Tigers in Ranthambhore 1990s
After the disaster of 1990 – 91, Ranthambhore went through a phase of recovery that took over a decade. According to the State government after the poaching of 1990 – 91 there were 16 tigers left in the park. However, the reality was that there were barely 10 tigers left. Some people who have been living here for a long time think that the figure of 10 was too optimistic.
I don’t really know how many tigers the poachers left but one mature female and one mature male were surely left alive because in the early 1993 this female gave birth to four female cubs. Most of the present day tigers of Ranthambhore are decedents of this tigress. This family lorded over the entire park and that was a very prominent indicator that there were not many tigers left in the park. Tigers are highly territorial and they actively defend their territories from invasion by other tigers. Tigresses with cubs almost never stray out of their territories with their cubs. So if one tigress was moving around a very large part of the park with her cubs, it indicated that no other tiger had their territory in this part.
Thankfully for Ranthambhore all the four cubs of this litter survived. By 1995 the cubs were fully grown up and had separated from their mother. These four cubs established their independent territories in Kachida, Bhakola, Lake area and Lahpur respectively. All these five tigers – the mother and her four cubs are now no more. The cub that established her territory in Bhakola (we used to call her “langdi” which means lame in hindi because she had a small deformity in one of her legs) never had a litter but the other three bred successfully and repopulated the park.
In 1998 Mr. G.V Reddy was posted as Deputy Field Director of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve and the core of the reserve – the Ranthambhore National Park was under his command. After Fateh Singh Rathore (from 1960s to 1980s), Ranthambhore finally got another boss who was honest, hard working and truly cared for the park. Reddy’s tenure here was the second golden period of Ranthambhore. Within a few months of taking charge he took total control. Wood cutting, cattle grazing and poaching was reduced to very low levels. With such a high degree of protection the park soon bounced back. Tiger numbers went up to over 40 by the time he left Ranthambhore in 2003.
Reddy’s immediate boss – Mr. R.K.Tyagi, (the Field Director of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve) who joined a year after Reddy and left a few months before Reddy, did a great job in Kela devi Sanctuary (a large and important part of the Reserve). He was an honest and fair man but for some reason Reddy and Tyagi never really got along – which was unfortunate because the two of them together could have done a truly marvelous job. One good thing about Tyagi was that he ensured that the same set of rules applied to everyone, which is rarity in India.
By the time Reddy left (he served as a Field Director for the last few months of his tenure) there were over 40 tigers in Ranthambhore (including all the cubs). But he did pay for the hard work that he did. His bosses in the state capital did not like the fact that he was getting famous and he had to face over 3 dozen departmental enquiries during the end of his stay in Ranthambhore.
Tigers in India and Ranthambhore Part II
When the Project Tiger was launched in 1973, Ranthambhore was one of the first 9 reserves that was taken up under the project. At that time there were hardly any tigers in Ranthambhore. Mr. Fateh Singh Rathore of the Tiger Watch, who was the Director of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve for a long time, was in-charge in 1973. He has told me a number of times that between 1973 and 1976 they did not see single tiger in Ranthambhore. They used to see pugmarks (or paw prints) once in a few months and on that day there would be a lot of celebrations.
One of the first few tasks that the management had to take up was to relocate the 16 villages that existed inside Ranthambhore. A lot of effort and time went into relocating 12 of these 16 villages. A new village called Kailashpuri – after Kailash Sankhla (the first all India Director of Project Tiger) – was set up outside the reserve and over a period of a few years 12 villages were relocated. The other 4 villages are still inside Ranthambhore, though efforts are on right now to relocate them. However, to be fair to the present day management, it must be made clear that 1970s were heady days for the Project Tiger. Indira Gandhi – who was the Prime Minister of India at that time – was backing the Project Tiger to the hilt. The villagers around here were illiterate and did not know their rights. The Forest officers in the mid 70s gave the villagers two options – either get out voluntarily or get thrown out forcibly. It is not possible to do this now a days as the villagers are aware of their rights and human rights activists would not let such a thing happen.
A few years after the villages were relocated the forest around the villages rejuvenated. The fields around the villages became thick forests in a few years. By the early 1980s the tiger population had not only gone up but the tigers of Ranthambhore became Diurnal. That meant that the tigers were feeling secure enough to be moving around in the day in plain sight of man. The ban on hunting that was on for a decade was certainly working.
In the 1980s Ranthambhore became the best place in the world to see wild tigers. According to an estimate by the end of 1980s over 90% of all the images of wild tigers in the world were taken in Ranthambhore. 1980s was the best time for Ranthambhore’s tigers and they made Ranthambhore famous. If you have seen the National Geographic’s footage of Chenghis – a big male tiger – charging across the lake and catching a sambar deer, you know what I mean.
Tiger in India and Ranthambhore Part I
Before 1900s most of India had thick forest cover, a lot of prey for carnivores and as a result a large part of India was prime tiger habitat. Some “experts” have estimated that there were over 40,000 tigers in India at the “turn of the century. This may be a bit of an exaggeration but it can be safely said that there was no “tiger crisis” in India at that time.
By 1950s the population of India had gone up tremendously and vast tracts of forests were cleared to make way for agricultural fields. At that time the focus of the policy makers in India was on “development” and the environment was totally ignored. Tigers lost out to economic progress. Towards the end of 1960s a national level tiger census was carried out by the WWF and the Government of India and this census revealed that there were less than 1800 tigers left in the wild in India. This census woke up the Government of India and in 1972 a new Wildlife Act was promulgated and hunting was totally banned in India. In 1973 the “Project Tiger” was launched as a joint initiative between WWF and Government of India. Initially 9 forested areas were selected under the Project Tiger and these were notified as Project Tiger Reserves. Ranthambhore was one of these 9 reserves. However, unlike the other 8 reserves (which had a reasonably healthy population of tigers), Ranthambhore hardly had any tigers and the forests in Ranthambhore were pretty thrashed compared to those in the other 8 reserves.
A large part of Ranthambhore lies on the Aravali mountain range – that, extend from Delhi in the north-east to Gujrat in the south-west. Aravalis (along with the Appalachians and Urals) are the oldest mountain ranges in the world. Like the rest of India, Aravalis were thickly forested in the early 20th century. By the middle of the 20th century most of these forests disappeared along with the tigers and the other animals that lived in them. At that time these forests were considered as a Revenue source and the trees were harvested for timber and wood charcoal. By the time Ranthambhore came under the umbrella of Project Tiger, legal harvesting of timber had come to an end and legal hunting was banned. By that time years of hunting and tree harvesting had taken its toll. There were hardly any tigers left, the tree cover was minimal and the population of ungulates was at its lowest.
