Tiger: Tigers are getting wiped out
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Times Of India,Bangalore
December 02, 1996.
Tigers Are Getting Wiped Out
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Ashok Kumar, Vice President, Wildlife Protection Society of India.
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In a patch of mud, the pug mark is fresh and sharply delineated. The
tiger had walked across the forest road late that winter morning and
entered an area of short grass to the right. No signs in the grass, of
course, but we pick them up again in the small 'nullah' bed, dry at
this time. Across, there are several game trails going up a steep
embankment but these are boulder-strewn and soon we lose track of the
pug marks. Following one of the trails brings us to a grassy meadow
surrounded on two sides by sal and a mixed forest on the third. This
is far enough from the road, and just the right place for a tiger to
sleep off in a sunny clearing after a cold night's hunt.
Unfortunately, there are four of us; too large a number to walk
noiselessly. In my 30 years of tracking after tigers, two is a good
company and I do not think I will ever get to be as good as the best
who do this alone.
As we traverse part of the meadow, the cheetal go berserk with alarm
calls a little higer up on the hill where there is dense sal. We
quickly walk back to the embankment, settle ourselves at a vantage
point and expect to see the tiger cross the nullah bed because that's
what the invisible travel of alarm calls indicates. An hour goes
by. A call here, monkeys spitting venom there, a few grunts and and
then all is quiet. The tiger had decided not to cross the nullah bed
and is possibly fast asleep again. Yet, he would keep some part of his
mind alert for intruders. For this was a different kind of tiger.
That was two years ago in a remote corner of lansdowne forest division
in the hills of Uttar Pradesh. This was not a national park. Not een a
wildlife sanctuary. No part of that. No part of that delightful
officialese - proteted area network. The wildlife of this forest was,
of course, aware of that.
Hence, this tiger was a different kind of tiger. There is the zoo
tiger. Well fed, reasonably well cared for and therefore with a high
breeding success rate; but caged, and barred. The essential quality of
anger and ferocity long broken against the steel bars if he came from
the jungle, and if born here, a pale shadow of 'tigerness' locked
away in the genes. The pampered tiger of national parks is another
kind of tiger especially if he or she has a reserved seat in a core
area. 'Sita 'of Kanha Tiger Reserve does not bother to wake up even
when surrounded by elephant borne tourists. A bored yawn sometimes.
Then there was this one - a tiger tiger. Wary, cautious, a
strategist, bold when necessary often hungry because of a small and
equally wary prey base, familiar with ways of men and of
woodcutters, taking chances, searching far and wide for a mate but
carrying the true tiger lineage nevertheless. These tigers do strange
things, show up in unexpected places. Three years after Dalma Hill in
Bihar became a wildlife sanctuary, a tiger showed up. The nearest
tiger habitat was 70km away. In 1993 we had many such tigers in India,
fully two thirds of the total.
In recent months, there has been a heated debate on how many tigers
have been killed in the last two years. Records of seizures compiled
by Wildlife Protection Society of India total up 93 tigers lost in
1994 and 115 in 1995. Since no one can get the entire tiger poaching
data of India, a multiplying factor has to be used. Four? Five? take
your pick.
Never mind the numbers game. there is a little doubt that atrition far
exceeds recruitment. So which of the tigers are going? Curious
question, because the partial census of tiger reserves in 1995 shows a
small increase.
In reality, tigers which are outside tiger reserves are sitting ducks.
These tiger live in sub-optimal habitats with a low prey base. These
are 'free-for-all' forests. Cattle grazing is common here yet these
tigers do not go for the cattle as a matter of course. There is, of
course, the established cattle-lifter, possibly an old or
incapacitated tiger. He does not last long and there is no need to
mourn his departure.
This was the way of nature till the demand for tiger bones hit India,
and then, master minds of the trade began hiring mercenaries to
poison, snare or rarely now, shoot tigers. The easiest
targets were outside the tiger reserves. Forest officers managing
these habitats do have a responsibility of protecting all wildlife in
their area but have virtually no resources or motivation to do so.
Ingress of humans is permitted. Who is to know today the lean figure
walking the jungle is not plucking amla fruit for medication but is
out to poison the forest pool? In hot summer that is the only place
where there is water, and the tiger cannot hold off his thirst
at sundown. An excrucitatingly gruesome death follows. Recent advances
in uses of chemicals ensures that. The purpose is, after drinking the
tiger must not travel far.; it would then be such a waste of time
searching for the carcass. Conversation with a poacher September 1996.
If you want the full gory details, drop me a post card.
There is very little in place to protect these forgotten tigers who
were fully two thirds of all tigers in India even as late as in 1993.
Some of them are in wildlife sanctuaries. A great majority of the
sanctuaries have little management. Two bicycles, on shotgun, one or
two game guards for several hundred square kilometres, and no wireless
of course.
The remaining tigers have to take their chances and, yet, being tiger
tiger, have tenaciously tried to hang on by the dint of their claws as
it were. In Rajasthan, official figures admit that tigers numbers
outside reserves declined from 463 to 170 from 1989 to 1995, a loss of
nearly 300 tigers in 6 years. In Madya Pradesh, tigers outside
Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve are virtually gone. These are straws in the
wind. To know the entire reality we will have to wait till the summer
of 1997 when the next All-India-Tiger census will take place. How many
more would have fallen to the tiger-bone-poacher?
Two years ago I had put forward a suggestion that we should identify
such forest pockets outside tiger reserves where the tiger still had a
chance. The habitat had to be intact, prey base protectable, some
topographical advantages and even if tiger numbers were small, there
was to be evidence of breeding. They could become satellite
populations receiving enhanced protection and provide genetic links
between tiger reserves. I could think of several such places, but this
was to be an all-India study. The proposal was warmly received. But
bureaucratic paper soaks up the ink of ideas long before they even
reach state capitals. The lone forest guard continues on his bicycle
or gives up. Nothing changes easily in India, unless outside forces
are at work. In case of tiger, unfortunately they are.
Dholkhand in Rajaji National Park is such a place. In reality it is
not a national park. A proposed national park ever since its
inception. I was told that the tiger of Dholkhand Rao- river bed in
local parlance - had fallen to poachers. November 1996 took me to
Dholkhand. Fortunately the news was false.
There were three tigers close to the forest bungalow, 150 km west of
the Corbett Tiger Reserve, as the crow flies. This is the western
limit of a good tiger gene pool. and it can send the odd tiger through
Shivalik Forest Division right upto the Yamuna river. Two years ago
there was a tigeress near Timli Pass which is roughly 30 km west of
Dholkhand. Due east the tenuous link goes through Chilla up to
Corbett. Dholkhand does not have the management status it
deserves, though it does have the regulation game guard and his
bicycle. Villages abounding with poachers are just seven kilometeres
to the south.
Nandhaur Valley which falls between Haldwani and Tanakpur in North UP
could be another such haven, linking the tigers of Ramnagar forest
dividion to that of Pilibhit forest division, perhaps Sukla Phanta in
Nepal and who knows, Kishanpur and Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.
I worry about my tiger of Lansdowne. There is a need to walk that
nullah again very soon.
Sandeep Tambe
Bangalore
email: sandeept@inf.com
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