Palamu tiger reserve management has launched a cash reward to villager/villagers who will spot a tiger and prove the sighting and presence of the tiger in the reserve here to the satisfaction of the PTR bosses.
The cash reward is of Rs 5,000 for the villager/villagers and in the event there are more claimants than one to vouch for the sighting/ presence of a tiger in the reserve the cash amount is to be equally distributed among the claimants then after a thorough confirmation of the presence of tiger said sources.
Understandably personnel, official and contractual workers of the tiger reserve are kept out of cash dole.
Deputy Director South Division of the Palamu tiger reserve Mukesh Kumar said, “Our chief conservator of forest and field director Y K Das has taken this initiative to reward person other than PTR personnel/ official who claims to have sighted tiger in the reserve.”
Kumar said a mere statement of sighting of a tiger will not work. One who makes a claim like this has to prove it materially like scat of the tiger, location of the pug marks, scratches of the bark of the tree, spot if and where tiger appears to have urinated, fall of any hair of the tiger, position and location of the kill of the tiger, leftover of the kill, arrival sign of any tiger near the water body etc.
Asked pointedly that PTR has TPF (tiger protection force) TT(tiger trackers), FG (forest guards) foresters, rangers etc and despite these work force this cash reward has been opened to villagers to which Mukesh Kumar said “ This cash reward will put everyone in the work force here on live wire and on tenterhooks what if any villager spots a tiger and this bulk of personnel/ officials have no clue of it then the axe on them is but to fall without fail.”
However, sources said PTR people are also convinced that there is no tiger around at this moment here in this reserve and so there will not be any cash flow on this.
A visitor to Betla National Pak requesting for anonymity said, “One does not understand as to whom the PTR management is befooling in the name of spot a tiger and win cash when it is a common knowledge there is no tiger in this PTR.”