Minister faces MoEF ire over naming of tigresses
High-profile Rajasthan forest minister Bina Kak finds herself caught in an unusual controversy. The ministry of environment has rapped her on the knuckles for having two tigresses recently translocated to Sariska tiger reserve named after her.
The tigers, Bina 1 and Bina 2, were moved from Ranthambore last week. On Monday, both the Binas were released from their respective cages and on Tuesday they both tracked down enjoying a sambar kill.
The ministry has taken kindly to the practice of giving tigers human names stating that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has set a practice to name big cats in accordance with specific coding procedure. Ranthambore tigers are in the T-series while the Sariska tigers are in the ST series.
A defensive Ms Kak said, “We have not done away with these code names. All the 57 tigers in Ranthambore have their code names but the forest guards and local have given them popular names.”
“Tigers have been nicknamed Chand, Suraj, Akash, Don, Jumroo, Zalim and so on and so forth. The tigress Machli enjoys a cult status. The local villagers identify with these names and it helps create a bond with the tigers,” she says.
“I did not ask them for these two tigresses to be named after me. I was not even a forest minister when their mother happened to fall ill. She could not be save and I took an interest in the young cubs. It was the local people who began calling them after me,” she said.
When asked to comment on BJP critics taking her to task for naming the tigers after herself, she replied, “When Sariska lost all its tigers, the BJP forest minister did not bother to visit the reserve even once. The situation was equally bleak at Ranthambore during their regime.”
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