New Delhi, Aug 16: Once upon a time, Palamau, an ideal tiger country, prompted the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to earmark the forest as a tiger reserve. Today, instead of battling to save tigers, the reserve has become a battleground between the MCC and the foresters. No longer is it a safe haven for tigers, instead, the reserve has become an ideal habitat for manufacturing katha, the basic ingredient for gutkha (chewing tobacco), and also paan (betel leaf). Sources in the forest department say that tonnes of katha - made from the Khair tree (Acacia catechu), and once abundant in Palamau - is manufactured in the reserve and is supplied to guthka manufacturers across the country The katha industry in the reserve is controlled by the MCC - they charge extortion money from workers illegally employed in cutting khair trees and making gutkha. Such is the terror of the MCC that even foresters fear to enter Palamau. Not without reason. Talking to The Pioneer, the chief wildlife warden of Jharkhand, Mr Usha Ranjan Biswas, informs that the MCC has targeted forest officers in the reserve. The MCC has a hit-list of seven forest officers, which includes district forest officers, forest rangers and guards. The hit-list is being circulated in and around the reserve for information leading the MCC to the target. Though Palamau has a bloody history - In September 1992, anti-social elements mercilessly beat up five forest guards in the reserve and threw them in the flooded Auranga river, two of whom had died - the MCC was not always against the forest department. In fact, the MCC even helped the forest department recover ivory from poachers in 1996. However, in the past seven years, the relationship has taken a sharp about turn, with the MCC pitted against forest officials as they mint money by protecting illegal katha manufacturers in the tiger reserve.
According to sources, Palamau has become a gold mine for the MCC. "Palamau was once known for its abundant khair trees, but now it's virtually barren," says a forest officer. What makes the problem worse, is that with the khair trees having almost disappeared from the buffer areas, katha-making operations are now concentrated on the 132 kms core area of the tiger reserve, severely disturbing the habitat of tigers, elephants, gaur and other endangered animals.
On June 30, 2003, the forest department's struggle to save Palamau from katha merchants took an ugly turn. Two daily-wagers employed by the forest department as trackers were killed allegedly by the MCC, in retaliation to a raid on katha manufacturers by DFO, Santosh Tiwari three weeks back. While returning from the raid, Tiwari was gheraoed by miscreants carrying arms and in the illegal possession of deer antlers. Tiwari opened fire to defend his life, and somehow managed to escape.
Tiwari now figures on the hit-list of the MCC and has since been transferred out of Palamau. The others on the hit list, however, have not been as "fortunate."

The forest department has expressed its helplessness to handle the situation at Palamau. If not controlled, they fear that Palamau, once a pristine tiger habitat, will be beyond redemption. Less than ten years back, Palamau boasted of a population of about 50 Royal Bengal tigers and 150 elephants. now it is anybody's guess. Though, Baswas asserts that the last census showed a population of approximately 40 tigers, the numbers are open to question. "How can one arrive at a census when forest officers fear to enter the reserve?" questions a forest official. Tigers, he says, thrive in tranquil jungles, not gutkha factories and battlefields.