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E-mail from readers the world over

'The fact that the tigers died the way they did is a national shame'

This story is unbelievable! How could something like this happen in this day and age? The tigers' deaths smack of negligence. Can we do anything to help?

Sandeep Sawhney

Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2000, 22:33:37EST +0530
Subject: Contaminated meat caused Nandankanan tragedy

The fact that the tigers died the way they did is indeed a national shame. Like any other enquiry, the one instituted to probe into the deaths of these tigers too will come up with nothing. No wonder we are the most henious tribe of `animals' in the world!

Dr N Vijaylakshmi Brara

Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000, 11:02:47EST +0530
Subject: Contaminated meat caused Nandankanan tragedy

The person who fed the tigers infected meat and injected them should be publicly hanged. Now the cancer of corruption is apparently not sparing even innocent animals, this in our country with a glorious tradition of ahimsa . I bet that the so-called enquiry committee will be just an eyewash. Unless the guilty are severely punished, there will be more such sorry incidents in India. In China, drug peddlers and smugglers are quietly hanged. Surely we can follow their example?

N Shivakumar

Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000, 09:14:12 EST-0400
Subject: Contaminated meat caused the Nandankanan tragedy

If the theory that the tigers got a disease from contaminated meat and the drugs used to treat them were probably past their expiry date is correct, then it highlights the corruption and incompetence which are widespread in our country.

The meat suppliers obviously supplied poor quality meat to offset expenses towards bribes. Imagine a similar situation in, say, the Trombay facility. "Low quality graphite rods were supplied to offset expense towards bribes that were paid to the purchase officer." The scale of the problem will be compounded manyfold. Instead of a few poor tigers, a few thousand poor humans may lose their lives.

The Nandankanan incident is a case in point that corruption has spread even to such unlikely places as zoos. If allowed to spread, the vital institutions of our nation will be rendered completely inept. The media will have to play an important role in stemming the rot. It can easily take the lead in the fight corruption. Assuming that the media is not corrupt, it should boldly print the names and designations of corrupt officials though our judicial system being what it is, legal retribution for corruption will be slow in coming. Giving corruption publicity can help in reducing the spread of corruption. Of course, this alone will not be sufficient, but it can be the beginning of an anti-corruption movement in the country.

Sundeep Varma

Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2000 13:03:47 +0530
Subject: Contaminated meat caused the Nandankanan tragedy

The officials/authorities responsible for the tragic deaths of the tigers should be punished. It is quite clear that this mishap is due to "process " failure. The responsibility of defining and monitoring various processes squarely and clearly lies with the higher-ups.

K Srikanth

Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2000, 22:54:47EST
Subject: Contaminated meat caused the Nandankanan tragedy

This is a shocking article! There has to be someone who is accountable for this total incompetence. How could this have happened? The tiger is supposed to be our national animal, so what are we doing to protect it?

Nobody really cares what happens to animals. The tiger is the pride of India and just like everything else, we have neglected it too. We have funds for Project Tiger etc but who really gets the money? If Nanadankanan is one of the largest White Tiger Safari parks, why were there no good vets around? Why were there no responsible people to monitor the administration of drugs?

We have to get to the bottom of these deaths and ensure that those responsible are punished. Unfortunately, very soon this issue will be forgotten and those responsible for this tragedy will go scot free. The government will conveniently forget the whole episode as more "pressing" matters will take precedence.

Sonia Bharadwaj

Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2000, 10:08:24EST -0600
Subject: Contaminated meat caused the Nandankanan tragedy

The news article was informative though we would have liked to know how many tigers were there in all in Nandankanan. That is, 13 tigers die out of a total of how many?

Saravanan

Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000, 12:35:55EST -0400
Subject: Hooked on the Net

It appears that the IAS probationers, although very intelligent and diligent, cannot resist the temptations of pornographic web sites. This is a common problem across all corporations here in the US. However, there are techniques to address these issues.

You could prevent access to pornographic sites by including a code in the router that checks for requests going to these "hot sites." Such codes are very elementary to write and can be written by any network engineer. This works best as people can visit all other sites to increase their awareness of the Internet and it effectively blocks them from wasting their time by visiting pornographic sites.

Sound management of User Accounts can have a log of web sites visited by each user. Periodic assessment of this log will help us weed out the "bad apples" amongst the IAS probationers. These people could be given suitable warnings and if this is found to be of no avail, their accounts could be frozen. Effectively, they are at a disadvantage over their peers who spend their time more wisely.

I was an IAS aspirant and honestly, it disappoints me and saddens my heart to hear that men and women on whom the hopes of 1 billion Indians rest indulge in such irresponsible behaviour.

Mahesh Narayanan

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