Tiger watch

Brown Pundits Archive — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 15:30:00 +0000

When you enter the world of the Tiger you are always under 24/7 surveillance. The unseen eye watches you and destroys you. There will be no escape and no mercy.

Even now, people in the Sunderbans area (which is divided between India and Bangladesh) worship the tiger and the snake. These are the real gods with the power of life and death in their hands (paws). This is true even for people who follow Islam (which is a majority). For these folks, life in the present is no doubt of greater value than life in the next.
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The
danger of venturing into the prohibited areas of Sunderbans was revealed
again on Thursday morning when a tiger jumped from the bank of a creek
and leapt back with a man in its jaws. This is the fourth time that a
human was killed by a tiger in the Sunderbans this year.

The
victim, 62-year-old Sushil Majhi, lived in Lahiripur near Datta river,
less than kilometre from a creek that runs deep into the forest. Along
with his son Jyotish, 40, and adopted daughter Molina, Majhi would often
row up the creek to catch crabs.

On Thursday, at the crack of dawn, the three set out on a boat to the forests of Kholakhali, an area where fishing is banned.

Jyotish sat in front of the boat, Sushil in the middle and Molina at
the tai. That is how they balanced the vessel while pulling in the net.

“Shortly after we reached the spot, around 7am, we got a whiff of a
strange odour. We immediately decided to turn back to a safer zone,”
Jyotish told TOI. They were paddling towards a less dense area when a
tiger that had been stalking them struck like lightning.

“Suddenly, my sister cried out: ‘Dada, bagh (tiger)’. I was stunned, and
my body froze. All I saw a flash of yellow. It took me a moment to
register the gruesome sight before me. My father was completely buried
under the beast. I could only see his legs thrashing about. I shook off
my numbness and grabbed a stick. Molina, too, took out a long cutter we
use to clear foliage in the jungle. Together, we poked and battered the
tiger, but it refused to give up,” he said.

Despite
being attacked, the tiger concentrated on its kill and once it got a
good grip, it held Majhi by his neck and jerked the body in a way that
it landed on its back, said Jyotish. “It jumped off and landed on the
bank in one giant leap. We saw it disappear into the jungle with my
father still in its jaws,” he added, shaking from the ordeal.

Jyotish and Molina raised the alarm and some fishermen paddled furiously in their direction.

“But they didn’t dare chase the tiger into the deep woods. Molina was
so traumatized that she lost consciousness. I didn’t take any further
risk and returned with her as quickly as possible,” said Jyotish.

Majhi’s body is unlikely to be recovered, as countless other human victims before him.

Sunderbans Tiger Reserve field director Soumitra Dasgupta said there
were reports of a tiger attacking a fisherman on Thursday morning.

“Fishing is banned in the forests where the incident took place,” he said.

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Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Sunderbans-tiger-attack-Sunderbans-Tiger-Reserve/articleshow/37280645.cms

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regards

Folk religion – Brown Pundits

Tiger watch