In suport of Raksha to release T24

May 23, 2015, Jaipur / Delhi: This weekend I shall be commuting between Jaipur and Delhi having arrived in Jaipur on Thursday evening.

With Mini Sampatram at the Albert Hall for T24

Yesterday late afternoon I went to the Albert Hall where a group of youngsters, under the banner of Raksha, organized a protest to take out Ustad aka T24 from the zoo. I got many calls from people known to me who frequently visit Ranthambore. All of them requested me to to drop by and so I went there.

I also signed the poster petition for the same purpose and gave the following press statement: “I have been keeping track of T24 incident since the day he attacked the forest guard Rampal Saini and have also been in touch with the concerned authorities. 

Signing up for freeing T24

I have also been told that Ustad had not yet been proved to be a man-eater and the reason behind his attack was the violation of the safe distance between man and animal, may be by mistake. 

Facts have to be investigated and in today's world, we have enough means to do so. Just because attacking a human, if tigers are to be sent to zoos then half of the Sunderbans Tigers would have been in zoo today.”

I had also written a book on Ranthambore tigers called “The Safari” in which I had written about Ustad. In fact, many of the journalists called up later saying that this Ranthambore incident and its comparison with Sunderbans had never ocurred to them.

From the Albert Hall, I went to the Birla Auditorium to witness Shekhar Sen’s performance on Kabir to mark the 10th anniversary of Raghu Sinha. I have never met Raghu Sinha but had heard a lot about his social and cultural contributions to the city and the society. 

With Shekhar Sen and Sudhir Mathur

After the performance I hosted a dinner that was attended by Shekhar Sen, Dr Sonal Mansingh and few other friends from the cultural fraternity.

Today morning I had a few meetings and tomorrow morning I am flying to Delhi. I am looking forward to tomorrow evening in Delhi as I am meeting a friend over dinner after almost 18 years.

ess bee