A visitor from the wild that walked down our roads recently did so in a way we are now compelled to measure ourselves to our words.

A tiger comes to town. Casually as it did is worrying. The rare denizen of our wild coming down to human settlements in broad day light is a significant message that we need to understand in many ways.

Superstitions and misplaced beliefs will not help, at all. We need to wake up to the reality. And that means putting ourselves in the picture. Why are tigers coming closer to human settlements? And, for that matter, why are they roaming the places that they never used to before?

When the mad idea of allowing farmers to shoot wild boars within certain range of encroachment was sent flying, we saw hungry predators coming down to the villages. Disturbance in the natural environment has never been healthy.

Shoot the wild pigs but do not harm the tigers is a curious conservation idea of this age. How we aspect natural balance in the environment becomes so complicated that it is in some way hilarious.

A tiger coming down, almost close to the heart of the city, is a serious indication of our conservation strategies gone wrong. It was a good tiger that just walked majestically along the Kabesa road. We might not have the same good fortune to be alive to tell the tale in the future.

Solutions we seek the easy way are often the sad choices. We could not help our farmers protect their crops from the marauding wild animals, even with electric fencing, but disturbing the food chain is never a sensible answer. Protection of crops and wildlife conservation are ideas world apart. We need to get these things right. How did we miss this commonsense?

It is a story of a tiger in town today. In the near future, bears and leopards could come sneaking into our living rooms. How prepared are we to deal with such problems?