Sheer madness has overwhelmed the forest department in Sawai Madhopur. They have decided to exploit everything they can lay their hands on, including vehicles that do not belong to them...much like stealing a person's property by putting a gun to his head. It is so blatant that it leaves one dumbfounded if one is not of warped mind and soul.

Gypsies and Canters bought by bonafide and registered tour operators are forced into a pool and a roster system where the department decides where and to whom these vehicles go. In other words, a vehicle that belongs to the Taj hotel cannot take the guests of the Taj into the Park...the forest department may have sent that vehicle to a Rs 100 a night hotel to collect people for the ride. This is, in fact, a breach of the fundamental rights of a citizen and also a violation of decent business practices. Sooner rather than later, these issues will have to be addressed in court since good sense has not prevailed.

The state government and the chief of the forest operations in Jaipur have been fully briefed by concerned people ranging from trustees of the WWF to secretaries of the central government but the government in Jaipur has not been able to sever the corruption nexus. The bosses of the department in Jaipur are weak, weak, weak and the forest `mafia' in the district lives by threatening those who oppose the horrors. The threats range from khatam kar ke dikhayenge (we'll finish them off) to jungle mein nahin jane denge (we won't let them set foot in the forest).

This rampant everyday attitude smacks of a kind of criminality. By making up ficticious stories about those who are raising their voice against graziers, against the roster system where vehicles belonging to private citizens are usurped by the department, against orders being issued after office hours in an attempt to keep the many legitimate operators out to help the specially selected favourites of the department who do not protest anything that is destroying the forest, the habitat and the ethos, (I wonder what the scales of the deals are), the forest department seems to be involved in a dangerous game. Yes, they can try and kill legitimate, transparent business by high-handed, nefarious means but only for a short while. If correctives are not applied immediately, a scandal will break out.

Ashok Gehlot is hailed as an honest Gandhian. Why then does he not kill the ghastly shenanigans of his forest department in Sawai Madhopur by wielding one swift axe? Why has a top-level inquiry against the department in Sawai Madhopur not been initiated? Let the filth and truth emerge and be spat out. Everyone who has spent some time there knows the intricate details of the wheeling and dealing. There is not one single person, other than those in the forest and local administration, who goes into the park free and at their will, with their pals, who is not disgusted at the garbage meted out by the forest department. Tourists from five-star to zero-star hotels are in unison on this issue and they are all paying to go into the reserve unlike those who are saluted at the gate!

The forest guards and range officers treat paying tourists like pariah dogs. They speak badly, are rude and care not about anything as they assume the role of the annadaata. They allocate routes on whim and we all know what that entails. Those who do not play ball with the inept and the dishonest are given the same route over and over again. I am a victim of the same route racket.

Ranthambhore is being held to ransom by the forest department that has got a new role - destroy any tour operator or resort owner who is honest, who believes in the forest first, who will not play the dirty game of endorsing the wrong by keeping silent. To have forest officers threaten to get rid of people who oppose their wrongdoings is unacceptable and merits action. It is as bad as poaching in the park.