T1 shooting and forest dept attempts to suppress facts
Vijay Pinjarkar | TNN | Dec 30, 2018, 17:22 ISTThe forest department is loathe to learn but quick to complain when it comes to what it sees as negative reporting on itself. The year was full of controversies for the department and reporting on the beat brought out many facets of senior officials on various issues.
On issues like Pandharkawda problem tigress T1, burial of mega plantation scam in Wardha, bending rules for a roundtable meet inside Tadoba, attempts to give backdoor entry to retired divisional managers (DMs) in Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM), financial irregularities in social forestry department (SFD) as officials tried to conceal facts, TOI dug deep to expose them.
Take the T1 case. When T1 was shot dead by Hyderabad based sharpshooter Asghar Ali Khan on November 2 night, TOI was first to report that it was shot without any tranquillizing efforts. The report opened a Pandora’s Box.
The next day chief wildlife warden was upset with the report chiding me for reporting that self-defence theory was cooked up and T1 was shot dead in cold blood. Instead of going into violations, officials were more interested in probing how the last picture of T1 alive had reached TOI.
Later, I reported a series of violations and the officials issued strict instructions to the staff not to talk to the media. They even warned not to send any pictures from the field or talk to reporters as their calls were being recorded.
Post shooting, the department didn’t release any information on status of T1 cubs. Officials suspected their own men were passing information to TOI and kept them out of official decisions as if some defence secrets were involved.
When T1 cubs were not seen for 15 days, they were lured by a real audio recording of a tigress but chief wildlife warden was quick to deny that recording was used and even asked TOI who the sources of information were. CCF Yavatmal was so ‘scared’ he stopped responding to calls.
Wildlife vets who had opposed violations were warned by forest officials. A forensic expert from Karnataka was not inducted in Karnataka forest department after a senior IFS officer from Maharashtra told his counterpart there about the vet exposing the forest department.
Even now forest officials, claiming to follow NTCA protocol, are not keen to issue a release on T1 cubs’ status, which is mandatory as per the protocol. Even as the babus criticized my stories, the state and NTCA reports on T1 bared supported TOI reports.
A couple of senior officials stooped so low they even asked publicity department why my name was on top of the list on department’s list of reporters. They asked it to be brought down for reasons I fail to understand.
(Vijay Pinjarkar believes the best way to bring out true jungle stories is to go on the ‘hunt’)
On issues like Pandharkawda problem tigress T1, burial of mega plantation scam in Wardha, bending rules for a roundtable meet inside Tadoba, attempts to give backdoor entry to retired divisional managers (DMs) in Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM), financial irregularities in social forestry department (SFD) as officials tried to conceal facts, TOI dug deep to expose them.
Take the T1 case. When T1 was shot dead by Hyderabad based sharpshooter Asghar Ali Khan on November 2 night, TOI was first to report that it was shot without any tranquillizing efforts. The report opened a Pandora’s Box.
The next day chief wildlife warden was upset with the report chiding me for reporting that self-defence theory was cooked up and T1 was shot dead in cold blood. Instead of going into violations, officials were more interested in probing how the last picture of T1 alive had reached TOI.
Later, I reported a series of violations and the officials issued strict instructions to the staff not to talk to the media. They even warned not to send any pictures from the field or talk to reporters as their calls were being recorded.
Post shooting, the department didn’t release any information on status of T1 cubs. Officials suspected their own men were passing information to TOI and kept them out of official decisions as if some defence secrets were involved.
When T1 cubs were not seen for 15 days, they were lured by a real audio recording of a tigress but chief wildlife warden was quick to deny that recording was used and even asked TOI who the sources of information were. CCF Yavatmal was so ‘scared’ he stopped responding to calls.
Wildlife vets who had opposed violations were warned by forest officials. A forensic expert from Karnataka was not inducted in Karnataka forest department after a senior IFS officer from Maharashtra told his counterpart there about the vet exposing the forest department.
Even now forest officials, claiming to follow NTCA protocol, are not keen to issue a release on T1 cubs’ status, which is mandatory as per the protocol. Even as the babus criticized my stories, the state and NTCA reports on T1 bared supported TOI reports.
A couple of senior officials stooped so low they even asked publicity department why my name was on top of the list on department’s list of reporters. They asked it to be brought down for reasons I fail to understand.
(Vijay Pinjarkar believes the best way to bring out true jungle stories is to go on the ‘hunt’)
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