Gathering of villagers assembled at Salvey in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve Palamu is not for any public meeting but for public participation meant to save wildlife against poaching.Under the directions of field director of the reserve MP Singh and DFO buffer Mahaling, the step is being taken by roping in more and more villagers to pledge to save wild life and forest in tiger reserve.
Villagers from places Pandra, Kabree Kotam Jaigeer sat and rubbed shoulders together all for wild life and forest. locals say these villages were once the abode of spotted deer which are now on the verge of extinction as their number has dwindled fast over the last ten years.
Tiger reserve officials want people's intervention or participation in the upkeep of this tiger reserve.
DFO buffer Mahaling told the Pioneer, "Field director wants more and more people living in and around tiger reserve to be a part of it and this gathering of people from four or five villages is indicative of that who are being sensitized and motivated about the task to be a protective gear for wild life and forest."
The villagers were told in their own parlance as to what losses are for them if wildlife goes extinct from here. Mahaling said a well known civil society activist Victor Kerketta was one of the key speakers in this gathering which was all for wild life and forest.
Asked if the villagers in such a gathering speak out their own plights and put up demands DFO buffer said, "The platform is big and wide and villagers do voice their own issues. Pending wages, lack of work opportunity, poor ration facility, inadequate medi care facility, pending old age/widow pension etc top the charter of grievances of the villagers."
Sources said there were villagers from Jaigeer where a few months back there was a heavy encounter of security forces with the Maoists and on the very next day of this bloody encounter the elite force CoBRA had to pitch a tent for its civic action programme there to win the confidence of the locals. Mahaling said the villagers have taken a pledge not to poach, plunder wild life and forest respectively and have also resolved to fight against any poacher if he descends on their soil.