Tiger is called Vag in Konkani. Vagrodev has been venerated in Goa by forest communities. There are places named after the tiger as a tribute to its presence in Goa. Vagator, Vagurme, Vagheri to name a few. Tiger stories are common in Goa. My papa had many to share and so did his peers. Tiger reports have been many. In 2009 when I first met Rajendra Kerkar, he passionately talked about the tiger and the need to protect Goa’s forests, its home. We were deeply inspired by this and our tryst with environmental awareness and activism began soon after.
A tiger was killed in 2009 in the Madhei Wildlife Sanctuary region. There was complete apathy from the local government. Tigers in Goa? Impossible, said the government heads in Goa. During this time there were reports (Oct 2009) in most of the local dailies about tiger presence in Goa’s forests. Many nature lovers, conservationists got together to appeal for a Tiger reserve in Goa. An e petition was filed and many wrote in comments, support. This was then sent to the President, PM and Environment Minister. Following this and many efforts by those concerned about tigers and wildlife in Goa, in 2011 a directive was sent by the Ministry of Environment and forests to the Goa State Government to prepare a proposal for a Tiger Reserve, finally acknowledging the presence of tigers in Goa and the need to protect them. The presence of tigers in this region is an indicator of the health of our forest, the tiger being at the apex of the food chain. Its conservation is linked directly to the conservation of our natural resources, including water, as the catchment area of our rivers, stem from the forests of the State and those across the border. The survival of the tiger in the wild is crucial to the sustainability of our eco-system and in turn to man’s own survival. Our Government needed to acknowledge this vital fact and adopt necessary measures to protect and conserve our national animal and its habitat.
Before the elections in January-February 2012, some of us had met Manohar Parrikar to make an appeal for a green manifesto and one that would also include the protection of tigers in the State.
In March 2012 when Parrikar was elected to be the CM of Goa, on the very first day he agreed to meet with students and conservationists as part of the Kids for Tigers programme where the children were to present him with an appeal for a Tiger Reserve in Goa to make the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary into a Tiger Reserve. He attended the rally that culminated at Azad Maidan. He met the children. He listened to their pleas. He was sensitive and promised to do his best to prepare the proposal for a tiger reserve in Goa. He also added that the rights of the forest communities would be respected and they would be protected.
After this it was fantastic to see efforts by the Goa State Forest Department with Richard D’Souza at its helm, super officers like Paresh Porob, Prakash Salelkar, Wildlife Institute of India, Ulhas Karanth well known tiger expert, Rajendra Kerkar and many others working diligently and relentlessly to document the presence of tigers and put in place systems and lots of people in supporting roles to aid the process of conservation and eventual protection for the tigers in Goa. Bittu Sahgal and his team at Sanctuary Nature Foundation have also done substantial work in schools in Goa under the aegis of the Kids for Tigers programme. Many youth from Goa mentored by conservationists have gone on to lead institutions and organisations that focus on Goa’s wildlife and environment.
In 2014, many of us volunteered for the wildlife census conducted by the Forest Department. Some of us were assigned Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary. We documented tiger scat and pugmarks! All this was meticulously documented by the forest department.
In recent years we have all been thrilled to read and witness the camera trap documentation of tigers and cubs in Goa. All had been well. Great ethics, great commitment, great persistence.
But now this. Four tigers and cubs dead in quick succession in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.
I recently watched a fantastic film with the children from my colony. We have been curating children’s films over the last year. One of the films we screened for the kids was ‘Lord of the Flies’. Most of you will have seen it. This brilliant film is about a group of British boys stranded on an isolated island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves. Their intention initially is good. Too follow the same norms that the adults back home were following. As they elect a leader among themselves and a counsellor, another lures the rest from civility and reason to savage ways of survival like primeval hunters. Hunting to kill, their very own. The film is a window to the savagery that is beneath the surface of even the most civilized humans!
We see that same savagery all around us today. While forest and indigenous communities continue to live in harmony with nature, sustainably and peacefully, modern society has turned savage. Savage for more, for self. Savage for more mining, more development, more construction, more concretization, more wealth, more luxury, more resources. Savage for intergenerational colonisation. Savage for more power.
Savage to use others. Savage to kill.
A time to kill is upon us.
(Tallulah D’Silva is a
practising architect in Goa)
