White tiger killing Man – questions our civic responsibilities

According to experts and the media, ‘the White tiger killing Man’, tragedy at the Delhi Zoo took the turn for the worse when the onlookers provoked it with sticks and stones. The video clippings captured show for the first few minutes the encounter was just between the two – the curious tiger and the crouched man before it- probably the onlookers were ignorant or confused regarding how to save the man from being attacked. After a while a bystander threw stones and sticks at the tiger thereby provoking the tiger to ultimately attack Maqsood. I tried to find out why the stones and sticks were thrown at the tiger and the answers were right there on the internet. Just google ‘how to survive attack‘ and the first search result of Wikihow says ‘use a large stone or stick to fight and also be aggressive and loud. Unfortunately these defensive techniques proved fatal in Maqsoods case. Read about an unexpected Metro Snag in Delhi in this post.

‘Vijay’ the tiger acted more civilized than human beings on contrary of being a wild beast with killer instincts. When Vijay spotted Maqsood in his territory he did no jump and pounce at him (as we would expect having watched documentaries, films and cartoons about tigers), instead he leisurely walked towards Maqsood and inspected the intruder. He gave Maqsood ample time of 600-900 seconds to save his life. For those who are aware of the defensive techniques, to survive a tiger attack, ten minutes is enough time to save oneself as the incident that happened in Kuala lumpur forest shows where a woman saved her husband from a tiger by hitting it using a soup spoon. Ultimately the blame game will continue, whether the zoo keepers or the victim is responsible for the gory incident.

However zoo visitors in India should refrain from flouting warnings and instructions on the boards. In India we break rules in every sphere of activity but if we interfere with jungle laws, then not mercy petition work out there. Here are a few examples of how visitors to the zoo disobey the instructions on the warning boards:

• The board say ‘do not feed the monkeys’ –  people feed the monkeys with breads and peanuts
• The board says ‘do not the shout and disturb the bear’- the visitors hoot and rattle the grill to catch attention of the bear.
• The board says ‘do not knock on the glass enclosure of snake’ – people knock on the glass disturbing the snakes.

To conclude India as a whole need to practice better civic sense and civic responsibilties which they learn in Moral Science classes in schools. Unfortunately Moral Science is the least important subject allotted in schools with hardly one period allotted in a week. And in most cases other subject utilized this hour to complete their portions. The kids of today can be trained to responsible citizen of tomorrow with high civic values as the witnesses say the White Tiger killing the Man at Delhi Zoo it was a child who first threw the stones and sticks may be based on information it gained from the internet, television or Moral Science Classes.