(IN): CONNING CONSERVATION

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CONNING CONSERVATION

 

Tigers are being killed well within the Ranthambhore reserve

 

JAY MAZOOMDAAR

 

Yet again, Ranthambhore is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Two

sub-adult tigers were found dead last Sunday and the forest authorities

accepted that the big cats died due to poisoning. This was the latest in a

series of mishaps that have cost Ranthambhore at least seven tigers –

adults, sub-adults and cubs – in the last three years.

 

Last Sunday, as the news spread, spin doctors within and outside the forest

department quickly swung into action. First, they told the media that

Ranthambhore’s tiger population had reached the saturation mark and that the

surplus tigers would always be at risk when they moved out. They also

claimed that the only way to avoid such tragedies would be to shift these

tigers to Sariska and blamed the Centre for putting the tiger translocation

process on hold. Next, they pointed fingers at a few local hoteliers who did

not want tigers to be moved to Sariska as fewer tigers in Ranthmbhore would

have hurt their business interests.

 

To be fair, a lot has changed for the good in Ranthambhore over the past

five years. The forest department had its plate full in 2005 when the

Central Bureau of Investigation confirmed the local extinction of tigers in

Sariska. A few months later, poachers arrested by Rajasthan police admitted

to killing more than 20 tigers in Ranthambhore. In sheer embarrassment, the

state government swiftly transferred Ranthambhore’s two top forest

officials.

 

The tiger population has bounced back in Ranthambhore since 2005 when the

reserve recorded just 26 tigers. Today, the number stands above 40. But

Ranthambhore tiger reserve is spread over 1300 sq km – too large an area to

become crowded with 40 tigers. Corbett National Park, for example, has more

than 150 tigers in as much area. So how did the state forest bosses claim

that Ranthambhore was over-populated? Obviously, by Ranthambhore, they meant

Ranthambhore national park which is just a small part of the Ranthambhore

tiger reserve.

 

Most of Ranthambhore’s tigers are inside the prey-rich, well-protected 300

sq km national park area. The rest of the tiger reserve – about 1000 sq km

of Sawai Man Singh sanctuary, Kela Devi sanctuary and reserve forests – is

not protected at all and, therefore, has no natural prey left. Tigers have

little option here but to feed on cattle and, in turn, invite retribution.

 

When the forest authorities say that tigers are moving out of Ranthambhore

to die, tigers are only moving from one part of the reserve to another. The

latest poisoning deaths were reported from Taldakhet, a small village in

Keladevi sanctuary, hardly a kilometre from the national park boundary, very

much inside the tiger reserve. It is indeed shocking how a 1000 sq km tiger

forest – about three-fourth of Ranthambhore tiger reserve -- has been

surrendered to grazing and encroachment and accepted by the forest

authorities as death zones.

 

About 300 sq km of the national park area may get crowded with 40 tigers but

the remaining 1000 sq km of the tiger reserve should ideally be able to

house thrice that number. After the Sariska lesson, authorities should have

tried to restore the entire reserve as prime tiger habitat. Next, they

should have gone ahead to reclaim the corridors to Kuno in Madhya Pradesh to

Ramgarh Bisdhari sanctuary near Bundi for natural dispersal of tigers.

Unfortunately, they have just given up on these areas and are now seeking to

save tigers by airlifting them to Sariska.

 

And therein lies another example of conservation myopia. The tiger

translocation programme has been put on hold in Rajasthan after three

siblings were arbitrarily picked up from Ranthambhore to repopulate Sariska.

Recently, the Centre ordered DNA tests to ascertain the breeding

compatibility of Ranthambhore tigers before translocating them.

 

This embargo has further irked the state forest bosses who were already at

loggerheads with the Centre in 2008 when National Tiger Conservation

Authority made it mandatory to pick up only floating sub-adults for

translocation and prohibited shifting the resident population. Tigers seek

out individual territories by the time they are three and a settled tiger,

if moved, only tries to return. Many of you may recall the Pench tiger that

started " homing " soon after being shifted to Panna. A floater, on the other

hand, is typically a young tiger in transit looking for territory and hence,

is more likely to adjust to a new location.

 

The catch is that identifying and tracking a floater takes much longer than

arbitrarily picking up a resident tiger. On top of that, the order for DNA

tests has only made state forest bosses more impatient. Good science is a

must for the success of the world’s first wild tiger repopulation drive in

Sariska. But good science is often laborious and time-consuming. So many in

Jaipur seem keen to exploit Ranthambhore’s fatalities to fast track

airlifting of tigers to Sariska. They have even offered an imaginative twist

to this Centre-state tussle by involving “a section of Ranthambhore’s

hoteliers”.

 

Indeed, the Ranthambhore tourism lobby may have the clout to engage

conservationists who can influence the policies of the Union government but

the hoteliers have little reason for trying to plot such an ambitious

conspiracy. Even if the Centre decides not to wait for the DNA test results

and allows the state to resume shifting tigers to Sariska, the 2008

directives necessitate that only floaters be picked up. Ranthambhore’s

tourism zone is inside the national park area occupied by resident tigers

while floaters typically move in peripheral forests. How can removal of

tigers from non-tourism areas affect the chances of tiger sighting and

tourism in Ranthambhore?

 

It is time to get real. The forest authorities need to focus on hard ground

management instead of taking short cuts. For starters, they could set a

deadline for reclaiming the entire Ranthambhore reserve area for the tiger.

If protected, Ranthambhore’s 1000 sq km death zone will make for a bigger

tiger habitat than all of Sariska (681 sq km). Guess what, tigers do not

need airlifting if they can walk free, and safe.

 

*Author is an independent journalist and filmmaker*

 

 

 

http://mazoomdaar.blogspot.com

http://sariskastory.blogspot.com

http://truthofthetiger.blogspot.com

 

 

 

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