After working tirelessly for mankind during Covid pandemic and lockdown, Neeti Goel – restaurateur and philanthropist, has touched the lives of many by co-founding initiatives like ‘Khaana Chahiye’ and ‘Ghar Bhejo’ (along with Sonu Sood) serving free meals to the needy and homeless people and helping 1.5 lakhs migrants reach home. Continuing with her philanthropic work, the successful entrepreneur has taken upon a new challenge of working tirelessly and selflessly for the plight of tiger widows in Sundarbans (West Bengal).
With both his sons jobless, Biswajit Mistry ventured deep into the dense jungles of the Sundarbans in search of raw honey that would fetch a better price. His body was recovered two days later, mauled and bearing unmistakable signs of a tiger attack. There are in total 54 islands on the Indian side of Sunderbans which are inhabited by almost 3000 plus tiger widows.
“It is believed the deeper you go into the jungle, the purer is the honey you get”, informs Neeti, adding, “The family has received no compensation because Biswajit was killed in a restricted jungle and is struggling for survival. They can barely manage two meals a day, one of the many who lost their husbands to tiger attacks in the last few years.”
Sundarban jungle is known for being a global hotspot for human-tiger conflict. Seeing the plight of these tiger widows, philanthropist Neeti Goel decided to take up their cause and make them self-sufficient by helping them with fish farming, goat rearing, hen culture and by donating cows to a few of them with larger families.
“This is one of its kind project and the execution is extremely difficult as most of these villages are in deep dense forest and accessible by canals which are infested with crocodiles but we will not give up and the execution work has already started. There is no limit to what we as women can accomplish. I am a woman, what’s your super power,” Neeti concludes.
