A lot of patient drives had gone into, just to find the desired spot; a numbing weight of the awaited hours has brought to you—allegedly—the Perfect Shot!
The Premise of this background is so gripping & intense that I couldn’t resist being humbly compelled; along with this beautiful ‘frame’, thus, I hereby insist to bring before you a scary yet intriguing story to tell…
The Gory Story Of ‘The White Grave’:
A middle-aged woman was killed in the core zone, & it was nothing but a Tigress’s impulsive undertaking; the woman’s body was dragged to the buffer zone by the Tigress later, where her three Cubs were in the waiting…
The Tigress & the Cubs had had their stomach full by the time the news of the rare kill broke out; the forest department could only recover some body parts—blaming delayed calls & belated shouts…
It might have been the conflict between the ‘struggle for survival’ & the never-ending ‘interest to encroach’; but unfortunately ‘wild’ only bears the blame for it, when ‘civil’ must also share that disgraceful reproach!
Ironically, a curious ‘Tiger’ poses an imminent danger to Humans, when it ventures into an inhabited place; then how come ‘Humans’ get perturbed, when asked to give the magnificent Tiger the similar respect & space!??
Incidentally… The ‘white grave’ here, belongs to that unfortunate woman who risked it all to be the ‘easy prey; this picture should thus serve as a living reminder to people living around, of what happens when the ‘Jungle rules’ are betrayed!
Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) is real, but what’s more saddening is the inconclusive ending; if it can’t be the case of ‘We or Them’, then the need of the hour is some serious mending with a heartfelt understanding…
‘People’ in general care for resources, & the ‘wildlife’ cares for its pristine habitat; no party will have to bear the consequences of a conflict if none disagrees to agree with another’s diktats!
Conflict is not their principal raison d’etre, but competition for the shared resources is the culprit that lies at the core; the elusive harmony could only be possible, my friend, by sorting the variables individually, that cause such discordant discords…
We (Humans & Wildlife together) started the journey for ‘domination’ together, but the uncivilized ones were left far behind in the race; the ways of defining the ‘HWC’ have just changed recently, but in ‘History books’ its source could still be traced…
The onus to define this CONFLICT today lies with the doyen who could kill anything—not just to consume; the meaning of COEXISTENCE is needed to be internalized in letter & spirit, & the actions to ensure it must timely resume!
…sooner the better, I presume…
The Sooner the better, I presume!
~praveen Katiyar
Pic credit: tauseef_traveller
#22521
#COEXISTENCE