A volunteer of a forest team who was attacked by a royal Bengal tiger while trying to rescue a villager who had climbed up a tree to escape the claws in February, has returned home from hospital.
He has lost his right eye. An injury on his left hand is yet to heal completely.
Ganesh Shyamal, 38, was part of a quick response team in the Sunderbans trained by the forest department.
On February 10, a tiger had strayed into Nagenabad village in Maipith, South 24-Parganas, around 100km from the heart of Calcutta.
Shyamal was treated at SSKM Hospital and recently went home to Madhya Gurguria village in Maipith.
Metro spoke to Shyamal and other members of the Tiger Rescue Team to know about their encounter with the tiger, methods of catching the big cat and their hardships.
Shyamal’s encounter
Shyamal and his two brothers were part of the Tiger Rescue Team for years. He had many encounters with tigers, but this was the first time he was attacked.
When the tiger pounced on him, desperate to prevent the animal from grabbing his neck, Shyamal put his left hand into its mouth.
“Still, the tiger bit me around the right eye. Now, I don’t have any vision in the right eye and there is puss oozing from an injury on the left hand,” he said.
“I have seen tigers from close quarters. I was part of the operations that dealt with stray tigers. We helped forest officers cage or tranquilise big cats and then release them in the forest,” said Shyamal, a fisherman who used to catch fish and crabs in the Sunderbans.
More than 10 years ago, Shyamal rescued his nephew from the jaws of a tiger. “We had gone fishing in the deep forests when a tiger appeared in front of my nephew. All of us started shouting and I hit the tiger with an oar. It fled into the forest,” he said.
But this time, he was unlucky.
“We had followed the tiger and found it lying in a garden inside the village. When villagers shouted, it started running. The owner of an orchard got scared and climbed up a tree. The tiger sat underneath the tree. In a bid to drive it away, I went too close,” he recounted.
How to catch a tiger
Shyamal said they have a method to track tigers.
“When informed about a tiger straying into a village, we first surround 10 bighas of land with huge nets. We track the pug marks and determine whether the tiger is still inside the village,” said Shyamal.
Once confirmed, the search area is narrowed to one bigha area and then to 10 cottahs. “We install a cage with a goat as bait. The tiger gets attracted by the prey and gets trapped in the cage. We then release it into the forest,” he said.
However, a tougher exercise begins when the tiger does not take the bait. The big cat then needs to be tranquillised.
“Once we spot the tiger, usually hiding behind small bushes in the village, we use hosepipes to spray water with great force. This flattens the bushes, making it easier to spot and tranquillise the tiger,” said Shyamal.
“Then we wait for one to one-and-half-hours. When the tiger falls asleep, we go near it, throw a gunny bag on its face and then put a net to capture it. When the tiger is safely put inside the cage, we splash water on its face to wake it up,” he explained.
Woes of tiger catchers
Shyamal and several other members of the Tiger Response Team said they face a hard life.
They get between ₹500 and ₹1,000 every time they are called by the forest department when a tiger strays into the village.
“Mostly tigers stray into the villages during the winter. So we get most calls in winter, which is also the season when we catch crabs and collect honey,” said Lutfar Mollah, one of the team members.
“Also, we face the dangers of losing life and livelihood. Shyamal’s future has become uncertain because of the injuries,” he said. “Like him, most of us are the only earning members of the family.”
The team members have written letters to the South 24-Parganas district administration and forest department, demanding a monthly stipend for them.
The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a human rights organisation, has said Maipith alone has witnessed at least 25 incidents of tiger-straying this winter. “We think their demand is legitimate. These 40-odd team members risk their lives for a meagre amount. The forest department should look into it,” said Mithun Mondal, an assistant secretary of the South 24-Parganas unit of the APDR.
A forest department official said it was up to the state government to decide on the policy for these team members.
“We have arranged for Shyamal’s compensation, which he will get soon. Also, we had provided one month’s ration for his family,” said the official.