Once dacoit, now cheetah mitra, Ramesh Sikarwar says: ‘If anyone attacks a cheetah in Kuno, they will have to face me’ | India News,The Indian Express
It is this old connection that prompted Sikarwar, now 72, to come forward as a “cheetah mitra” at the national park. “The Kuno forest gave us shelter, protected us. We had a deep love for the forest. It is time now for me to protect it,” he says.
It is this old connection that prompted Sikarwar, now 72, to come forward as a “cheetah mitra” at the national park. “The Kuno forest gave us shelter, protected us. We had a deep love for the forest. It is time now for me to protect it,” he says.
Sikarwar’s name still carries fear in the region — the dreaded former dacoit was accused of around 70 murders and 300 kidnappings. Now, he is a farmer and one of the 500 cheetah mitras from the 51 villages in the area who have been trained to create awareness among the villagers about the animals. The other volunteers include school teachers, village headmen and patwaris.
“Once we knew the cheetahs were coming, we had started running an awareness campaign about the cheetahs in the surrounding villages. It was the MP government’s proposal to establish cheetah mitras, who would basically operate as informants for the forest department and keep us apprised of the goings in and around the Kuno National Park. They will also be responsible for carrying out their own awareness campaigns regarding the cheetahs among villages and local populations. In July, when we had started these campaigns, we had asked for volunteers to become cheetah mitras. That is when Sirkarwar, who is well known in the area, came forward,” says Chief Wildlife Warden Madhya Pradesh J S Chauhan.
Speaking with The Indian Express, Sirkarwar described his past life and turn to dacoity: “I was just 23 years old when I became a Baghi (dacoit). My father had to leave our village of Lahroni, after my uncle grabbed our property and refused to part with it despite the property being in my father’s name. We were poor, he was rich. We had relocated to another village. When I was older, and my father had passed, my sister was getting married, I went to my uncle for cattle to give in my sister’s wedding. He refused. I shot him and ran away,” he says.
Over the next few years, Sirkarwar was to establish a gang of 32 dacoits that would operate across Gwalior, Morena, Guna, Jhansi, Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and another 12 districts in Rajasthan.
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