Archive for Bengal tiger
You are browsing the archives of Bengal tiger.
Wildlife migration corridors from Ranthambhore
JAIPUR: After Ranthambore and Sariska, Darrah. Rajasthan is all set to get its third tiger reserve, and India its 39th, very soon. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has given its in-principle approval to the project at Darrah National Park, which is about 50 km from Kota.
State forest department officials said it was very likely that the first tiger would be relocated to the forests of Darrah by 2011.
The state government had submitted a proposal to the Centre for a tiger reserve at Darrah. NTCA has given its in-principle approval to it. The surplus tigers of Ranthambore will be translocated to Darrah after the area is declared a tiger reserve under Section 83 (v) of the Wildlife Protection Act 2006, said state forest and environment minister Ramlal Jat.
According to the minister, once declared a sanctuary, it will help form a large corridor connecting Sariska, Kota, Bundi and Ranthambore to Madhya Pradesh. This will not only take away the excess visitors from Ranthambore but also help Kota attract a large number of tourists, he said.
The Darrah National Park, also called the Rajiv Gandhi National Park, consists of three wildlife sanctuaries of Darrah, Chambal and Jaswant Sagar. It was declared a national park in 2004 and is spread over a total area of 250 km. It is separated from the Ranthambore national park by another 250 sq km stretch of Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary.
The park is the only one to have a perennial source of water from the Chambal Basin with the river running 4 to 5 metres deep in certain stretches.
(The Times of India, TNN 7 November 2009, 05:21am IST)
After reading this I did not know whether to laugh or cry.
The NTCA is in a rush to declare more and more forests as tiger reserves. The fact that a lot of the newly declared reserves, neither have any tiger nor any prey, does not seem to make any difference. Declaring the “Rajiv Gandhi National Park” as a tiger reserve would be really pushing it. In fact it would be a big joke.
The Rajasthan Forest Minister’s statement – “ The surplus tigers of Ranthambore will be translocated to Darrah after the area is declared a tiger reserve ………once declared a sanctuary, it will help form a large corridor connecting Sariska, Kota, Bundi and Ranthambore to Madhya Pradesh. This will not only take away the excess visitors from Ranthambore but also help Kota attract a large number of tourists” – is absolutely ridiculous.
What the minister does not know or did not state is:
1. Ranthambhore does not have surplus tigers : the current official figure is that there are 41 tigers in Ranthambhore tiger reserve. The Ranthambhore tiger reserve is 1334 square kilometers in area. Areas that have 10 or so tigers in 100 square kilometers is considered to be a high density area. By this logic 41 in 1334 square kilometers is not really high, so where do the surplus come from? The ral story is that out of the 1334 kms of Ranthambore tiger reserve - about half the area is the Kela Devi Sanctuary, about one fourth is the Ranthambore national park and most of the balance is the Sawai Mansingh snactuary. (See the map below). The 41 tigers are distributed in the entire tiger reserve as follows - Kela Devi has one, Sawai Mansingh has 5 or 6 and the national park has the rest. In other words, half of the entire tiger reserve just has one tiger and almost all the tigers are within the national park or the immediately adjoining part of the Sawai Mansingh sanctuary. It would be correct to say that the national park has a surplus of tigers but the same can not be said for the entire tiger reserve. In fact Sawai Mansingh sanctuary only gets tigers when there is a surplus inside the national park and Kela Devi sanctuary (which is nearly half the area of the total reserve) has hardly had any tigers in the last decade or so. Tiger do drift there from the national park but they do not last very long in this sanctuary, mainly because this sanctuary has very little prey and almost no protection.
2. There already is a corridor between Ranthambhore national park and Darrah wildlife sanctuary via the forests of Sawai Mansingh sanctuary, Lakheri, Talwas and Ramgarh sanctuary. Tiger in the past have gone all the way to Darrah and in the near future have been going till the forests of Lakheri. In reality this corridor is a death trap because in the last 10 years not a single tiger that drifted this way survived for long. There is very little prey and even less protection south of the Sawai Man Singh sanctuary. The adjoining forests of Madhya Pradesh (MP) are in an even worse state, in fact, this part of MP is the poaching heartland of India. Till about two decades ago this entire corridor was an excellent wilderness area. The last tigers of Darrah and Ramgarh died out without making any noise at all) in the early 1990s. Since then this corridor has been taking a thrashing at the hands of man. Right now the forest canopy still exists but the prey species (deer, wild pigs etc) are gone. There is a lot of cattle that the tiger can kill but that leads to conflicts with man, which are often lethal for the wild animal.
3. The above mentioned corridor has no links whatsoever with Sariska, which is a true “ecological island” with no scope at all for any inwards or outward migration of wild animals. For a tiger to get from Sariska to Ranthambhore, he will have to cross a very busy national highway, miles and miles of agricultural fields, numerous villages and at least three large towns besides a number of small ones. A really tough task for any tiger.
4. This will not only take away the excess visitors from Ranthambore but also help Kota attract a large number of tourists, said the minister. This is a pretty heavy price to pay to attract tourists to Kota.
What is needed is active and prolonged protection along this forested belt and it needs to be done now. A few years later may be too late. What is definitely not needed is to tranquilize a few tigers from inside Ranthambhore national park and fly them to Darrah Sanctuary and hope that they flourish there. Some of these tigers may have to turn vegetarian in Darrah since there is not enough meat on hooves there for them.
Don’t just take my word for it. Read what the Ranthambhore Project Tiger Management Plan 2001-2011 has to say about this (pasted below). The last para is the most interesting. (RTR means Ranthambhore tiger reserve and RNP is the Ranthambhore national park).
Ecological Boundaries:-
The flora and fauna of both Vindhyan and Aravalli hill ranges exist in the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. The forests of both the ranges were continuous in the past but due to fragmentation of vegetation cover the RTR has become an ecological island.
The RNP adjoins Keladevi sanctuary in the N.E. separated by river Banas, but the river does not present any barrier for the wild life to cross over. The Keladevi sanctuary is linked to the forest areas of Dholpur through a continuous forest tract. The forests of Keladevi sanctuary are gradually improving with increased level of protection, ban on migratory sheep and participatory forest protection strategy adopted by the villagers in the form of “Kulhadi Band (ban on use of axe) Panchayat” under the guidance of forest department.
In the south west of the RNP, Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary & Kuwalji Closed Area extend up to river Chakal and beyond. The adjoining forest areas of Bundi further connects RTR to forest areas of Kota. Therefore, a whole corridor is available for the movement of wildlife provided the adjoining areas of Dholpur, Bharatpur, Bundi and Kota districts also gets adequate protection. In fact, the area mentioned above can be a contiguous area for the Tiger.
The river Chambal in South to South East of RTR and the river Banas in North East to South East of the RNP forms a seasonal barrier to the wildlife to migrate from one area to another but there are reports of occasional presence of non-resident wild dogs in RTR and migration of wild animals such as Tigers and Leopard in Keladevi Sanctuary from M.P. forest area crossing the Chambal river as per the indirect evidences gathered from the Maharaja of Karauli.
On all other sides, RTR is surrounded by agricultural revenue land but the abundant presence of Black buck, Chinkara, Blue Bull, Smaller cats, Jackals & Foxes in the agricultural fields indicate that there is no barrier to these mammals and the area as a whole is rich in wildlife. Even tigers and panthers are reported from the habitation areas like Chouth Ka Barwada & Bhagwatgarh, which are nearly 30 Kms from RTR.
We may say that a belt of 50 Kms width along the left banks of the river Chambal from Kota up to Dholpur can be considered as the ecological boundary for the Tigers and other wild life of RTR.
The description given above indicates that a large tract constitutes the ecological boundary of RTR, but the fact remains that with the degradation of forest area, expansion of agriculture fields and other land uses, the ecological boundary tends to limit up to RTR area only in a true sense.
View Rajasthan Wildlife Corridors in a larger map
Interesting email exchange
Interesting email exchange between Deepali and your truly. Deepali is a naturalist, photographer and economist from Delhi. I got her permission to share this on the blog.
From: Deepali Sharma Sanwal
Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 11:11:25 +0530
To: Aditya Singh
Subject: hi from Delhi
Hi Aditya
Hello from Delhi. Read your blog.. wanted to read something on conservation after my postings and your replies on INW (www.indianaturewatch.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2362)
..I am astonished to find that the name of the poachers are so common knowledge to forest department !
interesting blog ( www.dickysingh.com) and great photos on your website ( www.ranthambhore.com).. had a word with poonam few days back as we were planning to come down to ranthambhore but the plan did not materialize.. hoping to make it sometime in June !
Regards
Deepali
–
There is an economist in all of us.
On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 5:17 PM, Aditya Singh wrote:
Hi Deepali,
Sorry you could not make it down but the end of June (from 20th onwards – park shuts on the 30th) maybe a better time. Somewhere in the mid of June we get one or two showers (just a few days after Delhi gets them) and the park just changes colors instantly. The weather and the scenery is much better after that.
I will tell you some interesting facts about poaching and tiger conservation around Ranthambhore region. I am sure these are true for all of India but since I have spent 11 years in this area, I have more examples from here.
1. The “Ranthambhore poaching region” includes Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh till Panna. This area includes all of Rajasthan’s Aravalis (good for leopards), most of river Chambal (crocs, gharials and otters), Sariska, Kuno (MP), Madhav national park (but there is nothing left there to kill and a poacher told us this) and Panna. The same guys operate in all these place. This is particularly true for the dealers and not so much for the shooters/trappers.
2. It is generally made out to be by the NGOs working in “anti-poaching” line that poachers are very secretive, very organized, very dangerous etc etc – which is a load of bullshit. They probably say so to boost their own image and get more people interested. In reality everyone locally, including the forest department, knows the names of the shooters/trappers (at least they know all the gang leaders and reputed poachers), of the buyers, of the couriers etc. It is such common knowledge that if you walked in here and did not know anyone – you could collect most of the data in a week by just asking around in the villages. Most of these people occupy the lowest social spectrum in the caste set up and they are scared of the upper castes. We have often walked into their houses and caught them. They had guns and other arms but would not dare use it against a local upper caste person.
3. The big buyer here is on old woman (and now her two sons) called Munni Bai. She has been doing this for over 30 years and most people around here know of her. At least everyone in the local forest department does. It is only the leading conservationists and senior officers in the forest department at Jaipur and Delhi level who don’t. She is not really the end buyer but she collects stuff and sells it to buyers in Gwalior, Guna etc who further sell is to the big boys in Delhi, Kanpur, Khaga etc.
4. The big centre for leopard skins is Hissar and one of their main guy here is known as “Pal.” He visits this area once or twice a year and has been doing it for over 20 years.
5. At the ground level there is no body working on anti poaching. Here Dharmendra Khandal of Tiger Watch is the only person working on collecting information on poachers. Besides him – no one. No Forest department, no police, no NGO. The problem that he faces is that he has the information about the bad guys but what can he do with it. The forest department does not want the information, the police generally speaking does not work on it because most of the time they need to cross the boundaries of the district. The general attitude is that if it is not happening in my beat it is OK.
6. The big boys of conservation - few well-known megalomaniac personalities who have cornered the conservation limelight/profits (believe me it is very profitable) and the Project Tiger (or NTCA) - are living in an elite dream world and are hopelessly out of touch with reality. They have a mutually beneficial relationship based on you scratch my back and I scratch yours.
The basic problem with tiger conservation (in fact all conservation) in India is:
1. It is too centralized and elitist. All our conservation planning is done by people who are basically rich, based in metros and are very far removed from the ground reality. As a result their plans just do not work and have not been working for over 25 years. After 25 years of failure they are still in the driving seat. This includes the Project Tiger, Supreme Court’s Special Empowered Committee etc etc. Any ground level conservation initiative is killed as soon as it starts becoming popular. The only conservation initiatives that have worked in the world are those which had support at ground level. We have such funny ones – like there was “an anti-poaching workshop” here two years ago, which was (and I am not joking) “a black tie and caviar affair, where no locals were invited.” Most of the villagers here believe that the national park was sold off by the government 20 years ago to foreigners and rich Indian – for their entertainment.
2. It is too unscientific. There has been no decent research done on tigers for the last 45 years. Schaller in Kanha did the last one in mid 1960s. The data on the basis of which conservation planning is done in India is totally false and has been falsified for the last 30 years. How can you come out with a workable solution if the data that you have it totally false.
3. It is too low priority. The government does not care, the rulers do not care, the conservationists do not care – basically we all talk but rarely act. There is no will, no funds, no responsibility and no workable plans. This for an industry that generated over US $ 2 Billion per annum and employs huge amount of people, who are often the poorest of the poor.
Sounds depressing? We got over it some time ago. Some one has to catch the bull by the horns and only then would things begin to change.
Regards,
–
Aditya Singh,
From: Deepali Sharma Sanwal
Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 09:37:38 +0530
To: Aditya Singh
Subject: Re: hi from Delhi
Hi Aditya
I could not agree more with you on so many points made by you!! Though I hardly know too much and most of my ideas are from the observations I have made.
I am indeed surprised to some extent ( though not fully..no one can be who has lived and traveled in India ) that majority of people involved in this whole exercise of conservation are too far away from all this. ( Though most of us are.. and it really takes lots of guts like you did to be actually based right there leaving aside more lucrative earning options in a big city).
I strongly feel that tiger conservation needs to go beyond what it is doing right now. In my opinion people who reside inside or around really can no way be the biggest culprits as they are made to sound sometimes. It is generally the elitist who want the best without really wanting to pay a price involved. Moreover, I feel it has become an in-thing to say that ” I am into wildlife”.. probably it just means that “I visit national parks over weekends to click picture” ( no harm in that too though. people have their own objectives).
I feel the best conservation practices would come only when people who are involved in their daily lives are a part of it and also derive benefits from it..like benefits from tourism. One of the best practices and also one which I thought was working very well was what I saw in Valley of flowers. It is being maintained by joint cooperation of forest department and villagers. The place and the long trek upto the valley is so clean and well maintained, with all facilities for visitors that it comes across strikingly as a very good best practice example. I am sure there are may such examples all over that operate efficiently and silently.
As for conservation, in general, I still have my doubts with its role and placement within the Survival of fittest Darwin theory.. maybe I need to understand it from science.. but the growing human-animal conflict makes one ponder about it. ( last Sunday’s supplement in The Hindu carries three articles regarding HAC)
Lastly, most of the problems we face today are purely due to human GREED.. we ALL want our cake and eat it too.. whether it’s the financial crisis ( which as an economist, I can vouch is largely due to factors that standard theory might not be able to address) or problems of climate change and conservation… something we are not being able to control !
But I am sure there would be a way out else nature has its own way to correct disequilibrium!
Thanks Aditya for explaining in such great details.. am sure there is so much more I need to learn !
Best
Warm regards
Deepali
On Tue, May 13, 2009 at 3:22 PM, Aditya Singh wrote:
Hi Deepali,
Thanks for your mail.
I am actually making a fairly lucrative earning here (for Ranthambhore standards). In the last 11 years I have morphed from and into - a hotel owner/manager, naturalist, conservationist, photographer, traveler, activist and a local farmer. Before I came to Ranthambhore I worked for the Central Government for a short time, so I kind of understand how the government works. As a result, my problem is that I have been here for too long and pretty much understood how the whole wheel turns.
Regards,
Aditya
PS: If I had to sum up the present scenario in most tiger reserves in India, I would do it like this. [To really understand it you have to read between the lines and have a clear understanding of the keywords].
The existing situation in most tiger reserves in India is as follows:
The people who reside around the reserves that have decent wildlife are definitely not the “culprits” that they are made out to be by the “experts” and the “trendy.” Neither are they God’s own creatures as the “leftists make them out to be.”
The people who reside around the reserves are mostly “poor (with a dash of rich)” and for generations they depended on the forest for some “renewable resources” such as fuel wood, fodder, some minor forest produce “etc”.
The problem that they have is that since the forest around their villages has now been declared a “tiger reserve” it is gradually getting “more and more illegal” for them to get their requirements from the forest.
The problem that the “forest managers” have is that the population in their villages has gone up tremendously due to improved medical conditions. The forest just cannot support the needs of all locals. It could do with “lesser disturbance” as more disturbance means less wildlife.
The locals need to fulfill these “needs, so they do it illegally.”
The forest managers are “overwhelmed” by the sheer numbers of locals and are unable to stop them, so they turn a “blind eye” towards it.
The planners, experts and trendy (which is the entire lobby), however, insist that everything should be “strictly legal” as they had a big hand in “making the law (which is blinder than a bat)”. So the planners are “told” that everything is going on as per the law. The planners take it as good feedback and on the basis of this they make more laws and plans. They “periodically check” the ground to see the ground reality for themselves and almost always end up agreeing with the “feed back.”
Thus the cycle repeats itself.
I think our problem can be summed up in four points:
1. Our centralized federal planning does not even take into consideration the ground realities.
2. The implementation of the plan is done by a state government agency that is the lowest priority for most state governments.
3. There are too few voters for wildlife in India.
4. Greed at all levels.
–
Aditya Singh
Mails from Dharmendra
Sorry for not writing for a long time but I had been busy traveling (basically having a good time).Sorry for not writing for a long time but I had been busy traveling (basically having a good time).
I got a few mails from Doctor Dharmendra Khandal – the Field Biologist of Tiger Watch, a local non profit organization that is doing some amazing anti-poaching work in and around Ranthambhore. He knows more about the local poachers and their network than any other person. I have pasted below the mails without making any changes (except for some very cosmetic ones). They are alarming and go to show that despite all the media storm about dwindling tiger in India, despite all the “action taken” by the government noise made by our “conservationists” – at the ground level nothing has changed.
You should be alarmed too.
END JANUARY 2009
Hi,
Rajasthan police and Tiger Watch team ( Lokesh,Lakhan and me) caught a wanted poacher Battilal.
He is wanted since November 2005 in a Tiger Poaching case. He is the real brother of Devisingh Mogya (a dreaded tiger poacher).
Recently 10-13 Mogyas came from Madhya Pradesh (the adjoining state in Central India) side to Ranthambhore for the work of crop protection. All these people are potential poachers and all of them have illegal guns and they can harm Ranthambhore at many levels.
regards,
dharmendra khandal
PS: Ranthambhore Deputy Field Director Mr. Shekhaweat is busy in VIP tourism and Assittant Conservator of Forests Mr. Sudarshan Sharma is busy in managing tourism.
4-5 other patroling vehicles are also busy in tourism………….
 |
| From Ranthambhore |
 |
| From Ranthambhore |
END JANUARY 2009
Hi,
The first raid has been successfully complete. We have found two Bagaria tribal poachers and one illegal weapon. They were operating in Sawai Mansingh sanctuary area and regularly killing wild animals for bushmeat.
Sawai Madhopur’s Superintendent of Police Mr. Kaviraj Sharat provided a wonderful team of police personnel that conducted this raid.
The place where we caught them is just 2.5 km far from the Sawai Mansigh sanctuary area. They were regularly killing animals from sanctuary and other adjoining areas for sale as bushmeat. They are also involved in Bhagwat leopard killing.
regards,
dharmendra khandal
 |
| From Ranthambhore |
FEBRUARY 2009
Dear Aditya,
Thank you for the interest shown about the Madhya Pradesh poachers. I am sending my draft for your blog. you can edit language and grammar but try to keep it as it is.
According to my informers, at least 15 Mogyas tribal’s have congregated around Ranthambhore.
Each one of them has the experience to poach tigers in Ranthambhore. They may be not lead the gang but they belonged to some small or organized tiger poaching gang.
1. Battilal (we caught this guy)
2. Mukesh (already wanted in police for tiger killing)
3. Roop Singh (wanted in police for tiger killing)
4. Rai singh (again having experience of tiger poaching around Uliana and Chhan)
5. Kalwa
6. Suresh s/o Alamji
7. Debi
8. Mangal
9. 10 to 15 unknown migrant guys from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Why they are dangerous?
1. becoz they are having experience to poach tigers in Ranthmabhore.
2. some of them are still wanted in tiger poaching case
3. they are purely nomadic not like our semi nomads Rajasthani Mogyas.
4. they have 2-3 identities and are not listed by any state agency. I mean they have no ration card, voter card or BPL cards etc – for all purpose they do not exist.
5. very agile and swift people
6. few bad Mogyas stated their job again like Jugraj, Lodiya and Laxman. These are people who have been caught and convicted earlier.
7. Tiger watch (the organization that I work for) has been handling women and kids of Mogyas, but we could not provide any alternative jobs to men of Mogya community. If Field Director or any state agency is ready to work with Tiger Watch we can change some Mogyas in nature trekker guide etc
But very frankly the officials of the Forest Department are spending more time to shut down Tiger watch efforts instead of supporting or guiding to us.
Now 3-4 topics that should be debated and explaination should be called for from the Forest Department:
1. Construction of undesirable water bodies in side park like entire kachida area is now been made into a wetland type habitat.
2. Construction and erection of guard post or tent near water holes like in bakola, lakarda, berda, etc
3. They are wasting more time in tourism instead of forest department work.
Regards,
dharmendra khandal
Update from Ranthambhore
It’s been a long time since I posted on the blog. I was on a long vacation and got back to Ranthambhore about 3 weeks ago and since then I have been busy trying to make a living. Yes some of us have to do that. Here are some updates from Ranthambhore:
1. The Park reopened to visitors on the 1st of October after being shut for three moths of monsoons. This year the monsoon rains were spectacular. The best that I have seen and all the waterholes in the park are overflowing. The park is lush green and there should be no major water shortages in the dry summer months.
2. The cubs of the Guda tigress that was found dead in September are still alive and kicking. They have been killing deer fawns and are apparently doing well. A true miracle. They are just about 10 months old – one male and one female – and have been taking care of each other. More about this in a later post.
3. In the Sultanpur area of the park (southern part of the national park) a tigress has given birth to two cubs. They were probably born somewhere in the late summers and have been seen by a number of visitors in the last three weeks.
4. The Forest Department has come out with a new policy to govern tourism, which is a total disaster. This policy is neither good for tourism nor for conservation and has ended up making Ranthambhore the “most visitor unfriendly park in India.” Basically it has made life extremely tough for people like me who make a living out of the visitors who come to see the park.
5. I learnt something really amazing yesterday. The Rajasthan Forest Department has started an “official inquiry” into my blog. A senior Forest Officer who is based in Jaipur is the enquiry officer. Apparently some people took some print out of this blog (mainly of some stuff that I had posted when tiger poaching was at its peak in Ranthambhore – 2004 or so) and sent them as a “complaint” to the Forest Department in Jaipur. The Forest Department, for obvious reason went ballistic and have now launched an enquiry on how I could post such stuff. . What really upset me is that they took three years to know about something that is so public. Just goes to show that no one really reads what I write. 
Tigress found dead in Ranthambhore
Yesterday afternoon (1st September 2008) the carcass of a tigress was found in the Guda area, that lies at the southern end of the Ranthambore national park. This tigress was known as the Guda female (see image below) and was over 10 years old – an old age for wild tigers – and had two cubs that would slightly younger than a year in age. The cubs are missing and even as I write this the forest department officials are trying their hardest to find the two cubs.
According to the forest department sources the carcass of this tigress was found in the early afternoon yesterday in a highly decomposed state. She was probably dead for over two days. The forest department officials cremated the body after conducting an autopsy. The autopsy report is yet to be released and probably never will be, at least the likes of me will never see it.
It is being made out by official sources (and the national media has really lapped it up) that she died in a “territorial fight” with another tiger. The Press Trust of India (PTI) newline says “Rise in Tiger population in Rajasthan’s Ranthambore Sanctuary seems to have given rise to “territory wars” among the predators…………………….. the Ranthambore national park, spread over 400 sq km is busting with robust tiger population. As per a 2007 census, the number of stripped animals have increased from 25 in 2005 to 32 last year. The figure excludes cubs, whose number is estimated to be around 14.”
I would like to clarify the following:
1. The Ranthambhore national park is spread over an area of 282 square kilometers and not 400, as PTI (India’s leading new agency claims – come on guys get your facts right).
2. The official census data of 2005 claimed 26 tigers in Ranthambhore and not 25. The real figure at that time was 13 adults and 5 cubs (all below the age of 6 months).
3. The census figures for last year were 32 (released early last year) and this census was the most exhaustive one ever undertaken. This figure of 32 included all the cubs. After these figures were released 8 more cubs were born and two of these (the cubs of the Guda tigress) are missing.
4. The tiger numbers have definitely increased in Ranthambhore, in fact they bounced back from a near calamity. But Ranthambhore is not (by any standard) “busting” with tigers. Ranthambhore national park and the two adjoining areas where the tigers spread to (the Sawai Man Singh sanctuary and the Sawai Madhopur sanctuary” can easily accommodate over 40 adult tigers. This was the number that existed in 2001. Right now there are about 22 (I may be off by 10% plus or minus) adults and that is not “busting” at all.
Rajasthan’s leading regional Hindi newspaper – Rajasthan Patrika – also adds that the forest department is not ruling out death due to poisoning and had sent the viscera for investigation into this angle. This is really interesting.
The area around Guda and further south (outside the national park – where there is little protection for wild life) of it is the beginning of the “Ranthambhore tiger death zone” – I mean that’s where 15 or more tiger have disappeared in the last 4 years. There are a few “forest unfriendly” villages in that area and few large settlements of former hunting gathering tribes (Mogiyas, Bagariyas and Kanjar).
The Guda tigress shares her area with a few villages. Her territory overlaps with that of two male tigers – one is her son from the last litter and the other is the father of her new litter (the two cubs who are missing right now). It is highly unlikely that she was killed in a fight with one of these two tigers. Her present mate would not fight her and her son dare not.
I don’t know how she died but I would bet my cameras (the most precious possession that I have) that it was not because of a territorial fight.
Water security in Ranthambhore
For the last two years the tiger numbers in Ranthambhore National Park have been going up and soon there will be more tigers than the park can accommodate. A few sub adult tigers are already drifting out of the park, where the protection levels are not as high as they are in the Park. Recently a male sub adult was killed outside the boundary of the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. One short-term solution for increasing the number of tigers in Ranthambhore is to improve the habitat within the Reserve so that more tigers can establish their territories inside the Reserve.
The Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve consists of the following Protected Areas:
1. Ranthambhore National Park.
2. Sawai Madhopur Sanctuary.
3. Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary.
4. Kela Devi Sanctuary.
5. Certain other Forested Areas.
Out of the entire Tiger Reserve, the National Park constitutes only about 22% of the area of the Reserve and tigers are found only with the boundaries of the National Park and the Sawai Madhopur Sanctuary. A few tigers do stray to Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary and to the southeastern fringe of the Kela Devi Sanctuary but they do not establish their territories in these areas. For the last few years the officials of the Ranthambhore Tiger Project (Core Division) have been making great efforts to improve the habitat with the Reserve. As a result areas such as Balas and Chidi Kho in Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary, Kundal in Sawai Madhopur Sanctuary and Ghateshwar in Kela Devi Sanctuary have been added as potential tiger habitat.
Indala ki Dang
Within the Ranthambhore national Park there are areas that are right now not suitable tiger habitats. The three essentials that make a tiger habitat are vegetation cover (wooded areas and ground cover), presence of prey species in sufficient numbers and the presence of permanent waterholes. Most of the areas that are not suitable as tiger habitats with in the National Park are devoid of permanent Water holes. One such area is the Indala ki Dang (highlighted in the map above).
Indala ki Dang (or Indala plateau) has an area of almost 90 square kilometers, which is almost 30% of the area of the National Park. There is a small village called Indala at the southern edge of this plateau. Till a few years ago this plateau was seriously over grazed and there was little or no ground cover. Grazers from the villages that lie along the southern and eastern edge of the Park used to graze their cattle in this plateau. There was very little woodcutting in the area because the villages were too far to carry wood. As a result while there was no ground cover there were enough trees in the plateau. Due to the loss of ground cover the plateau could not retain much rainwater and barely a month after the end of monsoons almost all the water holes in the plateau used to dry out. In the last few years the Forest Department managed to drastically reduce the grazing pressure in the plateau and gradually the under growth regenerated. (see picture below)
On the 24th of December 2007 I visited the Indala ki dang, after a gap of three years, with the Deputy Field Director of Ranthambhore National Park and I was pleasantly surprised. The plateau had almost totally regenerated and was now in a shape to support tigers. There were enough wooded areas, undergrowth and prey species. The only thing that was lacking was permanent water holes. We found evidence (pugmarks and scat) of the presence of 7 different tigers. The feedback from the Forest Guards who are manning the different Forest Chowkis in Indala was that there is a lot of tiger movement in the area, however very few tigers stay permanently in the plateau and this is mainly due to the absence of permanent water holes in the area.
The natural water sources that existed in the plateau were almost totally destroyed due to cattle grazing and these may take a long time to recover. The Deputy Field Director is of the opinion that this plateau, along with its neighboring areas, has the potential to accommodate between 8 and 10 tigers and that most of the cubs and sub adult tigers of Lahpur valley, Sakri valley and Thumka valley could establish their territories in Indala, provided there were enough water sources in the area. He plans to dig 5 wells in the plateau in strategic locations and use each one of these wells to support two water holes. The cost of digging each well is about Rs. 125,000 and the cost of creating two water holes (for each well) would be a further Rs. 50,000.
The Deputy Field Director is looking for all the financial help that he can get to provide permanent water sources on Indala so that tigers form their permanent territories in the plateau and not just use it as a transitional zone. We, the people at The Ranthambhore Bagh have committed to provide the funds required for one well and two water holes that will go with this one well and work has already started. We are looking for partners who can help us dig the other 4 wells. We feel that if a mere Rs. 1,000,000 can add an area of almost 90 square kilometers of tiger habitat to the Ranthambhore National Park; it is a very small price to pay.
Another Ranthambhore tiger killed
If you had visited Ranthambhore in 2006 for a few days you, chances are you would have seen the Guda tigress with her two male cubs. This highly visible family had delighted a large number of tourists with their easy sightings. One of these two males, now fully grown, called Yuvraj, was killed by poachers a month or so ago. He was killed near a place called Lakheri, which is about 30 kilometers from the edge of the Ranthambhore National park, by a group of 7 “mogiya” tribal poachers. The Forest Department arrested one of these 7 poachers about 10 days ago and they made this news public yesterday. This man –goes by two names (as many Mogiyas do) - Ramswaroop Mogiya or Sanwarmal Mogiya. He is a resident of a small village near Lakheri, where many Mogiyas stay. And believe me, the Mogiyas of Lakeri area are no friends of wildlife.
Yuvraj’s brother, who is known in Ranthambhore as the “Collared male” because of the radio collar that has been fitted on his neck by the Forest Department. He was the only tiger in Ranthambhore to be radio-collared till a few days ago, when two more were radio collared.
These two male cubs were born during the monsoon months of 2004, in an area called Guda at the southern edge of Ranthambhore national park. Guda lies at the heart of the territory of their mother, who is known as the Guda tigress. When these cubs were small they were very shy, as most cubs are. We only got to see them during the onset of summers of 2005. Before that there sightings were rare. When they were about a year old they got used to vehicles and their sightings became very frequent. In fact between summers of 2005 to the end of winters in 2006 (when the two cubs finally separated from their mother), we started calling Guda a zoo because it was so easy to find this family.
There was a TV crew staying with us in June 2005. They had come to shoot tigers for NBS, which is one of Japan’s largest TV channels. Salim (Ranthambhore’s best guide) and I were assisting this crew. All through June we had some great times with this family. We saw them interacting as a family, playing in water, play fighting with each other and even making a kill.
At that time there was a male tiger called “Jhumroo” (see picture above) who took over as the dominant male of an area called Lahpur, that lies close to Guda. Jhumroo was not the father of these cubs and so posed a serious threat to the two cubs. However, their mother was older than Jhumroo and always managed to keep Jhumroo from encroaching into her territory. We once found the Guda tigress and her two cubs sitting in a waterhole at a place called Nagdi. After a few minutes the two cubs just got up without a warning and ran away from us, while the mother started snarling at us. Soon she got up from the water and charged in our direction (see picture below).
She went right past our jeep and straight into the bushes behind our jeep. We heard another tiger in these bushes and almost immediately there was fight (that we could hear but not see). A few minutes later the mother came out of the bushes and walked rapidly to where the cubs were hiding. And just a few minutes after that we saw Jhumroo coming out and walking back towards Guda, with a slight limp and a big dent to his ego (see picture below).
By the end of winter of 2006 the two cubs had separated from their mother. Initially they stayed together in an area called Phoota Kot for a few weeks. I once saw Yuvraj and his brother (see picture below) trying to hunt Sambar deer together, without much success. This was a difficult time for the two brothers because they had not mature as hunters and the other dominant males of the area, mainly Jhumroo and a male that we call the X male, would not let them establish their territories easily. Soon Yuvraj drifted out of the national park to the Man Singh Sanctuary, while his brother established his territory in the Soleshewar – Dumduma – Sultanpur area, where he is still seen often. To be fair to the officers of Ranthambhore national park, they did keep excellent track of Yuvraj. In fact they had a team of trackers constantly following his trail. After spending a few months in Man Singh Sanctuary, where he was reasonably well protected, he once strayed right out to Ramgarh Sanctuary in Bundi district. He was in dangerous territory now because there is very little protection in Bundi and the place is full of poachers. On that occasion the Forest officials of Ranthambhore managed to somehow get him back to Man Singh Sanctuary. Don’t ask me how they did this but they did manage it after a lot of effort.
In the end of October 2007 he once again drifted back from Man Singh anctuary and never returned. We heard that he had killed a cow near Lakheri. Some trackers from the Forest Department were rushed to the place where he had killed the cow but they could not locate him. After that there was no news of Yuvraj, despite the fact that a whole load of forest guards, volunteers etc were looking for him. About 10 days ago a Mogiya was caught by the Forest Department acting on a tip off and he confessed that he was part of the 8 persons who killed Yuvraj.
What hurts me the most is that the Guda tigress managed to save her cubs from the poachers when tiger poaching in Ranthambhore was at its peak. This male survived the worst time that Ranthambhore had seen in the last decade or so but was poached when tiger poaching in Ranthambhore is under control.
Mail from Deepa
Hi all,
I got a mail from Deepa who is based in the USA. She went through my blog (www.ranthambhore.blogspot.com) and then got in touch with me. She has some ideas about saving the tigers and other wildife in India. I am attaching the mails that we exchanged. Any ideas / comments / suggestions etc are most welcome. Please copy all replies to Deepa.
Regards,
Aditya Singh
The words in italics are my replies to her queries.
?
From: Deepa dee.r.2007@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 21:22:01 -0400
To:
Subject: Re: tiger conservation
Hi Aditya,
This is a really long mail, so please take your time to respond!
First of all, thank you for your prompt and detailed reply — I really appreciate it.
You are being modest about your writing skills — frankly, in this case the fact that you have a blog at all is what matters. If someone wants to read up about tiger conservation in India — on the one hand, there is a lot of information out there, but at the same time there isn’t really coherent information in one place. Someone needs to distill the information and present it like you have done with the history of Ranthambhore — I am sure each reserve has a unique and interesting history, but there is no one to tell it. And you are a very entertaining writer, too. I read your blog in it’s entirety — trust me, I wouldn’t have been able to do that if it had put me to sleep 
It is sad that there is so little information on wild life of India. Most of the websites are just trying to sell you a tour and a bad tour at that too. Many of these “Wild life tour operators” have no clue what they are talking about. Unfortunately the managers of the different Reserves in India do not believe in giving out information. For instance a tiger reserve like Ranthambhore does not have a website nor a brochure / map / guide book etc.
Here are some thoughts I had. Some of them will undoubtedly appear naive to you, but I’ll put them out there anyway– please give me your honest opinion on each of them :
1) LIVESTOCK COMPENSATION:
I understand that several of the human predator tensions inside the reserves have to do with the fact that the predators target livestock. You have an entry in your blog about how tigers are killed in revenge attacks during the monsoon. I read that WWF initiated a program in ‘97 around Corbett and a few other tiger national parks where farmers were compensated for the livestock killed by tigers, in order to mitigate revenge killings. This strategy has been adopted in several places around the world with success (eg. for cheetahs in Namibia, wolves and coyotes in America etc.). I wonder whether such compensation initiatives are still alive in tiger reserves and how successful they have been. Do you think such an initiative stands any chance of success at Ranthambhore? I would like to start something like this and fund it– even if we can save one tiger, that’s a huge gain… And it will probably help to build goodwill towards the tiger among the locals, which is I think is quite crucial for long-term conservation.
This will definitely work in Ranthambhore. A local NGO called Tiger Watch did this for some time but they ran out of money and since then no one has worked on it. I have seen how this works in Corbett. They give compensation for any livestock killed outside the boundary of the reserve. If the livestock is killed inside the reserve then there is no compensation and rightly because livestock is not supposed to be there. Not only will this effort save tigers directly but it will also help build a trusted network between conservationists and local villagers. There is none now. I don’t think this will take too much of funding because livestock kills are far and few but it would need an organization with at least 2 dedicated people with one phone line and an address. In other words it would take a sustained program (say at least 5 years) to make this work.
2) DEAD CUBS:
The picture you sent was truly painful to look at. Are these wells all over the reserve? I have been reading that a lot of lions have been dying in the Gir forest after falling into one of multitudes of open wells in and around the forest. Does this sort of thing happen in Ranthambhore too? Is something being done about it — building parapets around the wells or something else?
The deaths of these cubs was really sad and it could have easily been prevented. Unfortunately the Department of Forests assumes that they own the reserves and their managers are not open to any suggestions. Lesser mortals like you and me can not do anything inside the reserves, at least for a few years to come. Hopefully this attitude should change.
3) ADOPT-A-TIGER :
Has anyone tried an Adopt-a-tiger program as a fund-raising measure? I have a friend who co-founded a small, but very successful turtle conservation project in Kenya and she was telling me that an adopt-a-turtle program they started has met with a great deal of success online. I think people are more likely to give money when they feel a personal involvement with the animals they are giving to — and tigers certainly have far more personality than turtles And of course, adopt-an-animal has been used by several different organizations to raise money. There are a fairly small number of tigers at every reserve — you are probably able to identify each tiger at Ranthambhore. My point is that the more you personalize a cause, the more people care. When tigers go missing, I wish there would be a real outrage — which doesn’t seem to happen because these creature are largely anonymous (except to a few people like you on the ground). But if someone in say London had adopted Nick-Ear, when he went missing there would be increased awareness about that in places outside of Ranthambhore. I think we have to reach as far out as we can in an effort to save our wildlife.
Implementing such a project would require someone to take regular pictures of the various tigers and post them online, but it doesn’t seem too difficult to pull off….
I had thought of this after reading about it on the net.
Right now there are 31 tigers (18 adults and 13 cubs) that we know of for sure in Ranthambhore. Not a very large number at all and all of them have been photographed. People like us do not have access to the entire reserve and will probably never have that, at least not on a long tern basis. However the area that we do have access too (called the “tourism zone” - which is less than 50% of the national park) has the highest tiger density. In fact about 75% of Ranthambhore’s tigers are in this 50% of area. This area is heavily “patrolled” by “tourists” while few people if any go to the other parts. The managers of the national park admit to this in private but will not accept it in public. One sure way to rid an area of tigers is to close that area for “tourists”. You close an area and within a year or two there are no tigers there. This is because even the officials do not go in areas that are out of bound for tourists and that leaves that area open to wood cutters, cattle grazers, poachers etc.
We can easily monitor on a regular basis the tigers in the “tourism zone” and take regular pictures.
The one problem with this scheme is that who do you give the money to. I for one am not in favour of giving money to money to the Forest Department because we then have no control on how they spend it. So we can get someone to adopt a particular tiger and get them to contribute towards saving the particular tiger but we would not be able to make any efforts to enhance the protection of that tiger. Sad but that is how tiger conservation works in India. Tiger reserves in that sense are “closed” for all but a handful of people. We are not one of these handful and will probably never be. We hope this will change soon but there are no indications on the field that it will.
4) MAPS:
We need better maps to understand the scale of the human-tiger interactions: I read in the Tiger Task Force report that there are 1500 villages in core & buffer zones. That’s roughly 65,000 families and if we assume 5 members per family, that’s = 325,000 people. No way to know if this estimate is anywhere close to the real number. I have read that there are millions of people who inhabit tiger zones (I suppose most people inhabit more peripheral zones). I am interested in creating maps with the locations of as many of these villages as possible and a rough estimate of the people in each of them with a brief description of their occupations. All we need is a GPS and someone to do the data collection and input the local knowledge (such as names of villages, etc). When these villages and their inhabitants are no longer anonymous and have their own stories to tell, it will be easier to raise support. I know that WPSI has some maps, but they are quite rudimentary.
There are some good maps at least for Ranthambhore. However these are the topographic sheets that were done by the Survey of India a long time ago. These maps do not tell the real story. They give the location of villages that existed when the maps were made but do not tell us about the many villages that came up after that. Since then mapping has changed. Someone I know told me that satellite images of Ranthambhore on a 4 x 4 meter grid can be bought online. What we need are digitized maps.
A friend of mine wanted to work in Keladevi Sanctary that is part of the Ranthambhore tiger reserve doing exactly what you have in mind (and a few more things) but we could not raise the funds and probably would not even have got permission to do the research.
Even without the permissions we can do a survey of the villages and collect data like the location of the villages, the population, live stock population, a rough socio-economic survey of the population etc.
5) VOLUNTEERS:
I wonder why there are no international volunteers in tiger habitats.
You might have heard of this organization called Earthwatch. They support scientific field research projects all over the world by offering volunteers the opportunity to join the research teams. They are quite a popular and successful organization and get a fair amount of positive buzz in the media. Volunteers pay a fairly high fee for these volunteering opportunities and all their activities are funded by volunteer fees.
They don’t seem to have a presence in India and I wonder why that is (is it just Indian bureaucratic hurdles at work here?) They have a presence on every continent, and esp. in places with endangered habitats.
I don’t think any of the scientists working on their environmental projects really need so many volunteers, but that’s beside the point somewhat. Usually these volunteers are very passionate about these causes and willing to live in modest conditions and rough it out. Mostly, they act as ambassadors for the cause when they get back home and can be quite instrumental in raising awareness in their communities. In the last few years, there has been a real surge in this so-called volunteer-tourism as witnessed by several articles to that effect in the NY Times and other newspapers.
There are no volunteers for tiger conservation in India. This is purely because of bureaucratic hurdles. The volunteers would not even be allowed to get close to the reserve. There are thousands of very dedicated people in India who could do some great work as volunteers but the government would not allow them to do any work in the reserves.
Even if they are not allowed inside the Core area of the reserve they can still do some great work just outside the reserve, for which they do not need any permissions. Its just that no one has thought of co-ordinating such an effort. For instance the entire mapping could be done in one month using volunteers.
My friend (who co-founded the turtle conservation project) was telling me that when her project first got started they would have volunteers come to help (mostly from Britain during their gap year). In the beginning these volunteers were a drain on the resources of the staff members working full time on the project. But eventually the staff streamlined the process and figured out ways for the volunteers to make themselves useful. After that, the volunteers became productive members of the project — more importantly, they would spread the word around and keep the contributions coming in. They would often go back to volunteer.
I don’t see why a volunteer program cannot be started in tiger habitats. These volunteers are not a drain on financial resources since they would pay for all their expenses. And it is perfectly reasonable to make it mandatory for them to make a small donation. I can’t imagine there would be any dearth of volunteer interest in such an initiative, although it will take some time to get the word out. Some of the cheetah conservancy projects in Namibia accept applications up to a year in advance. Besides, India has a lot to offer by way of tourism….http://www.earthwatch.org
The hard part, of course, is that someone knowledgeable on the ground will have to figure out a program for them to train them and to keep them busy. I am willing to work very hard on this to put together a program, elicit applications, sift through resumes and pick the right people to volunteer. You have mentioned several wonderful people in your blog — like Dharmendra, Vakil and others, who have the know-how to put together a field program using volunteers. There might be other such people who could be employed?http://www.earthwatch.org
I think this can be done. It just needs the first push and then it can be on track for a long time to come.
So something tells me that this is very much in the realm of possibilities.I am really interested in scoping out the potential for a volunteer program. I think there is an opportunity here. But please tell me what you think.
6) MOGIYAS AND MICROFINANCE:
Your blog entries about the 
The question is will the Mogiyas and the other tribes be interested in these soft loans which will enable them to cultivate alternate sources of income? I can work to put these people on the map of the micro-finance world. But I need to be convinced that this will be a useful step. I mean a KIVA-type model works when people have at least some inclination towards honesty and hard-work. So what do you think — will it work in the context of these tribal groups? I know you are involved in doing work towards rehabilitating one of these families.
Micro finance and Mogiyas – I think that could do wonders. No one has thought about doing anything for these people and they are amongst the poorest people here. Their needs are very basic but they do not even have the means to get those together. I see people here who spend on one dinner what a Mogiya family would make in a month. We would need to get the procedure right and this can really work. In fact anything that is done outside the reserve will work. Inside the reserve we have no say.
7) BLOGS:
The reason I am writing to you is entirely because of your blog. I want to think of ways to get people on the ground at other tiger reserves to participate too. Do you think there are ways to find such people and get them to contribute their experiences and knowledge? I know it’s a cliche — but the world has truly gotten smaller thanks to the internet and one can reach so many more people now than one could ever before.
A friend of mine got me started on my blog. I am not too much of an “online” person but I found this a great way to let out news from here. I strongly feel that there should be a few blogs coming out of every wildlife area in India. It does not make a difference how well it is written as long as it is written regularly.
All suggestions/comments are welcome. I am hoping to cull these thoughts down and have a few initiatives we can try. But I am really serious about doing something — this is not a passing fancy.
Thanks much,
–Deepa.
Tips for Tiger Photography in Ranthambore
I wrote a short article for some friends who are planning a photography trip to Ranthambhore and I liked it so much that I decided to put it up on the website of our lodge The Ranthambhore Bagh
It goes like this…
Ranthambhore is one of the best places in the world to photograph tigers in their wild, natural habitat. Some of the best wild tiger photos in the world have been taken in Ranthambore. There are a number of reasons for this and the most mportant ones are:
1. It is relatively easy to find tigers in a wildlife safari in Ranthambhore national park, thanks to the dry nature of the reserve. On an average a photographers should be able to get at least a few good tiger photography opportunities in a 3-4 days. When I say good opportunities, I mean great sightings in good light for at least 15 minutes and a good photographer can get a lot done in that time.
2. All the wildlife pictures in Ranthambhore are taken from jeeps (or Canter “safari bus”). This means that one is taking wildlife pictures from a much lower angle and the end results are eye level photos, that are much more impressive. In most of the other Project Tiger reserves, the only tiger photo opportunities that one would get are from the top of an elephant, which is not only a poor angle but also a very unstable platform to shoot wildlife from.
3. Ranthambhore has some very interesting backgrounds to offer. The forest here changes it colors in every season. It varies from lush green in October, to yellows and reds in winters (from the end of November to February), to yellows and browns in the summers (March to June). The ancient ruins that are found all over the park add to this environment.
4. Ranthambore also has a lot to offer wildlife photographers, besides tigers. It is the best place in the world to take pictures of Sambar deer. One can get excellent pictures of ungulates, birds (particularly the ones that prefer drier habitats), landscapes, old monuments in the jungle etc. So when you can not find an obliging tiger to take pictures of, one can still get a lot of other very interesting subjects to shoot.
There are some downside of wildlife photography in Ranthambore too and the main ones are:
1. It is difficult to book jeeps in Ranthambhore. Only a limited number of jeeps are permitted to go inside the park and since there is a huge demand for them, they get booked well in advance. The Canter “safari bus” are not so good for photography. Not only do they offer a much higher angle than jeeps, there are other people in the Canter too and they may all be moving at the same time. However, the Canters are much more affordable than jeeps and if you are planning to spend a long time in Ranthambhore then Canters maybe easier on your pocket. John Isaac, a good friend of mine actually prefers the Canters over jeeps.
2. When you book a jeep in for safari, you are allotted a route and you have to stay on the allotted route during your jeep safari. This can be painful for photographers because it is important for them to get the right routes.
3. You could get stuck with the wrong team of drivers and guides. There are a few (only a handful - I would say) excellent guides and drivers in Ranthambhore, who understand the light, angles etc and can predict action with some degree of reliability. You could end up having a pretty lousy trip if you are not with one of them.
You can easily come over these drawbacks by keeping a few things in mind. Remember to book your trip well in advance. I would recommend booking at least 60-70 days in advance. If you do that you will end with with confirmed jeeps with good routes and look around for a good team.
Some tips for wildlife photography in Ranthambore
1. Equipment: I would recommend carrying at least three lenses - one wide (I use a 17-35 mm f
2.8), one normal (I use a 24-85 mm) and at least one tele (I use a Sigma 120 - 300 f 2.8). A super telephoto (500 or 600 mm) would be mind blowing and I use a 500 mm f 4.5 Sigma. I would also recommend carrying at least two camera bodies (I have
an EOS 1D Mark II, one EOS 20 D and one EOS 3) and carrying a dust proof bag to keep all this stuff in. Dust is a big problem here, so always carry all the things required to clean your gear.
2. Film: If you are still shooting film (or slides) and I am, carry 100 and 400 ISO films. I know that the Fuji Velvia 50 is great but you need to be a very brave person to shoot wildlife in India with a 50 ISO film. If you are shooting on digital carry all the cards, hard drives etc that you think you would need because you can not get any of those here. In our place you can download you images on our computer and back them up on CDs / DVDs but you can not do it everywhere.
3. Support: Tripods are great but they do not work on jeeps and canters unless you slightly modify the vehicle (if you are planning to stay here for a long time you could do that). However, I would still advise you to carry the tripod. Beanbags, on the other hand, are great in the vehicles. They are easy to carry and can be set up almost anywhere inside a jeep or a canter. Best of all, you can buy them here for a very low price. I have a tripod and a monopod but have shot most of my stuff inside the park on beanbags.
4. Light: The terrain in Ranthambore national park is hilly and so the lighting is totally different at different times of the day. The best lighting (the soft winter light) is between November and February, though this is not the best time to find tigers. April, May and June are the best time to find tigers but the summer light of these months can be pretty harsh. During all the months the light is nice and soft in the early mornings and in the late evenings.
5. Time duration: If you want to get some serious wildlife pictures, I would recommend coming here for at least 4-5 days (more if you are planning to come here in the winters). If you are planning to spend less than that then plan on getting lucky.
If you think that my pictures are good then you should check out some really good
pictures from Anup Shah , Theo Allofs and Andy Rouse . My stuff won’t look so good after you have seen the big guys of wildlife photography
.
Mogiya poachers busted outside Ranthambore - Dharmendra Khandal
I just got a mail from Doctor Dharmendra Khandal, the Field Biologist of Tiger” title=”http://ranthambhore.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html>Tiger” target=”_blank”>ranthambhore.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html>Tiger Watch and has been in Ranthambhore since. In early 2005 Dharmendra and I were instrumental in getting the Operation Co-operation launched by the then Deputy Field Director of Ranthambore national park - Mr. G S Bhardwaj. After this operation was called off we were all very dejected but soon Dharmendra decided to start a full fledged (in terms of action and delivery and not in term of funds) anti poaching program and did it in style. Right now he is enemy number one for tiger poachers.
Just two days ago he got some information about a group of 
Dear boss,
It was a preventive raid that we carried out in the early hours of the 2nd August 2007. As you have always said we should do something “before” tiger poaching happens and not “after” it happens. Till now we have only caught poachers after they had done their killing. What we did yesterday was preemptive.
My informer reported to me that fifteen Mogiyas families with 12 guns have crossed over from Madhya Pradesh (to the periphery of Ranthambhore tiger reserve) and waiting for the right time to enter the reserve. He also told us that about one third of these people were in a place near Sapotra, another one third were in Gangapur and he did not know where the rest were.
I personally met the Superintendent of Police Mr. Jose Mohan (a young and dynamic police officer who recently nabbed few notorious dacoits and other highly wanted criminals). After I briefed him about the information that I had got, he showed great interest and called up his best policeman for the raid.
Two police teams and our Tiger Watch team (three 4 wheel drive jeeps with 16 people in them) reached Amargarh Social Forestry Plantation, near Sapotra at 0400 hours in the morning and started the raid. Within two hours we had executed four operations and seized five guns and two poachers.
What would interest you are the linkages of these poachers, who were caught.
One of them – his name is Shankar alias Ram Karan – is Devi Singh Mogiya’s real uncle. He is wanted in Madhya Pradesh for various crimes, some of them related to wildlife. He has 10 sons, the eldest being 36 years old and the youngest 3 years old. All these 10 sons are part of the group that crossed over from Madhya Pradesh to enter Ranthambhore for poaching. This man and his older sons are seasoned poachers with a lot of experience. Five of his ten sons are adults and have their own guns. Two of these five – Ram Singh and Kalua – were active members of Devi Singh’s gang, when this gang had killed five tigers between 2003 and 2004. Devi Singh had confessed about their involvement on camera. By the way we did not catch any one of his sons. They were in the same area and are still there but we could not nab them. Maybe soon we will – before they strike.
The second man that we caught – Jagdish alias Bhuria Mogiya – is the real brother-in-law of Devi Singh Mogiya. We seized three guns from him. One was his. The other guns belonged to Ramawtar Mogya (son of Rajmal Mogiya – who we now realize is not really a “reformed poacher) and the third belonged to Afsar Mogya (son of Harji Mogya). The fourth gun belonged to Shankar (alias Ram Karan) and the fifth gun belonged to his son Ram Singh.
You would remember the day we caught Raj Mal Mogiya . You would also remember Devi Singh Mogiya of Uliyana village, who admitted to killing 6 tigers between 2003 and 2004. Harji is brother of two infamous tiger poachers Jugraj and Lakhan. Harji was killed by a leopard, he had shot and injured, in the same area where we had caught Rajmal Mogiya.
All this indicates that the “real bad guys” had run away from around Ranthambhore, after Operation Co operation, are now getting back or at least their younger progeny is. These guys are sons of master Mogiyas. I have enough evidence to show that they were deeply involved in tiger poaching in the period between 2002 and 2005.
Now story reveals one very dangerous fact. One of the guns that we caught – which belonged to Jagdish / Bhuriya Mogiya - was found from the house of a forest guard where he had kept it “safely”. We collected it from the forest guard’s family after convincing them to hand it over. At that time the Forest Guard - Kajod Mal Gurjar - was not in his house. He is currently posted in Gangapur plantation area where we caught all these guys.
Can you believe all these guys were found in the forest areas? They built their Tapri (temporary hutments) in the plantation areas run by the Forest Department. And Kajod is the guard in charge of these plantation areas. And this bastard was once a guard inside Ranthambhore tiger reserve. He has very good connection with these Mogaya poachers. How you will we save our tigers, if the guards are the ones helping the poachers?
Few other facts:
• Malarna Dunger to Gangapur is the main holding area of this community right now. This is a very remote area and totally ignored by the Forest Department and other Conservationists.
• More than 15 families of Madhya Pradesh Mogaya’s are settled in this area
• All have strong family connections with the local poachers like Rajmal, Lakhan etc.
• All belong to notorious Devi Singh Mogya’s family – probably the most dangerous of all the operators in Ranthambhore.
• All are settled here in Forest areas like plantations etc which are under the direct control of the Forest Department.
• All of them have strong relations with forest guards.
• Every body has illegal guns. 15 families therefore 15 guns.
• They are the “real bad guys” - purely nomadic type not like our Mogiyas, who are “some what” settled.
• They are all wanted in Madhya Pradesh for wildlife and other violent crimes.
• We have to think about a stronger and active information gathering system.
• Good thing during this raid is that I identified a few expert policemen in Sawai Madhopur. We have to spend some resources on these police personals to encourage or to involve them into this anti-poaching system. The Senior Superintend of Police is taking a strong interest in anti poaching operations, which is excellent news.
Regards,
Dharmendra Khandal, Field Biologist, Tiger Watch, Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve
.