Daring even in death

If you met Paramvir Khati on the streets of Kurseong, you would probably take him to be the local romeo. Tall and well built, fashionably dressed and very fond of playing the guitar, he was quite the local heartthrob. If you met him inside the forests of the Mahananda WLS near his Punding beat, you would have certainly mistaken him for a well-heeled field biologist from a prestigious institute. For you don't usually come across beat officers taking field notes on dictaphone machines or shooting on sophisticated SLR cameras to win national photography contests! A dare-devil, he loved stalking elephants on foot and taking pictures from close. Piar Chand, DFO, Wildlife 1 division said: " He was like a friend to me and would come and discuss many things that I would not discuss with beat officers. The chief wildlife warden knew him and treated him like a friend. But he ensured that all this did not antagonize his fellow workers, who had no such opportunities."

On April 19 Paramveer was traveling on his motorcycle from the Punding beat to the headquarters in Sukna. When he did not reach till the evening, a search party went and found his body lying trampled near a tree adjacent to the path. His motorcycle was lying about 100 feet away. Nitin Roy, beat officer of Sukna range said: "We can only guess what happened. He may have either been surprised by the elephant who was feeding around the croner or he may have seen the elephant and stopped to watch it, who then may have charged without giving him a chance to escape."

On December 8 WTI's Director, Programmes, Aniruddha Mookerjee, presented a cheque for Rs one lakh , to Paramveer's father, Mr Pushpa Raj Khati, as a part of the insurance cover the Wildlife Trust of India provides to 50,000 forest staff throughout India. The scheme was launched on March 30, 2001, brings all the forest staff posted in field areas under a single insurance scheme. The scheme covers employees of the rank of range forest officer and below on field wildlife duties. Even temporary employees who have been on the rolls for at least three years and are on field wildlife duties are eligible.

The first cheque of Rs 100,000 was handed over on August 29 to a forest guard's widow in Corbett Tiger Reserve. Reva Devi received the cheque Mr. AS Negi, chief wildlife warden of Uttaranchal and WTI's Mr Mookherjee.

The third cheque will be handed over on December 15 to the family of Bipin Bihari Pandey, who was posted as a deputy ranger at Bijrani, Corbett.

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