Indian tigers in danger

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ASIAN AGE 21December,2005

News Plus

 

Indian tigers in danger: The problem is denial

- By Valmik Thapar

 

 

 

I think the moment has come for us to analyse some of the glaring flaws that

exist both at the Centre and state levels in our systems of monitoring the

survival of the tiger. From 2004 to 2005 the report card shows total disaster.

At least 80 tigers from just seven protected areas are gone — probably poached.

If counts were done for the other 75 protected areas also, the toll would surely

be appalling?

 

We have lost all the tigers of Sariska Tiger Reserve; we lost at least 21 tigers

in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, entire populations of tigers in Kela Devi

Sanctuary, Sawai Man Singh Sanctuary in Rajasthan, and Palpur Kuno and Ram

Durgawati Sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh. Added to this are at least 20 tigers

gone from the Patina Tiger Reserve. In the last few weeks there have been

reports of the recovery of three freshly poached tiger skins from Periyar Tiger

Reserve where a huge farcical exercise of rehabilitating poachers in the role of

" protectors " has been undertaken.

 

Even as I write this another fresh tiger skin has been recovered from Assam,

being carried, believe it on not, in a police car! The area around the

Sundarbans has seen the seizure of skins, there have been a couple of seizures

in Orissa and UP and a haul of five tiger skins and 38 leopard skins on the

borders of Nepal and Tibet. Poaching is rampant. And all this is going on in

Project Tiger reserves.

 

The sorry state of affairs in the area outside our premier parks can only be

imagined. And we are not even talking of Manas, Indrawati, Nagarjunasagar,

Palamau, Valmiki, Dampha, Namdapha, and Buxa, all tiger reserves that are

plagued by a severe set of problems. Let us look at a few examples in detail.

 

 

 

Sariska: All Sariska’s tigers were wiped out by October 2004 but it was only in

early March, after the Prime Minister called in the CBI, that this fact was

confirmed. The state government had two early warnings of this disaster. In late

May the field director of the park had written to the chief wildlife warden

(CWLW) of Rajasthan pointing out a problem in his census figures and asking for

help... In August 2004 a signed letter to the field director warned him that

massive poaching was going on. No one took notice of it till February 2005.

 

The Central government also had warning of the catastrophe. In August 2004 the

CWLW of Rajasthan sent his census data to the Project Tiger directorate showing

a drop of eight tigers, with his understanding of the reason for the decline:

" Due to bad weather most of the pugmark impression pads were damaged and it

obstructed effective trekking and collection of evidence. " The state had misled

the Centre about the reason for the decline but the tragedy is that the Centre

did not even have the ability to question how a census was done in " bad

weather " . Project Tiger and the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) took

no action based on the letter. Even in November 2004 a WII team (an arm of the

MoEF), after a field visit to Sariska, indicated that there was no evidence of

tigers but still there was no action. The whole episode smacks of unwillingness

to face facts. What is tragic in this example is that it took till late February

2005 for the MoEF to believe that a crisis exi

sted and till then it spent its energies on proving that there was no crisis,

saying that the tigers had migrated and would return. The system was completely

on the defensive and in denial rather than responsive mode. It is only after the

CBI report that the defensive posturing and bluster have been replaced by a

belated attempt to close the stable door after the horse has bolted...

 

 

 

Ranthambhore: Today it is an indisputable fact that in Ranthambhore 21 tigers

are missing. The first alarm was sounded by a local NGO in the monsoon of 2004

when a letter informed the state government that 18 tigers could be missing from

the national park. After the Sariska catastrophe an MoEF team made up of the

additional director-general (DG) wildlife, MoEF, and the director, Project

Tiger, finally visited Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve on February 24, 2005...

 

Even before the report was written there was no sign of tigers in the Kela Devi

Sanctuary — they were extinct but the Central government had no clue!

 

The report even attacks the local NGO that wrote the letter about missing tigers

and states that it has a bad reputation because of land that it has acquired.

Luckily, the chief minister created an empowered committee that immediately

declared an emergency in Ranthambhore — a red alert was sounded and more than

200 extra men moved in. Looking back, it is this action that saved the tigers of

Ranthambhore. When the Prime Minister visited Ranthambore on May 23, 2005 he was

fortunate to see a tiger — he probably wouldn’t have if the chief minister

hadn’t sent a special protection force to protect the tigers of Ranthambhore.

When the empowered committee conducted a census in May 2005 using the best

available methodologies, the result was shocking — 21 tigers were gone!

Ranthambhore National Park had only 26 tigers left and now this was also the

figure for all of Rajasthan... Ranthambhore provides an example of a total

systems failure in terms of the Project Tiger directorate, the

MoEF, and an initially unresponsive state government.

 

Panna: From 2003, both the state and Central governments have had plenty of

warnings about the sorry state of affairs in Panna Tiger Reserve...

 

It was shocking how the entire Central and state governmental machinery went

into top gear to disprove that any problem existed; a special census was

conducted in Panna to prove exactly the same figures as before... In all three

cases, the response was the same — denial rather than crisis management. That

denial led to many more tiger deaths. The Prime Minister and this country ended

up being totally misled by such reports...

 

Before any fanciful reports and recommendations to save tigers see the light of

day it is imperative to make the system transparent, responsive, accountable,

and answerable for its misdeeds. Three tiger reserves are in deep trouble

because the authorities legally responsible to manage them did not respond,

believe, or act promptly. The Tiger Task Force Report does not even take the

Project Tiger directorate to task for this! What would have happened to

Ranthambhore’s tigers if the chief minister of Rajasthan had not created an

empowered committee, or in Parma had it not been the arrest and confessions of a

poacher? It may be too late to save the latter even now...

 

 

 

 

 

I feel quite disheartened and have little hope of anything changing. The tiger

is on the verge of extinction. I wouldn’t be surprised to find if proper

estimates were done that India in this last year lost more than 400 tigers. As

most of my colleagues would agree, " we all know that there are only 1,500-2,000

tigers left in India — we even know approximately where they are. Why play games

about estimation and counting by a " scientific ministry " which will be able to

give its conclusions on the missing tigers, based on scientific study and

methodology only by 2006. By then we may have lost another 400 tigers. The need

of the hour is protection and more protection alone-without this there is no

hope. First keep the tigers alive, then think of science and other management

initiatives. I have had a worry since 2004 that poaching pressures on India’s

tigers had accelerated. This has now been confirmed after a sting operation done

in China in August 2005. Since 2003 it is clear th

at truckloads of tiger, leopard and other skins have been smuggled into Nepal

and across to Tibet where they are tailored into the most outrageous and cruel

costumes for special festivals. At least 70 tiger skins, 750 leopard skins and

thousands of other skins are now recorded as having gone this way. God knows the

total figure as India’s national animal — the tiger — tends up on the most

horrific Tibetan costumes. Right now we must control the situation by

immediately sending armed commandos to protect the periphery of our parks, seal

our border crossings with Nepal etc against this illegal trade and then our PM

must take on this issue with China on a priority basis.

 

If he does not in the next two months before the turn of the year then the fate

of the Indian tiger will be sealed in its " coffin " forever. We can do nothing

else in this emergency but protect in the very best of ways possible with

trained forces or even the territorial army... God help us if we don’t. In the

light of these revelations from Tibet I fear that there are less then 1,500

tigers left in India.