Save Their Souls

The news of "six big cats - including tigers and leopards" poached at Bandhavgarh National Park, MP during April-December 2004, is alarming. Even more shocking is the fact that roads are being constructed and widened in the park, to facilitate illegal timber business. And the required electricity too is provided not only illegally but also dangerously, the scapegoats being the forest's fauna, the flora, as it is, already hit severely by the encroaching roads. The enormity of the corruption is heightened manifold by the forest officers pleading innocence. Now that the news has hit the frontpage of one of the country's leading dailies, it remains to be seen how far and how fast this evil is rooted out.