the proliferation of Christian missionaries—most common in Chhattisgarh, parts of Odisha, Bihar, the North-East, and West Bengal. Their rights and recognition have been a challenge upon which political parties—across the country—have capitalised for their own electoral gains. Their integration into mainstream society has been selective. As was also witnessed during Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu, exchanges between nature and sapiens are not without conflicts. Tribals share an intimate relationship with the environment, which forms its bedrock—also reflected in the Chipko movement when tribal women protested the commercial felling of trees. Therefore, to subjugate the tribal for her understanding of the environment is never desirable. Parallelly, we also have to battle the exigency of wildlife protection. To be able to balance both the protection of distinct tribal interests and also propagate a practice of environmental conservation – the integration of tribals into society must not be politicised. Reducing individual and community pantheons to calculations in the EVM would be detrimental to both human population and environmental conservation. Poaching is a global concern across states of India, Africa, Australia and South America. In Sudan, the last male white rhinoceros recently breathed his last, throwing his species into the face of extinction. The Royal Bengal Tiger is meeting a similar fate would spell doom for the forests in India. At the same time, by deriding tribals without remorse, we would eclipse that essential aspect of modern civilisation that has managed to still revere and cohabit with nature.