By Andrew Buncombe
For the officials at Kolkata’s zoo it
is a rescue mission like no other – saving the sight of a Sundarbans tiger.
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The middle-aged male was spotted this month at
Sajnekhali in the Sundarbans delta, edging closer to human settlements, in poor
condition and bearing several injuries. After he was captured by means of a
baited cage, forestry staff could tell he had no sight in his right eye.
They suspected a cataract but the only way to know was
to place him in a covered cage, lift it onto a truck and bring him to the city.
And so they did.
“In most areas where tigers live, the catching of prey
is easy,” the zoo’s director, Kanai Lal Ghosh, said as we sat in his office.
“But the Sundarbans is difficult. It is the only place where tigers eat fish.
Bengalis like fish, but the tigers have no choice.”
At the beginning of the 20th Century India
One of the biggest populations is in the Sundarbans, the
remote, shifting delta of the Ganges , Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers. Up to 100 animals
are there.
It is said Sundarbans tigers are more aggressive and
bad-tempered than others because they are obliged to drink salty water. If
villagers enter the jungle they will wear a human mask on the back of their
head as means of protection. Locals believe tigers don’t like to be stared at.
Mr Ghosh said the animal in question was very weak and
malnourished. It had perhaps not fed for 15 days.
How long might a tiger live without eating?
“During our independence struggle against the British,
Jatindra Nath Das went on hunger-strike. He lasted 63 days without food before
he died,” replied Mr Ghosh. “But I don’t know how long a tiger can survive.”
Belinda Wright, of the Wildlife Protection Society of
India, said she had never heard of wild tigers suffering eye problems. She said
the report followed earlier incidents of Sundarbans tigers being found with
weak hind quarters.
A plaque on Mr Ghosh’s wall suggested he was the 22nd
director of the establishment officially known as the Alipore Zoological
Gardens. The zoo dates back to 1875 but over the years it has attracted
controversy.
In the 1970s it was condemned for a breeding programme
involving a male tiger and a female lion that produced a so-called tigon. A
previous director was suspended amid a furore over the theft of rare Brazilian
monkeys.
Mr Ghosh and Dr DN Banerjee, his chief veterinary
officer, said the tiger had been placed on saline drips and was being fed
boneless beef to help it recover its strength. Then they would take a look at
the eye, hoping to use sprays or injections to bring back its sight. Their wish
is for the animal to return to the wild.
“Humans can either have artificial lenses or wear
these,” said Mr Ghosh, as he slipped off his spectacles. “The tiger cannot.”
Mr Ghosh refused a request to visit the sick animal. But
on the way out, I stopped off at the zoo’s tiger enclosure where an elegant
female, Krishna , was pacing the perimeter.
Schoolchildren were taking their turn at a glass viewing
window.
When they stopped in place for too long a guard wearing
a bright orange turban blew a whistle and hurried them along.
Organisers abandon event in
reminder that the young education campaigner is loved more abroad than in her
home country
By Rob Crilly, Islamabad
Pakistani academics have been
forced to cancel plans to launch Malala Yousafzai’s memoir in her home
province, claiming they came under pressure from local government ministers and
the police.
Malala has become an
international icon of resistance to the Taliban after being shot for her
campaign to get more girls into school, but she is a divisive figure at home
where she is widely suspected of being a Western stooge.
Sarfraz Khan, director of the
Area Study Centre at the University
of Peshawar
They include a figure from Imran
Khan’s Movement for Justice and one from its coalition partner,
Jamaat-i-Islami, a religious party.
Mr Khan said he had to cancel the
launch after police said they would not be able to provide security and served
him with an order banning the event.
“All we want is a normal campus life with the
free exchange of ideas,” he said, dismissing the order as illegal. “This has
nothing to do with ministers or the provincial government. We are independent
and autonomous.
“It is part of our work to read
books and discuss them.”
The Pakistan Taliban claimed
responsibility for the attempted assassination of the 15-year-old campaigner in
2012 as she returned from school in the Swat
Valley
Commanders have also threatened
to attack shops that stock her book,“I am Malala” – although it has not acted
upon them.
That hardline stance has
permeated mainstream opinion.
There is widespread envy that
Malala has been allowed a visa for Britain
when many other victims of terrorism have no such escape route. Many take it –
along with her visits to the United Nations – as evidence that she was part of
a foreign plot to introduce secular, Western values to the Muslim country.
Imran Khan took to Twitter to
distance his Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from the move.
“I am at a loss 2 understand why
Malala's book launch stopped in Peshawar .
PTI believes in freedom of speech/debate, not censorship of ideas,” he said.
Inayatullah Khan, the provincial
local government minister, denied putting pressure on the university.
“I never spoke to anyone
regarding the book launching programme,” he told Dawn newspaper.
@ The Telegraph
@ The Telegraph
