This Maharaja is now ‘game’ for wildlife

Born a Maharaja in the erstwhile princely state of Patiala,Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh grew up seeing his grandfather and father shooting wildlife,first through a gun and later camera. “After a time,both my grandfather and father went for the camera. Many years back,I too gave up the gun and took to shooting to preserve the game,” he says.

During his maiden stint as Chief Minister of Punjab in 2002-07,he also sent the Wildlife Board to South Africa to study its game reserves. Now some ‘old friends’ from the earlier delegation and few “not-so-old” friends have regrouped to fly to South Africa on a two-week sojourn to study wildlife preservation,mainly private game parks besides the national park of Kruger near Johannesburg. The 14-member team presents an interesting mix of a former chief minister,a former chief secretary and a retired chief engineer.

Amarinder,who has earlier been to Scotland to study wildlife preservation,says it is a private tour and all friends are pitching in for their expenses. “We will be mainly visiting the private game parks which are more well preserved than those under the government. They also boast of more wildlife,” he says.

Meanwhile,as the ‘maharaja’ leaves for his two-week study trip,his detractors in the state Congress cannot but help marvel at the timing of his visit. “He is not perturbed by the storm brewing at home after a string of poll debacles,” a senior leader of the party said.