PROJECT TIGER PROTECTING TIGERS OR OFFICIALS IN INDIA?

[Guest guest]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31859

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA:

'Officials Protected, Not Tigers'

Keya Acharya

 

RANTHAMBORE, Rajasthan, Jan 23 (IPS) - When authorities demolished

properties belonging to Fateh Singh Rathore, on the periphery of this

famed tiger sanctuary, this month, it looked as though the government

was ready to tackle encroachments on India's protected forest lands

that threaten wildlife populations.

 

But Rathore, a man known to wildlife enthusiasts around the world,

told IPS that he was being targeted for being outspoken about the

shoddy way in which Rajasthan's sanctuaries were being managed,

resulting in serious decimations of the big cats.

 

''In spite of all the noise that is being made about tigers being

poached, no action has been taken by the Rajasthan government against

any of the lax officials,'' Rathore, a founder and past field director

of the Ranthambore National Park.

 

Rathore, now vice-chairman of Tiger Watch, a non-governmental

organisation (NGO) points out that there has not been a single case

registered against police or forest officials in the last two years --

a period when Rajasthan has seen serious depletion of its tiger

population.

 

India had some 3750 tigers in 1993 but only 35 percent of that figure

were confined in 25 'Project Tiger' reserves scattered across the

country that cover a total area of 33,000 sq km .

 

The rest reside outside protected reserves and suffer from intense

poaching and habitat pressures. But tiger census counts have been

unscientific and the total population now seems at precariously

critical levels.

 

'Project Tiger', India's official management strategy, in force since

April 1973, was successful in increasing the tiger population until

the mid-1980s, but things deteriorated into mismanagement and

ineptness in the face of poaching pressures driven by demand for tiger

skins and parts.

 

According to the NGO, Wildlife Protection Society of India, a known

684 tigers were slaughtered by poachers between 1994 - 2003, as demand

grew in the Far East for its skin as well as organs, bones and teeth

that go into traditional medicine.

 

Sariska National Park, also located in Rajasthan and India's

best-known tiger preserve had 25 tigers in its official 1995 census.

But in 2005, the official Wildlife Institute of India reported the

disappearance of the park's entire tiger population.

 

In April, last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervened to set

up a 'Tiger Task Force' to recommend corrective measures.

 

The task force, chaired by the well-known environmental NGO, Centre

for Science and Environment (CSE) reported a collapse in tiger

management by forest officials in major tiger reserves along with

widespread poaching and said these were the reasons behind the Sariska

disaster.

 

The Task Force, chaired by Sunita Narain, director of the influential

Centre for Science & Environment (CSE) a leading environmental NGO

suffered from dissenting voices in New Delhi, has also suffered by

dissenting views.

 

Valmik Thapar and other strident Indian wildlife activists have

differed with Narain's main strategy of having villages co-existing

with tiger habitats.

 

Villagers think the tigers would do better if they were involved in

park management. ''We have been grazing our animals for over decades

inside the forest, said 85-year-old Azarilal from Uliana village on

the edge of Ranthambore. There was no poaching then because we formed

an unofficial watch group.''

 

''After we were banned from grazing, the poaching worsened,'' said Azarilal.

 

Forest officials and Goverdhan Rathore of Tiger Watch (who happens to

be Fateh Singh Rathore's son), disagree with the village's point of

view. With 96 villages surrounding the park, Ranthambore would have

''disappeared along with its tigers if left to the villagers for its

survival'' , the younger Rathore said.

 

Amidst the deepening rift between pro-wildlife and

'people-coexistence' activists and with numerous official post-mortems

and public debates, forest officials responsible for guarding the

missing tigers have not been called to account.

 

The Rajasthan government itself is seemingly in denial. Local NGOs say

their early warnings about tiger poaching fell on deaf bureaucratic

ears. Sariska's senior officials do not live in the park, resulting in

poor monitoring.

 

In Ranthambore, 21 tigers disappeared between 2004 and February 2005

under the responsibility of then field director G.S. Bhardwaj who has

since become the state's chief conservator of forests and is posted in

state's capital of Jaipur.

 

Other officers have either been promoted or left undisturbed and

remain unaccountable. ''Unless you pin responsibility for this mess,

there will be no remedy,'' Rathore said.

 

DCF Shekhawat, the current Field Director of the park, once the

reserved game park of the Maharajas of Jaipur said that he had

initiated measures to protect the tiger through various economic

self-help measures for surrounding villages, strengthening of guards

and providing them walkie- talkies, fencing off the park wherever

necessary and other measures.

 

But India faces a challenge in conservation with numerous

encroachments of forest lands by rich and influential individuals

compounding an already complex issue. Rathore's property near

Ranthambore is just one of the many under dispute.

 

Both the provincial government of Rajasthan and the country's premier

sleuthing agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have their

own enquiries running on what actually happened to the tigers.

 

But in January, the Supreme Court has had to step in and prod the CBI

to hasten delivery of its report. (END/2006)