In 1998
there was a case of stabbing at Thrissur but Ramachandran was ‘acquitted’ by
the court in the absence of sufficient
evidence to prove the charge against him.
Years later, there was another case before the Perumbavoor first class
judicial magistrate Court related to the
death of three women. On behalf of
Ramachandran, a bond of Rs 30 lakh and
surety of two persons were submitted to
secure his bail. There would hundreds of such stabbing and killing cases in
every Court – why should this be of any news ?
a white tiger at Vandalur - photo credits : Ms Revathi Santhanam
Many large predatory animals can kill at will – yet
may not see humans as suitable prey – but it is stated that when they kill and
taste blood – chances are they would turn
‘man eaters’. Man-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that preys
upon humans. Most reported cases of
man-eaters have involved tigers, leopards, lions and crocodilians. There could have been chance savage attacks on humans as prey, by many animals including bears, Komodo dragons, hyenas, cougars,
and sharks.
A few months back, a tiger reportedly killed a woman in
Pandaravalli village, in Bangalore was
captured but was released in Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary. The decision of the Forest Department to
release the captured tiger appeared to have backfired
with apprehensive residents of Talawade village in Khanapur taluk
demanding its recapture. Like many other things, these get buried with passage
of time unless fresh incidents get reported. ‘Man-Eaters
of Kumaon’ is a book written by Jim Corbett. It details the experiences that
Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India from the 1900s to the 1930s, while
hunting man-eating tigers and leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible
for over 400 human deaths. Australian shores are croc-infested and there have
been news of crocodiles being responsible of killing persons.
Tsavo is a region
of Kenya located at the crossing of the Uganda Railway over the Tsavo River,
close to where it meets the Athi River. ‘Tsavo', means ‘slaughter' in the language
of the Akamba people. Until the British put an end to the slave trade in the
late 19th century, Tsavo was continually crossed by caravans of Arab slavers
and their captives. More than a century ago, British engineers and their
African and Indian labourers spent five years carving a railway through what
would become Kenya in a bid to open up East Africa's interior. Along the way,
close to 2,500 workers died, struck down by malaria, attacked by lions or
overcome by exhaustion.
The
Tsavo Man-Eaters – two maneless male lions,
are the most notorious lions in history who over a
nine-month reign of terror, killed so many men devouring them from their
sites. Terrified workers built snares,
thorn fences and bonfires to scare them off but the beasts simply crawled under
or leapt over them to reach their prey. The Tsavo killings took place against a
backdrop of intense environmental changes. Elephant populations had plummeted
and as a result, woodlands were expanding and the savannah’s grazers were being
driven away.
Now a Tiger is in
Court....... ‘Ustad’ or ‘T-24’, the
‘man-eating’ tiger of Ranthambore, escaped a caged life in a zoo by a whisker
on 21.5.2015, when the Supreme Court decided that he would continue to stay in
the Sajjangarh Biological Park at Udaipur in Rajasthan for now. ‘Ustad’ was
branded a ‘man-eater’ after he mauled to death a forest guard on May 8. Within
days of the incident, he was drugged and translocated 530 km from Ranthambore
to the Udaipur park, considered a rescue centre.
There was a
petition filed by Chandra Bhal Singh, a
Pune resident and tiger lover before teh Court that the wildlife department of
Jaipur had failed to take requisite permission under section 12 of the Wildlife
Protection Act (1972) before proceeding to translocate the tiger from the
reserve. Saying that Ustaad had been
given “capital punishment without a fair trial”, the petitioner contended that there was no forensic evidence that the
particular tiger had killed the forest guard and three other people.
But for the tiger,
now caught in transit between his natural habitat and a zoo, a return to the
Ranthambore forest, to his female companion and her cubs, is still a long way
off. On the brighter side for the big cat, a Vacation Bench, led by Justice
A.K. Sikri, has ordered status quo. That means, the tiger stays on at the
biological park until the Rajasthan High Court decides his fate. The High Court
will hear his case on May 28. The hearing itself was a rare gesture from the
Supreme Court, which only considers urgent matters during the summer break. Mr.
Singh, through counsel Sanjay Upadhyay and Salik Shafique, said ‘Ustad’ had
only acted in self-defence when the guard trespassed into his territory. The
tiger, he said, had merely acted to protect his family. His absence from the
tiger reserve spelt danger to the tigress and the cubs left helpless in the
wild, he said.
photo credit : wikipedia commons
The
reference in the opening para is all about Thechikottukavu Ramachandran, 1964
born, owned by Thrissur Thechikkottukavu Peramangalthu Devaswom, one of the most
valued mammoth, reportedly the second tallest elephant in Asia.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
22nd May
2015.
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