Sir — Scientists have found that food baits placed to draw out lions at the Gir National Park to please photo-hungry tourists is affecting the big cat’s predatory skills. This is worrying; it eliminates the line separating national parks and reserves from zoological parks. If wild animals in their natural environment lose their ability to hunt for food, they will pass this trait onto their offspring. In the long run, if apex predators forget to hunt, the entire food chain will be thrown out of balance. Nature cannot be treated just as an avenue to boost tourism.

Abhimanyu Nair,

Bangalore

Unwelcome guest

Sir — The article, “Guess who came after dinner” (Feb 16), reminded me of an incident from my youth. I was only 16 years old when two men came to our home after dinner at midnight. My father was posted in Murshidabad, leaving my mother and me alone at home and the neighbourhood was not as crowded back then. Yet, we did not get a hint of the thieves’ arrival. We woke up next morning to find a huge gathering outside our gate, where two individuals had been tied up with ropes. Apparently, the locals had caught them red-handed trying to climb our roof and had given them a good thrashing. Later they were handed over to the local police.

These were chhinchke chors. One might think that sindhel chors no longer exist since mud houses have gone out of fashion and because people hardly keep valuable items at home anymore. But I think that the idea of sindhel chors has just evolved. They do not dig into the mud houses but they do dig into the computer systems and take away valuable data like banking passwords. They are technologically more sound and way better educated than their predecessors. They are also more dangerous since chances of them getting caught are slim. People should be extra cautious of these hi-tech chors of the modern world. They can do more harm than the innocuous sindhel chors of yore.

Alok Ganguly,

Nadia

Sky high

Sir — The increase in cooking gas prices for customers who do not avail a subsidy is too steep. There is no justifiable explanation for hiking the price of LPG by a whopping Rs 140-150 per cylinder in one go. Even for those availing the subsidy, buying cooking gas will burn a hole in the pocket if they consume LPG beyond the regulated 12 cylinders a year. The fuel subsidy fund of the government, too, was reduced in the current budget, indicating that there will be a slide in the subsidies as well.

Price hikes in fuel are inevitable, but these must be gradual. Staggering out the increase in cooking gas prices over the next two or three years would be a better option, especially given the rampant job losses and non-availability of fresh employment opportunities. Any increase in kitchen budgets will thus hurt households across income groups, but especially so for the lower and middle income consumers who are already contending with a rise in vegetable prices and food inflation.

Shovanlal Chakraborty,

Calcutta

Ugly sight

Sir — I recently stumbled upon an article regarding the growing magnitude of ‘sight pollution’ in the country. According to the estimates, Calcutta is one of the worst offenders in this regard, and was termed the “hoarding capital” of the country. It was also mentioned therein that a large share of the the hoardings, cut-outs, festoons and so on have to do with the ruling dispensation.

There is no denying that this phenomenon has drastically increased in the last few years. No religious, political or social event seems complete without displaying publicity materials in different parts of the city. The most disturbing aspect is that such matter is displayed for months after said events are over. Civic authorities do not bother to remove obsolete, torn and soiled advertisements that add to sight pollution. The administration should look into this and save the city from being mocked as the capital of sight pollution in the country.

Srikanta Bhattacharjee,

Calcutta