The tragic finale to the UP Barabanki tiger

Was told in the morning that she is a tigress..there goes our great theory of pugmarks...


Beast in man wins: Fugitive tiger shot dead

Prerna Singh Bindra | New Delhi

The ‘Barabanki’ tiger was killed at about 6.30 pm on Tuesday in the Rudali range of Faizabad, by Nawab Shaukat Ali Khan from Hyderabad, though there are reports that some shots were fired by the villagers. The tiger, targeted as a man-eater, had been on the run for nearly four months. The last casualty was more than a month back, on January 14, in Devgaon village of Faizabad district. A mob of over a thousand people had surrounded the tiger’s carcass. It is reported that the tiger also had some old bullet wounds, testimony to the fact that he has been shot at least twice before, though a postmortem will be conducted on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, two bullets, no three, pierced his heart — my heart. No apologies if I am being emotional here. It’s anger, and sorrow, that makes me pen these words in tribute to the brave, beautiful tiger… hounded, and wronged by man - because, as Jim Corbett put it “whose only crime - not against the laws of nature, but against the laws of man, was that he shed human blood, with no object of terrorising man, but only so that he may live.” You couldn’t even blame him for that -- for the ‘Barabanki’ tiger, as he came to be known was far from a man-eater.

But let’s go back a bit, where the story begins. In the beginning of November last year, when this young tiger must have strayed out of its forest, Pilibhit (UP), driven mainly by paucity of prey, into the sugarcane fields where he chanced upon a youngster, killed him accidentally --and walked away, without satiating his hunger. That one death was enough to ire the locals, and the administration, and they began to mercilessly hound the tiger. Experts say he should have been just left alone, he would have slunk back into the forest, or at best, employed a small team to drive him back to his habitat. Instead they burst crackers, threw fireballs, shot pellets, and bullets, to drive him away - with the sole purpose of “getting rid of the headache”. Persecuted, the tiger strayed further, till he reached Barabanki, many miles away, and on the outskirts of the capital city of Lucknow, where he allegedly killed another teen. I use the word ‘allegedly’ and ‘capital’ with ample reason. There were too many holes in the theory that point towards the tiger as the culprit - as revealed in The Pioneer earlier, “but it was just more convenient.” The administration was reportedly aware of this, but no one bothered to do any enquiry, and the death warrant on the tiger was issued promising an award, prompting all local heroes to get their guns out. Also in ardent pursuit were the armed constabulary, forest officers, local administration, you name it. Proximity to the capital ensured that politics entered into the macabre drama of “who shall kill the tiger”. It didn’t matter those entrusted with the task were there because of proximity to the powers that be, not because they were the most competent. It didn’t matter that the main hunter missed his aim (a blessing?) because his hands shook. They all wanted to be part of the fame, of being hailed as the killer of the “man-eater”. Those who muttered, furtively, about tranquilisation, and rehabilitation, were hushed, or at best, humoured, till the Centre gave them a rap - and the orders to kill were withdrawn. The tiger got a reprieve for some time. But did it? The “outsiders”, scientists from Wildlife Institute of India, who came to help in the tranquilisation were not really welcomed, later an NGO came in on the scene too. But they were kept in the fringes, and the hunters stayed - some six-seven of them, including a nawab from Hyderabad who joined the merry party, for the situation had become “desperate”. The tiger had killed another person. And another - I know one is not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but the villagers themselves described the last casualty as “the village idiot” who walked into the death trap post-sunset, into the forest, alone, even though he was warned.

I was there. And I tried to be fair. It was no easy task, controlling that mob of villagers, armed with guns, lathis and deadly intent. But in almost none of the officers did I detect a trace of sympathy, or an understanding of the situation, as they sat around and grumbled about the disruption of their peaceful, humdrum lives, mourned the loss of the new year’s party, and such like. One extolled his hunting skills, while another officer, worried about the dust on his fine coat, as he wielded his gun ahem, to shoot the tiger.

I wouldn’t label the tiger a man-eater — in nearly four months, he killed three, or four - as some people insist, and was mainly surviving on neelgai, cattle and other livestock - even as he dodged no less than 500-odd blood-thirsty people, a posse of VIP cars, and what-have-you. Incidentally, I walked the jungles, too, where his presence was indicated, noticed his pugmarks, crisscrossing ours, over our footprint. The tiger was there, oh so close...separated by a moment in time, and chance.

I got a call a few days back. Near to midnight, by one of the trackers, near to tears, “I saw him today, Madam, not ten metres away from where I stood. He is so beautiful, his eyes aflame like golden fire…he looked at me, then walked away...he is a gentleman” - and I could hear the echo of Corbett’s words. This tracker did not have the heart to tell the hunters where he was, “I couldn’t,” he said, “not after that moment. He is not a killer…” Another tracker I know abandoned the chase, on the same grounds.

In fact, on a PIL based on a report in The Pioneer, the Allahabad High Court asked the State Forest department to issue fresh orders, as the stray tiger did not appear to be a man-eater.But the tiger has been shot, bullets reportedly fired by the villagers, and also the nawab in the Kumarganj area, near Buksuna chowki, reportedly in jungles not too far from the Kamakhyadevi temple, the Goddess whose steed is a tiger. Perversely, I am almost glad he is dead, free from the tragic drama that relentlessly ended his young life, I hope he is at peace, away from the injustice and manic madness of man.

I know he did not deserve to die…not just because the guilt of his crime rests more with man. But also because he was a brave, brave tiger, almost like the proverbial cat with nine lives, giving his pursuers a merry chase. A grand animal, who fought like a …tiger, for his life, for his freedom, against all odds.

Who is to blame here - the hunter or the hunted? Will anyone be held accountable for this fatal error? For the mismanagement, politics, egos, that dictated the fate of this tiger, stilled before he reached his prime?

Published in The Pioneer on February 25