Resort staffer returns home to forest watchtower quarantine in Jalpaiguri

Jalpaiguri: A hotel management diploma holder who was working at a resort on Andaman and Nicobar Islands has fallen on hard times amid the Covid pandemic, banished to the heights of a 25ft forest watchtower on his return home to Jalpaiguri district.
Amar Bahadur Rai (23) has younger brother Jiwan for company after he rode to Siliguri on a motorcycle to receive his sibling.
On June 10, when Amar and Jiwan reached Malivitta Nepali Busty, under Sikarpur forest beat of Belakoba range within Rajganj police station limits, at 10pm, villagers denied them entry. They were directed to the watchtower built by the forest department to thwart marauding elephants during harvesting season. Since that Wednesday night, the two brothers are spending quarantine atop the 8ftx8ft watchtower in a dense forest around 400m from their village.
“I never imagined I would be forced to stay in quarantine on an elephant watchtower in an isolated place away from my village. As my brother came in touch with me, both of us were forced to stay on the tower. My family brings food and water up to a distance; we go and collect them,” said Amar.
“I was working at a resort on Havelock Island. Due to lockdown, my contract was not renewed and I had to return home after a year and a half,” added Amar, whose father works in the Border Security Force.
Forest officials tried to persuade the villagers, saying that a watchtower quarantine was risky and illegal. “We tried to get the villagers to see reason. But they were adamant. We could do nothing,” said Dipak Roy Pradhan, beat officer of Sikarpur forest.
Belakoba forest ranger Sanjay Dutta said: “People have lost humanity and have made an elephant watchtower into a quarantine centre.”
The number of Covid-positive cases is rapidly increasing in much of north Bengal and most of the affected are returnees. “They will undergo a coronavirus test in a week and if found negative, they will return home in 14 days,” said the brothers’ uncle Hari Bahadur Bhujel.
Meanwhile, with the monsoon already here, the two brothers’ life on the exposed watchtower has turned painful. There is no shelter from rain and there is no electricity, which means there is no sleep in the hot and humid nights.