Dhanvant Pandey who has been hunting tigers for over two decades in the deeps of Sundarban jungles is an angry man. "These tiger sympathizers should be thrown to the tigers. Confronted by tigers in flesh and blood, their sympathy for the wild cats will evaporate within seconds.They will start trembling with fear and begin to wonder what made them sympathetic towards tigers in the first place." Furious at the romanticizing of tigers by environmentalists, he blurted out in disgust to our reporter who had tracked him down at his wooden shack, 32 kilometers away from a tributary between Bidya and sajnekhaki forests in Sundarbans. "Everyone is into saving tigers nowadays. Even the bloody corporates! What is the world coming to?" he asked in bewilderment.
The 45 year old poacher, who has spent his entire lifetime roaming the jungles of West Bengal searching for tigers to kill, hates being called a poacher. "I'm a man on a mission. Over two decades ago, I launched Operation Tiger Hunt along with my younger brother with the sole purpose of freeing the jungles of my land from the scourge of tigers. Thanks to our untiring efforts over the last two decades, we have succeeded in reducing tiger population to just a little over 1400!" he said with visible pride.Pandey doesn't quite understand the fascination of India's elites and environmentalists with saving tigers from extinction. "How can anyone feel sympathy for bloody tigers? These tigers are fucking terrorists. They are violent creatures who terrorize poor, innocent, defenseless animals and destroy the peace of the jungle."
"There can be no moral justification for violence." said Pandey, slamming his fist on the table, when our reporter pointed out to him that tigers preying on weaker herbivorous animals was the natural order of the jungle. "Okay, god made tigers carnivorous, but that doesn't give them the right to attack weak animals, rip their flesh off with their claws and eat them. Next, you will justify killing of the rich saying that since some people are born dirt poor with no access to education or any scope for moving out of poverty, they have right to kill rich people and steal their wealth."
Pandey deplored the romanticizing of the tigers by tiger-lovers. "It is disgusting to hear talk of how tiger is a magnificent and beautiful animal. These idiots who romanticize tigers see only the beautiful black stripes on glowing golden tiger skin but not their deadly fangs with which they mercilessly shred the chassis of innocent deers, antelopes or wild boars to satisfy their lust for flesh."
"Tigers are cruel, barbaric, violent terrorists of our woodlands. They are the number one security threat to the peace of our jungles and should be dealt with strongly." he added with emphasis.
The poacher outrightly dismissed arguments about the threat of extinction of tigers if they are not protected. "So what if only 1400 tigers are still alive? Will your government call off operation Green Hunt midway, if they discover that only 1400 maoists are remaining? Do you wish to preserve maoists or Kashmiri militants for your future generations to admire? Our first priority should be to end the reign of terror unleashed by tigers in our forests. We should have zero tolerance towards violence and show no sympathy for any specie of beasts that doesn't respect the right of all animals to live and flourish in peace."
But can violence towards tigers be answer to the violence perpetrated by tigers? By killing tigers, isn't Pandey guilty of the same crime that he accuses tigers of committing? "Look Saar, every tiger kills over 300 poor animals every year. By killing one tiger, I'm saving 300 lives of innocent animals a year. So net-net, we tiger-hunters are saving many more lives than we are killing!" said the man in justification of his violence towards the royal Bengal tiger.
By the end of the interview, our reporter was thoroughly confused about his own beliefs. He couldn't make up his mind whether he should feel sympathy for the tigers or for their prey. Or whether the poachers were criminal outlaws or heroes saving lives of defenseless animals from blood-thirsty predators. He spent several sleepless nights mulling over the dilemma of choosing to sympathize with one specie over another. During one such night, he received instant enlightenment and realized that reality is a bitch and that our beliefs of right and wrong are formed by our own twisted perceptions and not by any objective constructs. "Fuck it all!" he said and enjoyed a deep, peaceful sleep which was disturbed by a nightmare in which he was being eaten alive by a ferocious tiger. "Fuck tigers..fuck tiger sympathizers" he murmured, shaking with fear, but after he had calmed down, he wisely decided not to join Dhanwant Pandey in his exploits in the jungles of Sundarbans.
