SALUTING THE TIGER

[Guest guest]

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http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2005/08/11/stories/2005081100750200.htm

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*Salaam Tiger *

 

Called " Honorary Tiger " by biographer Duff Hart-Davis, Billy Arjan Singh

tells ANUJ KUMAR he wants the world to remember him as a man who lived for

tigers

 

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People like Pataudi and Salman Khan are hunting for fun. Such people should

be hanged

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*FELINE GRACE Billy Arjan Singh reveals the sensitive side PHOTO: SANDEEP

SAXENA *

 

He is the last man standing for the tiger in this country. Touching 88,

Billy Arjan Singh was in Delhi - which he finds cluttered in comparison to

his Tiger Haven near Dudhwa National Park - recently to mark the success of

his biography " Honorary Tiger-The Life of Billy Arjan Singh " by British

journalist Duff Hart-Davis.

 

Published by Roli Books, the book brings the life of the reclusive bachelor

Billy in print - his encounters with Juliet, the leopardess who became so

intimate with him that sometimes Billy had to cage himself away. Davis, who

came close to him when Billy was writing his autobiographical account " The

Prince of Cats " , said in an interview to *The Hindu, *earlier, " She used to

attack ladies, perhaps out of jealousy. "

 

Billy refuses to open up. Just a shy pointer, " It's just an example of the

British sense of humour. "

 

However, talk of matters concerning tigers, and Billy's sagging eyes flash

with anger. He has lost all faith in the Government. " The Sansar Chand

episode has proved what I have been saying for years - the nexus between the

officials and the poachers. "

 

Billy has always maintained that there should be separate forest and

wildlife departments. " The forest department runs a commercial exercise.

They fell a tree, which has been a home to several birds, provided shade to

many animals for years, within minutes. " He says a clean floor is the dream

of any forester but this can jeopardise the survival of wildlife.

 

This scion of the royal family of Kapurthala once used to hunt himself. He

had admittedly shot " some four to five leopards and tigers " but once seeing

the slow death of a leopard changed his heart.

 

`Deplorable act'

 

Billy agrees things haven't changed much among royal folks - the Mansoor Ali

Khan Pataudi case being the latest example. " At least Sansar Chand did it

for money. People like Pataudi and Salman Khan are doing it for fun. This is

highly deplorable. Such people should be hanged. "

 

On the charges from the section of the scientific community that he

introduced a genetic cocktail in the jungle, diluting the purity of the

Bengal tiger by introducing Tara, a tigress with Siberian genes in her

ancestry, the winner of the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Award says

the charges stemmed from personal vendetta, which cropped because of his

closeness to Indira Gandhi. It is often said that if the Emergency was good

for one species in this country, it was the tiger. " I believe hybridisation

was essential for the tiger to survive in India. " He questions, " Hasn't it

happened among humans? To me Diana Hayden, an Anglo-Indian, is much more

beautiful than an Aishwarya. "

 

Billy says Project Tiger lost out when the focus shifted from being

species-centric to ecosystem-bound under the influence of bureaucracy. " I

can't see the ecosystem, but I see the tiger. "

 

Age may have slowed his movements but his will is still galloping. " I am

working for the *barasingha* population in the Terai area suffering because

of the mindless felling of trees in Nepal. " Billy hasn't groomed anybody to

carry on his legacy, but he says his nephew Simon Commander has formed a

Tiger Haven Society to take the work forward.