Chp 859. Tiger in Mizoram!

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Rumour has it that when William Blake wrote those immortal lines, he was a young Lance Corporal garrisoned at Calcutta HQ of the East India Company. He was sent to the Lushai hills as a part of the British Expedition to rescue Mary Winchester, and on his way to Chief Bengkhuaia's village, he saw a magnificent tiger, thus inspiring him to write the iconic poem.

Ok just kidding, William Blake died much before the first British arrived in India, but his poem lives forever in our school syllabus. I've been thinking a lot about this poem because there is now officially a tiger in Mizoram again!

This is absolutely great news for Mizoram, especially for those people in the Wildlife and Conservation sector, because it became a grave concern over the years as tigers were no longer spotted at "Dampa Tiger Reserve", the largest protected area in Mizoram.

The prayers of many, including Wild Life Guard and naturalist Zakhuma, were answered as one of the cameras he had planted across the forest, sanctioned by WII (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun), detected a tiger on 16th May!

When Zakhuma sent the camera files to Lalani at WII on 30th May, it was like any other routine inspection. She casually opened the files and exported them to her computer, expecting to see the usual mix of Barking Deer and Spectacled Monkey.

Imagine her surprise when she noticed an animal that looked like a tiger! She immediately forwarded the image to her colleagues at WII. Dr. S Sathyakumar (Scientist-G, Department of Endangered Species Management) confirmed that the image was indeed that of a tiger! A small celebration took place at WII that day.

When Zakhuma, who was still unaware of the groundbreaking image his camera trap had captured, heard the good news, he was ecstatic as well! Here is the image of the much celebrated tiger caught on that camera.

I know, the resolution isn't very clear, but as I have mentioned in my earlier blog posts about "Dampa Tiger Reserve" (links at the bottom), people face a lot of problems when it comes to installing camera traps because many of the locals, poachers and insurgents remove or destroy any cameras they come across.

Hence, the guards and researchers sometimes use low budget cameras due to diminished funds. Imagine if the image above is as clear as the one below, where I bravely posed for a photo with a ferocious hungry tiger!

Lolz, the above photo was taken by Natalia at Lengpui airport when we went to see off Lalani as she was returning to WII. I love how the tiger statue above is still kept inside a cage, you know, for extra protection just in case! :D

Since this news about the tiger is now making headlines across our Mizo community, a lot of people are asking why there were no tigers at "Dampa Tiger Reserve" in the first place.

As a layman, I scoffed when I first heard the news that there were no tigers there. I thought immediately, "Are you serious? No tigers in a tiger reserve? Then why the hell do we call it a tiger reserve, this is sooo embarrassing for Mizoram!"

I'm sure you had similar thoughts as well. :)

But then I got to learn more about wildlife preservations, national parks and biodiversities across India, all thanks to my wonderful girlfriend Lalani, and I realized that "Dampa Tiger Reserve" wasn't actually the only tiger reserve with no tiger! Many bigger tiger reserves across India, like the Sariska Tiger Reserve (Rajasthan), Panna Tiger Reserve (MP), Buxa Tiger Reserve (WB) and Palamu Tiger Reserve (Jharkhand) had all seen the disappearance of their respective tigers.

You see, tigers, in spite of their sheer strength, power, ferociousness and majestic looks, are actually a very vulnerable and endangered species!

The main reason for this is because we kill them. The first instinct most people get on suddenly encountering a tiger is to either run away or kill it. You'll pick up whatever "weapon" you can find around you, be it a stone or a nuclear bomb, and chuck it towards the tiger. Kill or be killed, our consciousness screams out.

Doesn't matter if the tiger was just passing through with no signs of aggression, maybe it was just taking a casual evening stroll, or maybe it was trying to meet its fitbit daily target of 2000 steps, we don't know and we don't care, we're not going to gamble with our life! Kill it, kill ittttt.

And so, to consecrate our survival, we started wiping out the apex predators slowly. No wonder tigers are disappearing fast. Three of the eight sub-species of tigers (Balinese, Caspian and Javan) were already extinct by the late 70's.

And then we have the trophy hunters, whose sole aim is to kill a tiger, not as a defence mechanism, but to masturbate their fragile ego as they show off the carcass of a tiger they had killed.

Back during our glory days of head-hunters and pasalṭha when killing a tiger was considered as an act of bravery, homeboy at least used to fight a tiger with his bare hands, or using an unreliable musket or ulhbun (single-use breech loading rifle), whereas today's hunter is equipped with the latest automatic rifle that can mow down an entire ambush of tigers without even breaking a sweat (yes, a collective noun of tigers is called an "ambush").

Truly, there's a special place in Hell reserved for such mindless cold-hearted killers.

Tigers can also go extinct without directly killing them. This usually happens when we hunt their food. As it gets harder and harder for them to find new prey, they migrate to unfamiliar and dangerous territories, where chance of them being killed is many times higher (see first point).

That's why when I went to "Dampa Tiger Reserve", Lalani and her team of researchers were studying the ungulate (animals having hoofs) health and population because they are ecosystem engineers that play an important role in the ecosystem, like being one of the primary sources of food for tigers.

If we keep eating up the food of tigers, then the tiger has no other option but to eat us as food.

Do know that tigers very rarely kill humans for food, though.

A tiger will become a man-eater only if it is extremely hungry, and that too only if (1) it is too old to hunt, (2) too weak or sick to hunt, (3) can't find any other prey to eat. Other than these 3 points, tigers will avoid killing humans for food. I guess they too know how toxic and undesirable we are. Tigers be like, "Whoah, that dude is a Manchester United fan, no way am I going to pollute my body with that disgusting flesh!" :D :D :P

Another reason why it is so difficult to protect tigers at "Dampa Tiger Reserve" is because of insurgencies. There are at least 27 different insurgent camps active inside and near the reserve area, according to a report by Hindustan Times, and WLG (Wild Life Guards) and other forest officials are regularly harassed or kidnapped by such groups.

Last but not the least, human population explosion and encroachment are also crucial reasons that can lead to the diminishing population of tigers. Deforestation under the guise of development causes further habitat fragmentation, pushing the remaining five sub-species of tigers closer and closer to the brink of extinction.

So these are some of the many reasons why tigers have disappeared from "Dampa Tiger Reserve". However, now that the presence of a tiger is confirmed, I hope our Forest officials will take utmost care and measures to guarantee its (or their) safety.

This new revelation is not only good news for the ecology, but it will affect the economy as well. Many of these Wild Life Guards are under flimsy contract and earn meagre salary. They have given their sweat and blood to protect the biodiversity of Dampa which usually goes unrecognised. Perhaps this will open a new chapter for them and give them the resources and finances that they so badly need.

If you've enjoyed reading till here, do read my earlier blog post series about "Dampa Tiger Reserve". The links are given below:

→ How To Reach Dampa Tiger Reserve

→ Where To Stay at Dampa Tiger Reserve

→ What To Do and See at Dampa Tiger Reserve

→ Trekking at Dampa Tiger Reserve

→ Farewell to Dampa Tiger Reserve

Hope you'll visit the place soon and moreover, hope you'll get to see this famous new tiger! :)

Until my next post then, take care everyone.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

          - William Blake

Ps. Sorry for the delayed post. I've written this post the moment I heard about the tiger but I was actually waiting for the Department of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Mizoram, to issue an official Press Release about this new tiger re-discovery and include that report in this post, as that is a basic etiquette to do.

However, till today (10.06.2021), there has been no such Press Release from our government, even though there are already many news report with quotes from the Field Director and other Forest Dept officials confirming this re-discovery, like Pu Vana's Special Report, my pal Adam's "The Frontier Despatch" issue, as well as renowned Environmental Conservation Organization "The Green Hub" among many others. I find this quite weird. So I too decided to publish this post without the official Press Release since others have already reported it, hope this won't create any problems.

Chp 858. Vaccination in Mizoram

Earlier this week, I finally got my first dose of CoVid-19 vaccine. Yayyy.

Since then, I've been developing symptoms of fever, headache, fatigue, as well as new abilities to attract metallic objects (magnet test confirmed) and even see through physical bodies (X-Ray vision confirmed). OMG, the conspiracy theorists were correct! I've transformed into a superhero!

Just kidding. If I suddenly did gain new superpower to see through things, it would be to see through other people's bullshit. The number of anti-vaxxers in Mizoram is alarmingly high, especially for a state that prides itself to be the second most literate state in India. But I'll talk about that in another post.

The vaccination drive in Mizoram started from January this year, when the first batch of "Covishield" arrived at Lengpui airport on the 14th of Jan [source: DD News]

[image source: DD News]

Doctors and other Health Care workers were the first group to be vaccinated in Mizoram, followed by Front Line workers, which included all essential personnel from Local Level Task Force members and Police to Sanitation workers and Politicians.

As of yesterday, 4th June 2021, according to DIPR Mizoram website, the total number of doses administered in Mizoram so far is 3,17,566 (first dose: 2,65,375 and completed dose: 52,191).

With that, the percentage of people in Mizoram who got their first dose from the above data is 19.9% and those who had completed two doses is 3.9% [see footnotes].

Though the percentages are still very low, considering the vaccination drive started 6 months ago, they are at least slightly better than the current National average, which stands at 12.6% and 3.2% respectively.

Being a close-knitted community, most of us Mizos would know at least one person who had taken the vaccine during the first or second vaccination drive. As for me, my first experience with the vaccine came on 12th April when our locality loud speakers announced that people above 60 years could take their first shot of the vaccine.

I took my mom and two aunts from our colony to our locality vaccination center, which was held at our Chaltlang Presbyterian Church hall.

Once inside, the Health Care workers took down their Aadhaar card numbers and registered them. One of my aunts didn't have an Aadhaar card, and so they accepted her EPIC card instead.

After that, it was time to wait. Here are my two sweet aunts (mom's elder sis and younger sis) waiting for their turn to be called inside the vaccination room.

After sometime, a doctor ushered them inside the room and made them sit in a semi-circle. The doctor informed them about various instructions to take in case they started feeling feverish after the vaccination and they all listened attentively.

They were all quickly vaccinated, and from there, they moved to the next room, which was the observation room. Below on the left is my mom waiting inside the observation room.

As newly vaccinated people entered the observation room, their names were taken down and a doctor and nurse observed them for any discomfort or irregular pain. The rest of us who drove them to the center had to wait outside the room.

Every now and then, the nurse on duty would read out a list of names of those who had completed their 30 minutes observation time, and such people could leave the room. My mom and aunts too walked out of the observation room once their names were called out, and we drove them back home. That was it. Vaccination done for the 60+ category.

On 19th April, our locality loud speakers once again announced that people between the age of 45 and 60 could take their first dose of vaccine, and so my eldest sister went to the same place to get vaccinated. I didn't go with her as she didn't require a vehicle to reach the place. She too went through the same process as above.

And with that, the 45-60 years category was completed too.

However, for the next batch, that is, 18-44 years category, it was quite a long wait. After a deafening silence of almost a month, on 17th May, our state government announced that vaccines were finally available for the 18-44 age group. Finally, my turn. :D

However, unlike the two age groups above where walk-in vaccinations were conducted at our respective localities, we had to follow a different procedure.

We couldn't just walk to our local vaccine center, show them our Aadhaar card and get a vaccine. Nopes. Instead, we had to register at CoWIN portal, and once our registration was confirmed, we had to book our slot at a designated center at a given time on a given date that was announced by the government.

It was basically a "fastest finger" contest, or a "fastest internet speed" contest if you consider how bad our network speed is in many areas in Mizoram.

After two failed attempts to book an appointment, on 31st May, my niece Tomi and I waited in front of our computer from 7:30 AM, ready to press the button at 8 AM the moment the portal went live.

At 8:00 AM sharp, we pressed the button and got through! It took us around a minute to fill up just one registration itself because of the captcha code and stuff, and we were able to book a slot for my sister Dinpuii and Tomi successfully. However we couldn't book it in time for my other niece Mamuani and me, as all the slots were filled up by 8:03 AM.

Dayyymmmm.

But we decided to try our luck at the vaccine center since we felt that having a mix of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people living under the same roof could create problems in the future, and so Mamuani and I went with my sister and Tomi to the vaccination center. In Mizo, we would call this, "Vaccine ka va risk a". :P

I went and got a permit from our Local Council office to leave our locality since the designated vaccination center was located at Tuikual.

And so, all of us went to Tuikual, with our fingers crossed.

The road to Tuikual vaccination center was, to be frank, unpleasant. The road was extremely narrow and we were stuck at least 10 times because of vehicles coming from the opposite direction. Once we reached our destination, Tuikual Presbyterian Church hall, we stood in line.

And then one of the officials came outside and announced that ONLY those people who had registered and booked a slot for that day were allowed to get their vaccines. There were a few sighs of disappointment and some people turned back. My sister and Tomi continued standing in line, while Mamuani and I walked away in dismay.

My sister and Tomi were allowed inside once they showed their slot confirmation booking. They were each assigned a token number.

Their vaccination went off successfully.

My sister told me that a few people in their batch had left without taking their vaccines because the doctor announced a list of eligibility criteria to take the vaccine, like those who were recently hospitalized or pregnant couldn't take the vaccine, and so there was some chance that there might be leftover vaccines! And so Mamuani and I waited...

...and waited...

...and waited.

We saw a couple of other people waiting for leftover vaccines too, but most of them eventually gave up and went home. I guess they weren't persistent enough.

Finally, after waiting for more than 5 hours, the clock struck 3 PM, which was the last allocated time slot.

As the officials started packing up their registers and devices, we approached them and asked if it was possible to get leftover vaccines. They looked at each other and finally the one I presumed must be the leader (who was wearing a Tribe Fiction T-shirt) politely told us that this was highly irregular and that we shouldn't do things like this blah blah blah, and then asked us if we were registered at CoWIN, and we both said "yes" in unison. And then he asked us if we had our Aadhaar cards with us and again we replied with a "yes".

He then took a long dramatic sigh and finally said that since we had come from such a far locality and were waiting the whole day, he was allowing us to enter! And so they opened the gate for us and we ran inside jubilantly while thanking him profusely. :D

Ahhhh... it felt so good to be a Mizo. If I was pulling the same stunt somewhere else in India, the only way I could have entered inside was if somebody with authority pulled some strings for me or if I had bribed the officials. In Mizoram, it was all based on care and compassion.

Inside the hall, we too were assigned tokens.

We waited for our turn to be registered in the portal, and that took just a minute or two to complete.

After that they ushered us into the waiting area and finally a nurse came outside and led us into the vaccination room.

A doctor then made a small announcement, informing us that those who were pregnant or recently hospitalized weren't eligible to take the vaccine. After that she assured us that some of us could have fever or other mild illness after taking the vaccine and that was completely normal. And then the nurses came and jabbed us. Just like that, it was all over in 2 seconds. To be frank, it was quite an anti-climax, lolz, especially considering what we went through earlier to get that vaccine. :D

A nurse then led us all into the observation room, where they took down our names and we waited for 30 minutes.

And that was it. I was vaccinated. :)

I hope my experience was able to take you through the vaccination process in Mizoram. If you haven't taken your vaccine yet, please do so at the earliest.

I'll end this post by adding a few suggestions about the vaccination process, which you shouldn't take as a complaint or me being ungrateful. I am extremely grateful to the medical fraternity, Local Task Force groups, our MNF state government and our central Modi government for the free vaccine. Maybe consider my suggestions like a constructive criticism, if it will help improve the process in the future.

Suggestion 1. Why do we (18-34 group) need to book a slot via CoWIN? I personally saw how the 60+ group and 35-60 group vaccinations were conducted and everything went by so smoothly, why change the process? Like the famous phrase, "If it ain't broke, why fix it?", I am a bit perplexed as to why the 18-34 group suddenly need to follow this new process.

Also, making it mandatory to book a slot through CoWIN discriminates not just those who have slow internet connection but those who have NO internet access.

Suggestion 2. Can we announce the list of people who are not eligible to take a vaccine (pregnant, recently hospitalized etc) BEFORE the whole vaccination process begins instead of at the fag end of the process? I think that will save a lot of people so much time instead of going through the entire process only to be disqualified in the final step.

I know I may sound a bit unappreciative, considering how the only reason I managed to get a leftover vaccine was because of this same reason. :D But it is not something I would wish to happen upon anybody.

Suggestion 3. Since the government has made Tuikual a designated vaccination center, is it possible to do a little bit of traffic control during vaccination hours? It is extremely difficult for two vehicles to pass each other on that narrow stretch of road, maybe the traffic police or LLTF can make the road "one way" during vaccination, like people can enter only from Tennis court side if they are getting vaccinated and can exit only from Dinthar side once they are vaccinated, or some rule like that?

So I hope these suggestions of mine help a bit. Once again, I am truly grateful to all those who are responsible for delivering the vaccines, and hoping to see the end of this pandemic soon. Together we can battle this. God bless you all.

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Footnotes:

I came to the figure of 19.9% single dose and 3.9% double dose by taking the unofficial 2021 population of Mizoram, estimated to be around 13,31,921. However, if we take the official 2011 census report where the population of Mizoram is 10,97,206 then the percentage of people in Mizoram who got their first dose as of today is 24.1% and those who had completed two doses is 4.7%. Official government report can only use the census figure, and a new census report is supposed to come out this year but that hasn't been released yet because of the ongoing pandemic.

Also, in my comparative analysis between Mizoram data and India data, I have used a 3 days old data for India since I couldn't find the latest data online. But this will not affect the outcome variable much because the daily average vaccination rate in India is just around 0.12%.