WB couple on 40k-km motorcycle tour for tiger protection

A couple who began a nationwide 40000-kilometre motorcycle journey from Kolkata to create awareness about wildlife conservation and tiger protection reached Maharashtra's Nagpur on Saturday.

While the journey since starting out from West Bengal on February 15 was pleasant and the people they met receptive, Ratindranath Das and his wife Gitanjali said they were mistaken for child-lifters in a village in Madhya Pradesh.

"We were going to Satpura Tiger Reserve in Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh. En route, we stopped near a tree to rest. A school boy alerted nearby villagers who thought we were child-lifters. They were threatening at first but we managed to convince them about our cause, after which they were apologetic and cooperative," said Ratindranath (43), a wildlife conservationist.

"This journey is to create awareness about wildlife conservation and to ensure steps to protect the tiger. We are touring forest reserves across the country and talking to stakeholders, including forest dwellers of all ages. So far, we have been to reserves of 22 states and after Maharashtra, we plan to proceed to Goa and then further south," he told PTI.

He said almost 80 of the initiative is being financed by Facebook friends while the rest is being pooled in from the public.

He said the next plan is to tour tiger reserves of 12 countries from March next year.