A heart wrenching poem about missing tigers by Moinak, as awareness against illegal poaching of the wild cats.

Every year they are going missing,

From Parks, Sanctuaries,

From registers as they are christened

By T, symbolic of their species,

How the wild cats are going missing,

From woods, dark and Silence where ruined

Everything that nature offers,

Where they had all gone?

To which poaching den? Which heaven?

How they are going missing every day?

From parks, forests, Sanctuaries,

River tributaries,

They are all going missing

Where they had all gone,

The twelve beautiful things?

Which den? Which heaven?

*Note : based on a report of the missing tigers from Ranthambore Tiger reserve; at least twelve tigers are found to be missing within a span of few years. In between 2010 and 2014, five tigers as denoted by numbers like T-31, etc, went missing. The poem is written as an awareness campaign against illegal poaching and killing of wild animals.

Pix from Net

Moinak Dutta

Born in September 1977 to an immigrant family, Moinak Dutta has been writing poems and stories from school days. His first published poem appeared in The Statesman, in 1999. Since then many of his poems and stories have been published in national and international anthologies and magazines. He wrote book reviews, including one on Upanishads. His two fictions are ‘Pestilence’ (2009) and "Online@offline" (2014). He blogs regularly and is interested in photography, films and music.

See Full Bio