(IN) NDTV journalist responds to Simlipal Tiger Reserve relocation media coverage criticism

[Guest guest]

With great humility I would like to respond to Ms Madhu Sarin’s comments on my

report on the relocation of 61 families of Jenabil village located inside the

core area of the Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Orissa.

 

As far as I am concerned I did not in any way suggest in my report that people

who have been relocated are living comfortably. I am not responsible for what

the channel anchor said while introducing my report.

 

My story was basically about the successful relocation ( not rehabilitation ) of

Jenabil villagers through a peaceful and mutually agreed evacuation. During my

2-day trip I did find out that the people who were relocated had agreed to move

out of the village after they found the package offered by NTCA quite

acceptable. There was no use of force and there was no resistance either- a rare

exception in a state which has been witnessing a series of long-drawn resistance

movements against displacement. I would therefore stick to my view that it was a

successful relocation, something that the Simlipal Tiger

Reserve authorities had so far failed to achieve.

 

I have never said anthing to the effect that there has been a successful

rehabilitation. Rehabilitation and resettlement are time-consuming processes and

do not happen overnight. In fact I have suggested through my text and a byte of

one of the Jenabil villagers that it’s only a successful rehabilitation of these

61 families that will ensure evacuation of 3 other villages in the core area as

also better times for the disappearing big cats in Simlipal.

 

When I visited a neighbouring village Jamunagarh ( in the core area), local

villagers told me on record that they are willing to be relocated provided the

attractive package promised by the authorities is delivered in practice.

 

I would like to request Ms Sarin to make sure the blow by blow accounts that she

has been receiving from her sources are genuine and reliable. Because contrary

to what she has been told, Jenabil village has not been consumed by any fire

after the relocation. Secondly, the oustees had gone back to Jenabil to collect

whatever materials and articles they had left behind when they were first

transported to the Ambadiha camp.

 

It’s true that a person from Jenabil village did die of heatstroke while he was

returning from a forest 15 kms away from the base camp at Ambadiha. He was part

of a large group which had set out to that forest. But I am not sure whether

they had gone there to collect firewood or for some other reason. In any case

this year’s cruel heat wave has claimed nearly 120 lives across the state and

has affected the entire population.

 

I would also like to inform Ms Sarin that Jenabil and the other 3 villages

located inside the core area of the Simlipal Tiger Reserve are not among the

“hurriedly declared” 'critical tiger habitats'. I am sure the understanding that

villages in the core area form part of the critical habitat is based on sound

wildlife conservation principles.

 

The EPG article Ms Sarin refers to in regard to the so-called brutal

relocation of Jenabil villagers suffers from a poor understanding of the logic

behind the relocation. The people were not shifted because they were involved in

tiger poaching but because they were occupying a sprawling valley blessed with

perennial sources of water in the core area. The conservationists believe that

once this critical area is free from human presence and interference the valleys

here would require just one good monsoon to be transformed into meadows and

provide a congenial environment for herbivores and their predators, the big

cats.

 

Finally, as a field reporter for many years I have been exposed to extreme

conditions and of course a lot of heat and dust. I am used to working outdoors

under the scorching sun and also heat beyond 45 degree Celsius. I surely know

how it feels to stay in ‘minimal tin sheds’. I would not like to list out what

all I have done at my level to improve the living conditions out there but I can

assure Ms Sarin that I am as sensitive if not more to pain and sufferings of

fellow human beings.

 

Regards

Sampad Mahapatra