Follow every pug mark

The present ruling dispensation in distant, imperial Delhi claims to derive its lineage from Indira Gandhi. Whatever good or bad impartial historians may say about her performance while in power, no one will deny the fact that she had a passionate feeling for the soil and the stubble of this land of ours and had a great love affair with the hapless denizens of our forests. She will definitely be remembered as the leader of free India who banned shikar and who tried her best to preserve the environment. The present Government need have no fears that it will be remembered along these lines. Sanskrit texts refer to India as “the land where the blackbucks roam”. Raja Dushyant found his son Bharat (after whom this unhappy land is named) riding on a glorious tiger. Never mind. Our government of the day is determined to go down as the one that stood and idly watched as tigers and blackbucks disappeared from India. Informed historians of the future will crucify our whole generation for this if nothing else.

Faced with the inexorable march towards the tiger’s extinction, our great government will appoint a high-powered committee to study the reports of a dozen earlier committees and recommend the appointment of yet another committee. Everyone knows, except the Government of India and its committees, that the tiger is being systematically killed in order to supply bones and organs to newly affluent Chinese consumers who believe that body parts of wild tigers (as distinct from the body parts of tigers bred in captivity) have unique medicinal properties. Any employee of the Indian consulate in Hong Kong can buy tiger bones and tiger nails quite freely. Dozens of photographers have given us graphic evidence that many residents of Lhasa are openly and proudly displaying tiger skins as part of their new designer garments.

The present ‘omrah’ (for the interested reader, the collective name for the courtiers who surrounded the sultans of medieval Delhi) seem to be the only people blissfully unaware of the ‘market’ for murdered tigers. Our prime minister and the UPA president have visited China in recent times. They can leverage the friendships they have built with Chinese leaders to intervene on behalf of the unfortunate tiger. Will they? Surely whatever their other predilections, the Chinese leadership cannot be serious supporters of the racket that passes for ‘trade’ in the limbs of the tiger. And in the year of the Beijing Olympics, they are seriously concerned about international opprobrium in matters like these. Our silence will ironically let them off the hook.

... contd.

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