Jaipur: For Daulat Singh Shaktawat, who retired as assistant conservator of forests, fascination for jungles never died even after he lost his right eye in a tiger attack on the outskirts of Ranthambore reserve in 2010.
After a painful recovery, Singh was soon back in the forests and continued what he enjoyed most, looking after the wild. In the state, he has participated in the highest number of tiger relocation programmes, which was crucial to repopulate reserves after the Sarsika debacle.
He says, “Till date, 16 big cats have been relocated to other tiger reserves from Ranthambore. I am fortunate to be part of 12 relocations. Tiger relocation is necessary in the state like Rajasthan as in the absence of the big cats, people demand denotification of the area.”
Shaktawat, is however, still curious to know who took the bold step and initiative to relocate tigers in STR for the first time. “I still wonder whose decision was it to shift the tiger in STR. I have asked this question to many, but never received an appropriate reply.”
After the encounter, he was given a desk job as an artificial eye was implanted and face was deformed despite several rounds of plastic surgery. However, barely six months after the accident, Shaktawat was back in Ranthambhore on his own request as he wanted to be part of the mission to translocate RT-7, which injured him.
Forest officials informed him that the tiger had moved from Ranthambore to Mathura area and soon after to Bharatpur. He says, “It was a very clever animal. We tried to bait him using animals, but never succeeded in tranquilising. One evening, while discussing a wildlife documentary that had long episodes of a female tiger’s mating calls, an idea came to me and we decided to play the CD to get RT-7 to come out of hiding. It was successful,” he recalled
In its new life, it was given the name of ST-6. “It died recently, but whenever I go went to Sariska thereafter, I made it a point to see him,” he said.
After a painful recovery, Singh was soon back in the forests and continued what he enjoyed most, looking after the wild. In the state, he has participated in the highest number of tiger relocation programmes, which was crucial to repopulate reserves after the Sarsika debacle.
He says, “Till date, 16 big cats have been relocated to other tiger reserves from Ranthambore. I am fortunate to be part of 12 relocations. Tiger relocation is necessary in the state like Rajasthan as in the absence of the big cats, people demand denotification of the area.”
Shaktawat, is however, still curious to know who took the bold step and initiative to relocate tigers in STR for the first time. “I still wonder whose decision was it to shift the tiger in STR. I have asked this question to many, but never received an appropriate reply.”
After the encounter, he was given a desk job as an artificial eye was implanted and face was deformed despite several rounds of plastic surgery. However, barely six months after the accident, Shaktawat was back in Ranthambhore on his own request as he wanted to be part of the mission to translocate RT-7, which injured him.
Forest officials informed him that the tiger had moved from Ranthambore to Mathura area and soon after to Bharatpur. He says, “It was a very clever animal. We tried to bait him using animals, but never succeeded in tranquilising. One evening, while discussing a wildlife documentary that had long episodes of a female tiger’s mating calls, an idea came to me and we decided to play the CD to get RT-7 to come out of hiding. It was successful,” he recalled
In its new life, it was given the name of ST-6. “It died recently, but whenever I go went to Sariska thereafter, I made it a point to see him,” he said.
