JAMMU: In Gandhi Nagar Police jurisdiction, the failure of the cops to prohibit senseless spectators from flooding the site where a wild tiger took refuge proves costly for one aged man whose face was badly defaced by the wild animal with one eye hanging from the face.
The credit for this hair raising incident, first goes to cops who fails to prevent flooding of the frenzied citizens towards garden and secondly, the regiment of nearly 250 parachute “Journalists” responsible for spreading sensation in the city about presence of tiger in Gandhinagar
Aged Ganga Ram, who earns his livelihood by chiseling name plates on marble for house and offices was standing around the fence of the garden in Green Belt Park and like thousands of spectators was watching the wild tiger being chased by daring guards of Wild Life Department.
Suddenly, feeling nervous by the commotion of fence spectators, the agitated tiger rushed towards the fence of the park and pounced on Ganga Ram. In the attack, the poor man was badly defaced with serious damaged to one of his left eyes which was seen hanging out of its place.
This was a serious operation where the dare devil guards were trying their best to catch the ferocious wild tiger, said one of the shopkeeper of Green Belt Park area. However, their task was further complicated by the Parachute Journalists, huge crowd of senseless public and “motionless” cops, he added.
Besides cops, the senior police officers were present on the spot but nothing was done to prevent the over enthusiastic public from crowding the sensitive spot, said Dr Rajinder whose car was stuck in the traffic snarl due to absence of law and order around the place where tiger was running helter skelter.
Had the police acts in a responsible way and sealed the way leading to garden in Green Belt Park area of Gandhinagar, the Gangaram wouldn’t lost his eye. But, this happened when those supposed to control unlawful happenings themselves become mute spectators.
For couple of hours, there was complete absence of law and order on roads leading to a garden where wild tiger was virtually surrounded by mindless public, said a resident of the Green Belt Park area namely Ashish Gupta. This huge crowd comprising thousands of people is a breach of COVID SoPs, he added.
Thousands of people has virtually blocked all the roads leading to Green Belt Park area and hundreds of cars get stranded due to haphazard parking of cars and motorcycles by enthusiastic spectators, told one visitor to the nearby ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co office and whose car was struck due to traffic snarl in the area.
“I am surprised at the presence of men in khakhi who instead of doing their duty were seen acting as part of crowd” complained Advocate Dheeraj Sharma. This is pathetic and unbecoming of a police officer, he added.
Meanwhile, the guards of wildlife warden after rigrous efforts manage to catch the wild tiger in which two guards received serious injuries.
Our job was bit made more difficult by the excited media and mindless crowd of spectators, said one of the official of Wild Life Department.
Talking to the JKGN, SHO Gandhi Nagar Inspector Bharat Sharma said” Our men were there and doing their “job” but it was “impossible” to restrict the crowd from rushing towards the garden. With chaos everywhere around Green Belt Park and inability to restrict public from crowding the garden fence, what kind of job the cops were doing there only SHO knows better ?