-- Samir Umarye BY SAMIR UMARYE BICHOLIM FEB 8: Even as the buffaloes are being killed by the Tiger the life of the lone family at Kudal-Mal in Charavne seem to be
at risk. After the information when this correspondent went to the spot he was surprised to see the lone Fale family living in the wild Chorla ghat without electricity or water facility available. The family in all has only three members Babu Manu Fale who lives along with his parents. Their house is infact a small hut with thatched roof. The family lives here since last 60 years and their only source of income is their buffaloes. Every day they climb down the hill and supply milk to a dairy at Thane- Sattari. They have about 20 buffaloes and they tie them at night in the same hut in which they live. To add to this the hut is having no doors and not only the animals but also the Fale family runs the risk of being attacked by the Tiger. The area on the Chorla ghat is about 10 kms from the Keri village and is still preferred by them as claim that their animals get their required fodder in the area. In the absence of electricity the family depends upon fire and required water from the nearby spring. "Since last more than 60 years we are staying here and we have been spotting Tiger but just recently it started attacking the animals" Manu Fale told Herald. "This is the third time that we have suffered loss because of the tiger attack as the first was in 2004 and now this week the tiger has killed two of our animals" Babu Fale claims "we are not given any compensation neithere the government is bothered to relocate us to a safer place away from the Tiger habitat." Sighting threat to the life of Fale family the RFO wild life, Vishwas Chodankar who visited the area also urged the family to move to safer place for some days as the Tiger seem to be still hungry and it would be a risk to be in the area. "We have asked them to go down to Keri or some other area at least at night as the Tiger has already killed two of their cattle but was unable to eat them and if it is still hungry it might attack them once again" Chodankar told. Sighting this problem the animal lovers and the forest department has kept the body of the dead buffalow at the same spot so that the tiger would not harm other animals. The animal lovers have also urged the government to take appropriate steps to relocate the family. "We strongly demand to relocate the Fale family and even to protect the tiger" environmentalist, Rajendra Kerkar told, warning "the tiger that was killed earlier in Keri was only because of the irresponsibility on the part of the forest department and if the same thing happens again than we would not keep quite and the entire responsibility would be that of the department and the government." "We also demand compensation to the Fale family as it is seen that the government is not too serious about the issue even we would also try to compensate them with the help of our organisation" Kerkar told.
