Daulat Singh Shaktawat, who was attacked by a ferocious tiger in 2010, has written a book, My Encounter with the Big Cat and Other Adventures in Ranthambore (Niyogi). The book includes the vivid details of the fateful day along with other experiences and adventures of his life at Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. “When I was attacked by T-7, I did not know if I would survive the attack or not. If I had not survived, then the only regret would have been the failure to record and hand over the experiences of my long service to the youngsters and personnel who would join the department in future. The first thing I did after I had recovered was to write this book which could help people in future to understand the challenges and adventures of wildlife,” says Shaktwat, a senior officer in the wildlife wing of Forest Department of Rajasthan.
Excerpts:
You were attacked by a big cat in 2010 and you miraculously survived the attack. Tell us more about that day .
I had woken up as early as usual that day when I got a call from the Deputy Director who informed me about a male tiger, T-7, which had crossed the Reserve boundary and had entered a village called Bhuri Pahari. He had killed a buffalo and was hiding in the crop fields. I picked up my tranquillising gun and left for the village along with three forest staff members. When I reached the spot, I saw that a large number of villagers had surrounded the crop fields. The crowd was creating a riot-like situation. People were throwing stones in the direction of the tiger which had infuriated and irritated the tiger. We were trying to control the crowd along with police personnel but to no avail. We could not drive our gypsy into the crop fields because of zero visibility hence we decided to walk into the field to tranquillise the tiger. The unruly mob was creating a lot of noise and also manhandling the forest staff. My experience told me that the tiger could not be tranquillised in such circumstances but there was no way out. I was not able to aim at the tiger clearly because of the chaos and lack of visibility. I fired the dart and it seemed to hit the tiger but it had hit his bone and hence the medicine must not have worked properly. I once again tried to locate the tiger and suddenly we heard a roar from very near and before I could think of doing anything, the tiger had already pounced on me.
When you look at the day in hindsight what you think could have been done to prevent the attack?
I can tell you from my personal experience of more than 35 years in Forest Service that in 99% of the cases, tigers themselves go back into the forest very easily and do not attack the forest officials. In most of the cases tranquillising an animal is an easy task as animals do not have the tendency to attack humans and if they do attack humans then it is an aberration. Public should be made aware about these issues.
Public should support the forest department staff and should not create unruly scenes. Police personnel who accompany us should also be trained in a specific way so that they can effectively control the crowd. Sometimes, I see that personnel themselves start clicking photos and videos of the animals instead of controlling the mob.
How did you go through the difficult phase of multiple surgeries and operations. Who all supported you in the struggle?
My family members and colleagues would always ask, ‘what have you achieved by spending your whole life in forests and Wild life?’ After the accident, I got to know that I have earned a lot by giving my life for the cause. Then Rajasthan Chief Minister sent a State plane and visited me at the hospital along with senior officers. All the people in the staff and people of the district were praying for my well-being.
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) took care of the expenses of the surgery at Apollo hospital. I would not have recovered from the accident this quickly without their support, perhaps I would not have survived at all.
After you rejoined the department, you were given a desk job. But you again asked to go to Ranthambore. How did you convince your family as well as your department?
My family was very happy when I got a desk-job in my home town. But when I went to office for three-four days, I realised that sitting in office was not my cup of tea. I would sit from morning till evening and brood over the tragedy I had gone through. I would have got depressed sitting in office. I told my family and convinced them to allow me to go to Ranthambore for at least a year. I assured them that I would return if I would face difficulties in Ranthambore. After all I had lost one of my eyes.
I, then, met my seniors and requested them to send me back on the field. Once in my career I had planned to quit from the department and then at that point in time my boss did not let me quit by saying that I was a competent wildlife practitioner. I told him the same thing and told him that I would prefer taking volunatary retirement over brooding over and getting depressed in the office. Hence the very next day of receiving the CM award, I landed at Ranthambore again.
Apart from telling about the excitements and experiences you gained at Ranthambore in your book, you also have appended vivid and colourful photographs of animals in their private and natural moments. when did you start photography and why?
I had an opportunity to work with Kailash Sankhala who was a Padma Shri and was better known as ‘The tiger man of India’. He was a great photographer. I find photography the best way to document the knowledge and experience of wildlife. Learning from him, I started photography in 1990s and kept on doing it. Forest life and photography have become some kind of addiction in my life.
In the book you write, “I hold no grudge against the tiger.” Is it your love for tigers or your forgiving nature?
The tiger which attacked me was trans-located to Sariska National Park in Rajasthan. The first thing I did when I went on a tour to Sariska was to go and meet the tiger. I met the same tiger and his behaviour was as normal as any other tiger. If it had not got infuriated and irritated, then it would have not attacked me at all. It was no fault of his. I am happy that the department was able to rescue him safely. Both the tiger and I survived.
How do we see the increase in human-tiger conflicts in the last few years?
With the increase in population, humans are encroaching the ecological boundaries of animals. The vital gap between forests and human habitat has been shrinking day by day because of human needs like urbanisation. If I take Ranthambore's example, then wayback in 1984 there were around 10 to 15 families living around the park which have now increased to more than 300 families.
