The Role of Police in the recent attack

As the Tiger incident unfolds in Ranthambhore many effects of a system failure particularly with regard to the forest officials are coming to the forefront. The Bhuriphadi village which has generally not been hostile towards the forest in the past was already hostile in terms of an earlier incident where some money had changed hands and no receipts were provided. Under these circumstances Daulat Singh was sent to tranquilise this male Tiger that had already been suffering under heavy human disturbance. He was lucky to have had a committed Police Force with him that had little experience of Tiger control but were there to prevent any untoward incident between village and forest officials. This police force was already exhausted due to two days of Municipal election duty but still managed to be there and do the best they could. There was no officer from the Forest Department guiding the police force in any manner and they were left to be mere spectators with no instruction. However they still tried their best to control the mobs. They even tried to convince Daulat Singh to not go and try to tanquilise the Tiger the 2rd time as it was dangerous. Daulat was convinced and tried to tell his immediate superior Mr Sedu Ram Yadav that no more effort to tranquilise should be done as it was dangerous. However Sedu Ram was communicating with his superiors over the wireless and insisted that a 3^rd attempt be made. It was against the back drop of this complete lack of understanding of the situation on behalf of the superior officers that Daulat took the risk to make a 3^rd attempt. This situation is further compounded by the fact that as soon as Daulat was gravely injured the 1^st person to leave the scene of incident was Mr Yadav and behind him disappeared most of the forest officials. It was the police that took stock of things and got Daulat out of the area and sent him to the Hospital. Not only did they do this but they kept a vigil on the Tiger keeping people away from the scene through the night and until the next day when the Tiger has left and gone back into the safety of the Park. During this entire period no forest official or staff stayed at the scene to watch the Tiger. Had the police not been there the villagers would have definitely killed the Tiger and if not that then the Tiger would have killed some of them.

ACF Sedhuram Yadav retreating after attack on Daulat Singh

Time and time again it has been seen that in crucial wildlife management crisis the top official in the Forest Department fail to provide a measured and experienced response. There is no standard operating protocol for such incidents and every action taken is a knee jerk reaction made on the spur of the moment causing needless injury to man and animal.