Conservationists have tourism interests in tiger reserves

This article was first carried here. 

Belinda Wright and Valmik Thapar, who are opposed to the Supreme Court’s interim ban on tourism in core tiger areas, “own” resorts in Kanha and Ranthambore.

ABHINANDAN MISHRA  New Delhi | 2nd Sep

A Royal Bengal Tiger at an enclosure of Alipore Zoological Garden in Kolkata. PTI almik Thapar and Belinda Wright, two renowned tiger conservationists, who are opposing the interim ban by the Supreme Court on tourism in the core areas of 41 tiger reserves, are associated with resorts that flank national parks. Interestingly, they had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking for his intervention to save the tigers and stating that "people and tiger do no co-exist". Wright owns a resort near Kanha National Park, while Thapar's nephew runs another resort next to Ranthambore National Park. According to an official list of 53 resorts surrounding the Kanha National Park, Belinda Wright owns the Kipling Camp, which is at a distance of less than 4 km from the park boundaries. Kipling has 14 rooms, and as per Wright, was established in 1982. At least 9 more resorts are slated to come up in and around Kanha. Similarly, Thapar's nephew Jaisal Singh owns Sherbagh Resort in Ranthambore. The fact that Sherbagh is owned by Valmik Thapar's family was confirmed by many travel sites including Indian Wildlife. Thapar's association with the resort has been displayed as its USP. The "campaign letter" written to the Prime Minister on 29 May 2007 asked for tiger reserves to be made inviolate, and bore the names of other activists such as, Raghu Chundawat, Bittu Sahgal, P.K. Sen and Toby Sinclair. "Secure inviolate areas. The WII/NTCA data shows clearly that people and tigers do not co-exist. We must focus our attention on protecting the few remaining inviolate tiger-bearing tracts — largely Tiger Reserves — and the connectivity between them, before all is lost," it reads. Valmik Thapar The Tour Operators for Tigers (TOFT), one of the most well known tiger-tour operators, which has several eco-resort owners and tour operators as partners, has called for funds from tour operators across the world to fight the ban and the government's guidelines. TOFT is also opposing the imposition of a cess on its revenues to be used for conserving wildlife and providing livelihood to locals as proposed in the government guidelines. Most of the funds received by TOFT till now have come from the UK and has big names such as Cox and Kings, a travel agency. The association, along with prominent wildlife NGOs, such as Wildlife Protection Society of India, headed by Wright, has taken a stand against the 24 July ban. Wright has described the tourism ban as a "total disaster". Activist Ajay Dubey, the man behind the PIL which led to the ban, feels that vested interests are spreading misinformation: "This is not the final order but an interim stay. And nowhere have I prayed for a complete ban, I just want the court to see to it that the laws are implemented. That's why I have demanded that there should be some guidelines to control tourism so that it does not affect the tiger." The pressure being put by the tourism lobby can be gauged from the fact that H.S. Pabla, who is presently the advisor to Madhya Pradesh eco-tourism board, wrote an email to resort owners and to TOFT, when he was still the Chief Wildlife Warden, advising them to take "whatever steps" required to protect their interests after Dubey first filed the PIL in Jabalpur High Court in 2010. "This is to let you know that a PIL has been filed in the HC Jabalpur seeking ban in core areas of tiger reserves ... although the government of MP will oppose the ban, still lodge owners, travel operators may also implead themselves as affected parties to make sure that the PIL does not succeed," the email reads. Belinda Wright Resort owners, including Wright, say that there are a huge number of people (according to Wright over a million) who depend, either directly or indirectly, on wildlife tourism. According to her, without an income from tourism, most local people would have little option but to turn to the forest for resources, including poaching for food and illegal wildlife trade. However, Dubey says that this is not true. "What kind of livelihood has been provided to the locals all these years? Washing utensils, doing laundry? Can the resort owners give even 10 names of persons who have moved upwards in the economic chain and progressed apart from the owners themselves?" According to Wright, poachers do not feel safe operating in areas where there is unpredictable vehicle movement. "There are numerous examples where guides and tourists have reported suspicious intruders, and twice to my knowledge tigers caught in a steel jaw trap," Wright told this newspaper through email. Siddharth Gupta, Dubey's counsel, is not convinced. "The visitors go inside the park for roughly 6-8 hours and that too in daytime. Poachers prefer darkness and they don't wait for the tourists to come." The core question, according to Dubey, is wildlife tourism, which is growing in an unregulated manner.

Sonali Mukherjee- disfigured for life

This article was first carried here.

Sonali with her father.

It was not difficult to recognise Sonali Mukherjee among the crowd in Dilli Haat as she walked towards this correspondent, guided by a fragile, bespectacled man, her father, Chandi Das Mukherjee. Her face was covered with a red dupatta and she was wearing sunglasses that she bought from a local shop.

"The sunglasses cover my eyes, while the duppata hides my burn scars and the ears," she says.

She was 17 years old when three men threw acid at her on the night of 22 April 2003. "They used to pass lewd comments at me. When I protested they became angry, and one night when I was sleeping, they poured acid on me."

She suffered more than 70% burn injuries, lost both her eyes and can only hear from one ear. Her whole face is disfigured beyond recognition.

Ever since the tragedy, the father-daughter duo have spent most of the last nine years in either seeing doctors or visiting political leaders. Both have given them hope, but it's only the doctors who seem to have fulfilled their promise. "The doctors are doing whatever they can, but no one else is helping me," says Sonali.

She says that after nine years of trying to get financial help for treatment, she now wants mercy killing. "I have gone through 22 surgeries and have already spent Rs 8 lakh. My father, who worked as a watchman, sold off the land and jewellery we had. My mother has lost her mental balance. Now the whole burden has become unbearable."

Sonali rues the false commitments of help given by political leaders from her state, Jharkhand.

However, according to her father, some help is finally trickling in. "Famous lawyer Ram Jethmalani called me and gave Rs 1.49 lakh. Small donations are also coming in. But I need Rs 15 lakh for the surgery. Please publish my account number so that your readers can help us."

Chandi Das Mukherjee appears dejected and perpetually lost. "I have lost faith in everything. What was my daughter's fault? Those who are responsible for her condition are enjoying a normal life. They just spent a little more than three years in prison before they were granted bail," he said.

At the time of the incident, Sonali was an undergraduate student of sociology at a Dhanbad college. Just few months before the incident, she received an award from the hands of the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for being the best NCC cadet. But everything changed in a matter of minutes.

The three accused, Kapas Mitra, Sanjay Paswan and Brahmdev Hazra, were from a neighbouring village. In 2007, Paswan and Hazra were granted bail. While the third accused, Mitra, was shown to be a minor and hence was released much earlier.

According to Chandi Das, money was used at every stage of the case. "Justice was bought and sold. My own lawyer, who was my relative, took money from the accused and weakened our case."

Last week, the Mukherjees met Union Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, who promised them assistance. They have not heard anything from her since then.

Bank account details of Chandi Das Mukherjee:

0612000103217694

Punjab National Bank

Nauroji Nagar Branch,

IFSC code: PUNB006120

New Delhi

It happens again

Despite being a part of this city for so many years, the in-humanness which I have slowly started to associate with Delhi , the apathy of ‘Diliwala’ to the pain of a fellow human being, the ease at which the Delhites  ignores those who are weak and cannot defend themselves, still  continues to amaze me and  upset me.

Every alternate day, I come across something that makes me question that why am I living here. The answer never comes. Or maybe it does, just that it’s too ‘practical’ to be discussed.

Today was that alternate day.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I was walking towards the gate of my society, not more than 100 meters far, I saw a man collapsing on the ground.

I rushed towards him, thinking that he had suffered a heat stroke. However, going closer, I realized that he was bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth.

He was a rickshaw puller and the blood on his mouth was because of the fist-blows that he had just received from the driver of a car.

The rickshawalla, a man in his 50s,  had apparently parked his rickshaw in front of the society gate, which as per the man driving the car, was obstructing the road and making it difficult for him to park his car.

So, after shouting at him, which the frail rickshaw puller ignored, this man punched him repeatedly and only stopped after he was satisfied that he had learnt his lesson.

This whole incident happened at a time when scores of oversized housewives were taking evening walks to reduce off the extra weight. It was witnessed by a whole lot of educated-civilized people, who, could have saved the old rickshaw puller,but chose to ignore the merciless beating.

As I helped him stand up, he looked at me and said “ Hamari galti nahee thee..Hum nahee suney who kya bola, phir woh maa ki gaali deeya”.

The sight of him holding his broken tooth in one hand, and trying to stop the gushing blood from his mouth from the other, is something that will continue to torment me for long.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I do not want to write anything more. This was not the first time I had witnessed something like this; the only thing that disconcerts me is that why have we become so insensitive to pain.

Anonymous is an Idea

Sometime back I was able to speak to “Smart”, who is the founder of Anonymous, Romania. And this is what he said about the why, who and what they are all about. 

Q.What is Anonymous? Some say it is a group of hackers yearning for publicity.

A.First of all, you are wrong about Anonymous saying that it is a group of individuals who are hacking. "Anonymous is an idea. Anonymous is you, is me, is every single one of us who fights in every way for a better world. A free, uncensored, world."

Q.How do someone becomes a part of it?

A. Anyone can be part in the things what we do, just join the network! Get in touch with me and my brothers.

RTI lacks teeth to enforce its orders- Chief Information Commissioner

Interview with Satyanand Mishra, Chief Information commissioner, Central Information Commission (CIC). Satyanand Mishra talks about more power for a greater efficiency in implementing RTI.

As CIC chief, do you think RTI need more teeth to make it stronger?

The RTI right now lacks teeth to enforce and make sure that its orders are followed. In most of the cases the officials are reluctant to part with information. And we have limited power because of which departments sometime does not takes our orders seriously.  More power is needed to make sure that CIC /SIC orders are followed.

As has been demanded by some section of the society and politicians like Nitish Kumar, do you think that the corporate/ private companies should also come under the purview of RTI?

Right now the focus should be on consolidating the gains made by the RTI during all these years. Widening its ‘reach’ to include private sector will make it difficult to manage its operation in an effective way. Once a certain level of effectiveness is reached in government sector, it should be made applicable to the private sector. But currently, its reach and effectiveness is something that is still unfolding.

You said that you are opposed to the creation of Jan Lokpal?

Yes I opposed the creation of Jan Lokpal in its present form because it will be impractical to implement it. My experience as a bureaucrat has taught me that it will be impossible for a single body to keep vigil on the entire government from PM to peon. The Janlok pal in its present form will be a huge organization. Who will keep tab on its own employees?

The exuberance of Sukma collector and the security failure

Jagdalpur/Sukma

Even though there is a lot of resentment among the common people against the maoist over the abduction of Sukma district Alex Paul Menon but still many feel that this was an incident which could have been avoided had police and the collector himself been more careful.

According to locals the police protection provided to Menon who was abducted by the maoist as he was listening to villagers in Keralapal during the Gram Suraj Abhiyan was absolutely negligible. He was only provided with two gunmen, Kisan Kujur and Ahmed, both of whom were shot dead by the maoist which had woman members too.

Senior Congress leader and former minister Satyanarayan Sharma said that if more protection was given to the officer who was posted in a maoist hotbed then the incident would not have happened. “I was in Sukma two days before he was abducted and  it was visible that adequate protection was not being given to the officers who were involved in the Gram Suraj Abhiyaan.”

This was admitted by a senior police official in Police Head quarters Raipur. “Security failure did happen. On Friday just a day before Menon’s abduction the maoist had done a land mine blast in which threepeople were killed. This should have alerted the police and the threat perception should have been reviewed, which was not done.”

A police sources said that even the Intelligence Bureau had given the state government inputs that the maosits are going to target bureaucrats.

The source added  that lapse on the part of the security cover made Menon a soft target. “There was negligence on the part of the police.” The same sentiments were echoed by journalists who have been following the event. They however added that the fault lies with Menon too. “He is an IAS officer and he should have realized that he was a high value target and taken necessary precaution. Now the state government will pay the price of his carelessness by releasing hard core maoists”.

The place from where Menon was abducted at around 4.30 PM is close to a CRPF camp that is located just 3 Km away but even then also the maoist could easily come and execute their plan. He was accompanied by other senior officials of the district including the SDM,CEO, BEO, none of whom were even touched by the maoist who had obviously come with a fixed target in mind.

Karan Singh a local politician that the town is still to come in terms with the event that has suddenly made Sukma a house hold name. “Menon joined here only three months back and this was his first posting. Why adequate protection was not provided to him is something that only the officials can say.”

Sukma Live

Reenactment of the popular 2010 Bollywood movie ‘Peepli Live” which took a dig at the electronic media is taking place in Sukma from where Alex Paul Menon was abducted by the maoists.

The sudden convergence of media personals, police and politicians to this small district has provided an opportunity for the poor villagers to earn extra income as make shift shops selling eatables and tea have come up in the popular points of Sukma.

Karan Dev, a local resident said that this was for the first time that he was watching the national media anchors personally. “I had never seen the logo of news channel so closely before nor had I seen vans with umbrella like structure on their top (OB vans). So many outsiders have come here and they are just running from one place to the other.”

A pretension called journalism

We type in the facts. I speak to a party spokesperson and you take the byte from the opposition leader. And we file the story. The journalistic principle of getting the facts right and incorporating the views of all the parties concerned is duly followed- and the next day we share a by-line. This is what we do in the name of journalism.

We do human interest stories too. I take out a data of the number of atrocities committed on the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh-compare it with the crimes committed under the last government. I speak to the NHRC spokesperson, a couple of NGO and the state Home minister- and the next day I have a by-line. All in the name of journalism. One more achievement in hand.

Really? Is this what journalism is?

For those who love getting married

Times have suddenly becomes strange as many friends of mine who were just months ago trying to fall in love with different girls at the same time are now being attracted towards falling into the bliss of marriage, just like a   colorful,confident,tiny insect falls into waiting arms of a beautiful Venus fly trap plant.

In the span of less than 8 months we (me and my friends) have lost many bachelors who have very bravely, smilingly embraced the culmination of their youthful days.

The poignancy of the whole situation becomes more visible when someone from among is sitting on the stage, exchanging smiles with the not so curious onlookers who have deliberately assembled in the marriage venue to celebrate the imposing of tons of responsibility and the taking away of a much rejoiced freedom of a young man. 

How they define youths in Uttar Pradesh

The impending Uttar Pradesh State Assembly elections have livened up the otherwise monotonous bureau room of newspaper around Delhi. When you have election in a state where there is a presence of  political heavy weights like Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Varun Gandhi, Digvijay Singh and him-who-cannot-be-named then one can be assured of interesting times ahead.

Every political party in Uttar Pradesh is trying to prove to the other that they are really promoting the Youths by way of giving them more representation.

While doing a story on this very issue I came across some very exciting narrations and intriguing individuals.

A Member of Parliament, involved in the selection of candidates very proudly told me that his party has given tickets to seventy odd youths for the upcoming UP state election.

I was impressed . After all seventy is a seize-able number when you consider that the total seat in the state assembly in 403. Logically my next question was that was the profile of these young candidates.

The reply that I got was something that I had never expected.

“We have given tickets to more than 50 candidates who are around 40 years of age. If you take 50 as the upper age, then we have more than 70 candidates who are contesting the elections on our party ticket.

For Keenan & Reuben

Will the brutal killing of two guys in Mumbai  make us stand up and realize that how weak and indifferent we have become to things that is happening around us?

Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandes, the two boys were stabbed to death because they reacted in a way that the majority of us would not. 

Those who killed them have been arrested and I am sure the law, because of the relentless media pressure will surely take its due-course and punish them.

But what about the hundred others who acted deaf and blind when they were being stabbed? 

How will the BJP use Modi

The three day Sadhbhavna fast under taken by the Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi has finally managed to push him on to the national stage from where he will look to play a more pan-India role.

The decision of Modi to abstain from food for three days to promote  unity in the state came at a time when the octogenarian and the BJP PM in waiting since time immemorial, LK Advani had just announced his decision to go on an all India Rath yatra to highlight corruption in the country .

This much televised and massively twitterized fast of Modi has managed to take the away the hype and the buzz that the announcement of Advani had generated.

Political commentators feel that the decision of RSS to  support Modis fast rather than Advanis yatra has made it clear as to how much clout does Modi  enjoys in the RSS circles.

Least Shehla becomes another Sarla

The broad day light murder of Shehla Masood in Bhopal has many known and numerous hidden facades that probably will be uncovered layer by layer as the investigation in the case progresses.

Ms.Masood was shot dead in front of her home at point blank range on 16^th August while she was about to drive away to a protest march organized by her in support of Anna Hazare’s anti- corruption movement.

The fact that she was an active RTI ‘activist’ has attracted even more spotlight to the otherwise peaceful and calm city of Bhopal.

A CVC who never applied for the post : Pradeep Kumar

Pradeep Kumar, the newly appointed Central Vigilance Commissioner, who was the Defense secretary earlier, had not applied for the job of CVC. His name was neither sponsored, nor nominated by any authority, according to information received under the Right to Information Act from the Union ministry of Personnel and Training.

Interestingly he is not the only one who was singled out for this graceful act. Two other candidates, Naresh Dayal, former health secretary and RP Agarwal, former secretary, Higher education also did not apply for the post. Their names were, however, were included in the panel of names considered by the committee for the post of CVC.

Is the Booker prize winner right this time?

Yesterday I was reading excerpt of what Arundhati Roy spoke on a talk show where she was elaborating on her article that was published in the Hindu in which she had severely criticised Anna Hazare for holding the parliament to ransom during the recent anti-corruption activism at Ram Lila ground.

I had first met her as a curious teenager in Bhopal at the British library in somewhere 2001-02 when she was there to promote her book.

And then as I became a part of a law school my gray cells started working and with time I became critical of her views. The prime reason for this was her views on Kashmir and on naxalism.

Till yesterday I have never been impressed by her arguments and writings. 


And I would not have probably been writing this if I would not have read the transcripts of what she said on the talk show yesterday.

To the critics and to the supporters of Anna

I,along with thousands of others, was present at India gate in Delhi on 17^th August as we heeded the call of Anna Hazare and marched to Jantar mantar sweating under the merciless sun to show solidarity with fight against corruption and discontent with the leaders. 

We were the same people who had elected these very parliamentarians and now we were marching to express our resentment against them. There were Congress supporters and there were the Saffron sympathizers and all were walking in unison.

There were youths, small children and aged people. And almost all of them had one thing in common; no one was there for Rs.150 or a piece of samosa  as it generally happens in a political rally. Nor they belonged to a particular stratum of the society or caste and class.

Equally true was that majority of them who were present there were not aware of the nuances of the Jan Lok pal bill. The only underlying sentiment that had brought them together was the common feeling of helplessness against Corruption. Period.

If it was not Anna Hazare and if it was Abdul Kalam, the former Indian president, then too people would have come out in the same numbers. It’s not about the individual as much it’s for the cause.

Anna Hazare in this 'movement' which is an expression of sentiments that resonates across crores of hearts, has emerged as someone whom the common mass can look up to in their struggle against corruption, a struggle that was always there in their life, but was not vocal enough, as it has become now under Hazare.

Kyoto Protocol- a History and its present relevance

What is Kyoto Protocol ? Where are we going in the future with the Kyoto Protocol? How has the international politics bogged down this concept which was a step much required for the safe keeping of future of this planet.

It’s important to understand where we are going on this process and we also have to see where we came from. To understand this, we have to understand that there is a science-based problem—namely climate change—that was identified in the mid-1980s and led to the first fundamental process, the 1992 Rio Convention, which produced the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC].

That Convention gave a general outlook of what should be done to address climate change, but it did not give any specific tools on how to tackle it. So the 189 countries that were parties to the Convention decided that there should be a stronger tool to address climate change. At that point, the architecture of what we now call the Kyoto Protocol was decided. It’s important to understand that this was, fundamentally, a partial architecture, which agreed that industrialized countries would have to take the lead to reduce their emissions before the rest of the world, the developing countries, would take on commitments.

Why Congress won't lose 2014

When Mumbai was attacked in 2008 even the most loyal of Congress supporters would have felt that it was the last nail on the coffin for the beleaguered UPA-1.  That was not the first time such a hair-raising misadventure had happened and most of the political pundits said that the next general election that were just months away would see the demise of the Oldest party of India.

They had every right grounds to arrive on such an assessment.


October 2005 brought death of 66 people in Delhi when three serial blast shook the capital out of the festive mood of Diwali, March 2006 saw attack on Sankat Mochan Mandir in Varanasi, Malegaon happened in September  followed by Samjhauta in March 2007. May 2007 went red with blast in mosque in Hyderabad, July witnessed serial blasts in Jaipur, Gujarat and Bangalore. It did not end here. In September 2008 Delhi was struck again resulting in death of 18 civilians and then the mother of all, 26/11 Mumbai happened.

This ' carpet bombing' of sort in no way substantiates a claim about a country that prides in being a resurgent, emerging,torch bearer and what not for the rest of the whole world.

But 2009 election gave a new mandate to Congress, even better than what it had got in 2004. Congress was riding high. No one can definitely say as to why India voted for a party that had let them down in the previous 5 years. 


Were we still evolving as electorates , easily vulnerable to the rhetoric,sweet talks and the goodies of the smiling Neta?

Of temples and and their wealthy gods

India and Indians have this pleasant habit of always making news and depending on whether you are an optimist or of the other genre, you can cite scores of examples to elucidate this tendency of ours to make headlines worldwide.

Recently we forced the globe to stand up and take notice of us when scores of scam were unearthed and as economist, sociologist and political pundits were burning their midnight oil to analyse the multi-faceted impact of corruption, we assembled at Jantar mantar and the Ramlila ground to raise our voice against the vicious fangs of corruption which like rain drops spares no one.

An indigenous Jasmine revolution of sort was playing out on the on the streets of Delhi as the whole nation joined the call of ending Corruption once and for all.

But no one in their wildest dream would have thought that it would be God himself who would steal the show by showing his brilliance as he announced his arrival to the scene in an ultra-extravagant way. A most pompous debut of sort was witnessed as wealth amounting to more than 1 lakh crore was unearthed at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala.

Of a Yogi and a Prime minister

What possibly could Baba Ramdev have in mind when he decided to stage a fast at Ram Lila ground to express his displeasure against corruption and black money that is stashed away in tax haven countries?

Was he scared of the present government which forced him to take this noble initiative and attack the government before it victimised him? Does he have anything to gain monetarily and financially? Does he crave followers, attention and reach at places where it matters? Did the RSS/VHP/BJP combine take him to a hideout and brain-washed his mind to open a front against the UPA which has been crowned the most corrupt government India has seen since independence.

Or was it a simple desire to speak against corruption, which all of us might have felt at one point or the other. The only difference between him and us being that he decided to convert his thoughts into visible actions.

We need to look at all these possibilities and let our mind decide on how right or wrong Baba Ramdev has been, but do not view them through the eyes of a Congress guy or a BJP worker or a pseudo-liberal-intellectual-Leftist but as a common Indian. And as for those who are chronically cynical; do not waste your priceless time here.