Jim Corbett Park's management has appointed an all-women team to stop other women from nearby villages from foraging for firewood, food and fodder. The team comprises 5 members headed by 54 year old forester Shahdab Alam. They are hired on contract and receive wages to stop the trespassers as per a report out in the Hindustan Times.
The team is armed with sticks, torches, GPS location devices and a thick register in which names of offenders are entered. These gritty women have secured Kalagarh division, a sensitive zone in Corbett bordering UP’s Bijnore forest division.
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A lot of families in the village depend on the forest for their sustenance. It used to be difficult for the male guards to keep away the village women. They would often threaten them to slap a case of molestation whenever they were stopped from entering the forest area.
"The Pink team is good at stopping women as well as men from entering the forest. They are daring women sworn to protect wildlife. We will form similar teams in other zones too." - Surendra Mehra
In a bid to solve this issue, the management came up with the idea of an all-women team this April.
"The Pink team is good at stopping women as well as men from entering the forest. They are daring women sworn to protect wildlife. We will form similar teams in other zones too.", said Surendra Mehra, the director of Corbett tiger reserve.
The team keeps the villagers in a grip of fear. “Security is tight in Corbett now. We have stopped going there,” 50-year-old Mayawati tells TOI, a resident of Biquiawala.
The team has managed to reduce the number of trespassing cases from 40 to 10. Hats off to these
valiant women for making some great efforts to bring down the number of human-animal conflicts.
pic credits: HT
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