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Two tiger poisoned in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve
At around 1000 hours in the morning the Deputy Field Director of Ranthambhore national park (RS Shekhawat) called me and asked me to reach the Tadla chowki (or Forest Guard House) near Banas river as soon as possible, along with MD Parasher. He told me that the two “Chiroli cubs” were dead, probably poisoned and that he was inside the Ranthambhore national park and heading to the area where this happened. He wanted both of us to be an “independent witness” to the case.
I got in touch with MD Parasher (an artist based in Ranthambhore) and we left for the Tadla in a few minutes. When we reached the chowki there was a guard waiting for us and from there we drove towards a small village called “Tadla ka khet” about a mile ahead of Amli Deh (a deep water pool in the river). This area is across the river Banas and lies in the Baler forest range, at the edge of the Keladevi sanctuary, which is a part of Ranthambhore tiger reserve. We met up with RS Shekhawat, Range Officer Daulat Singh and the Range Officer Baler at the edge of river Banas, just beyond Amli Deh. There were about a dozen forest guards with them. The Deputy Director confirmed that the two cubs (actually sub adult tigers who had separated from their mother slightly over two months ago) were dead.
The location:
The “Tadla ka khet” village lies in the midst of ravines between the Banas river basin and the Keladevi plateau. The terrain is typical of the ravines that are found along Chambal river and its tributaries – steep and low sand cliffs that have been cut by monsoon rain fed “nallah” (streams) and there is little level ground in the entire area. There is some level ground near the village, which is used for farming.
There are very few large mammals that can be seen there in the day because of the disturbance by goat herders. One does see a lot of hoof prints and droppings so mammals like Nilgai, Wild boar, Sambar etc must be using the area, more so during the nights, when there are no herders around.
There are about 5 extended families in this small village of farmers and goat herders. Only one of these five families does not rear goats, while the other mainly depend on goat rearing for their living.
Technically this area is in the Baler range of the Keladevi Sanctuary, as it is across the river Banas but for the last two (more or less) years its management comes under the Deputy Director Ranthambhore national park and not under the Deputy Director Karauli, who administers the rest of Keladevi Sanctuary.
View Tadla ka khet in a larger map
Ranthambhore tiger reserve consists of the Ranthambhore national park, keladevi sanctuary, Sawai Mansingh sanctuary, Sawaimadhopur sanctuary, Kuwalji protected area and some smaller protected areas.
The tigers:
The two tigers that died are supposed to be 16 to 17 months old though they appeared to be older than that to me. The forest department informed us that they were first camera trapped about 13-14 months ago in the Chiroli area of the Kundera range of Ranthambhore national park. That is why they are known as the Chiroli cubs. As far as I know, they were never ever seen in any of the tourist zones and there are very few photographs of this family. They must have been regularly picked up in the camera traps in Chiroli and Bheed area of the national park but since these areas are out of bound for us I do not know much about these tigers. These two cubs had separated from their mother somewhere in January 2010 and since then had moved out of the national park to the Baler range of Keladevi sanctuary, which is a part of the tiger reserve. Right now Ranthambhore national park has far too many male tigers so the moment male cubs separate from their mother they have to start looking for a territory in the fringes of the national park. The other more dominant males ensure that they have to do that. In the last few months almost all the tigers that are moving out of the national park are young males that have just separated from their mother.
What happened on 7th March 2010 (Sunday):
Parasher and I reached near Tadla ka khet by 1100 hours. We parked about a 100 meters away from where the tigers were lying dead and where there were three other forest department jeeps. By that time the forest guards and officers had tracked the entire area but I decided to do it again for my information. The Deputy Director and the other officers present informed us that a team of forest officers and guards were searching the village and the area around for the people who could have done this. One of the forest guards (Lakshmi Pandit, who I know well from before), told me that the guards from Tadla ki chowki had seen pugmarks of the tigers on the 4th and 5th March at some distance but did not find any pugmarks on the 6th. On the 7th morning while tracking this area they smelt rotting flesh and that is how they found the dead tigers.
We walked a short distance from there to the place where the one of cubs was lying dead. This tiger (tiger 1) was lying at the edge of a dry streambed (nallah). A few meters ahead along the same nallah we saw a carcass of a goat that had been almost totally consumed. The area around this goat’s carcass was full of tiger pugmarks. Between the goat’s carcass and the dead tiger there were two tiger scats and one patch of dark vomit. Lopped off branches of thorny Acacia tree were placed around the carcass in such a way that there was only one easy way (the one on the steam bed) to get to this carcass. This was obviously done to “lead” the tiger to the goat’s carcass. The Tadla ka khet village was not more than 500 meters (as the crow flies) from this place.
About 50 feet away from this goat’s carcass, on a low mud hill, there was a lot of goat hair lying on the ground. From this place there were drag marks and human footprints to a Salvadora tree. On top of this tree was a carcass of another goat and some branches were lopped off on this tree. It was clear that some people had dragged this goat’s carcass to the tree and then placed it on a branch of the tree after lopping some small branches off.
The body of the other male tiger (Tiger 2) was lying in the open, in a saucer shaped basin, about a 100 meters away from that of the first tiger’s body. This tiger’s body was not as badly decomposed as the first ones. In fact both the bodies were not too badly decomposed. Predators decompose really fast and usually there is nothing left in 3 or 4 days time, particularly in months like March, which are pretty hot. There were broad drag marks leading away from this tiger’s body. I followed these drag marks. The marks led to a small shady Acacia tree. It was obvious that this tiger (Tiger 2) had rested and vomited under this tree for some time and then he dragged himself from this tree to the point where he finally died. This was obvious from the width of the drag marks, which had “stretched out” pugmarks and vomit spots on them. There were hyena and jackals pugmarks all over the place and it was clear that some animal had tried to eat this tiger’s carcass but had given up. A part of this tigers flank was opened up but hardly anything at all was consumed.
From reading the tracks around (I had a good couple of hours to do so) I concluded the following:
A little after noon, the team of veterinary doctor, forensic expert from Sawai Madhopur mobile Forensic unit, few other government officers and local police had arrived. By then almost all the officers of Ranthambhore tiger reserve, including the Field Director, four Assistant Conservator of Forests, two more Forest Rangers and many forest guards had arrived. Post mortem was conducted on the tigers and the goats and forensic samples were collected. A Field report was written up both Parasher and I signed it as independent witnesses. The carcasses of both the tigers and the goats were then burnt till there was nothing left. One interesting thing that the veterinary doctor told us that there were two cut marks (probably made with an axe) on the body of tiger 1. These were made after the tiger had died.
Sometimes around noon some members of the team of forest officials who were searching the neighborhood for people came back to inform the DFO that they did not find any one in the Tadla ka khet village, except one young man and one old sick man. All of them had run away when they saw the first Forest Department jeep arrive. They did find a few women form the village in their fields on the Banas riverbed. The forest officers were interrogating this young man and some other people who were working in the fields on the riverbank (about half a kilometer away from this spot). A few of them informed us that the dead goats belonged to a man called Ram Khiladi Gujjar from Tadla ka khet. All through this time we could hear men shouting (to each other) and looking at the proceedings from top of the plateau. They were clearly visible but I could not make out what they were shouting. This went on for a few hours. We could see these people but to get to the top of the plateau would have taken any one of us more than an hour. So there was no chance of catching them.
It was close to sunset by then and most of us (Parasher, the doctors and forensic people etc) left. The entire forest department team stayed behind to conduct raids in the area.
I tried calling up the Deputy Director on Sunday night before I went to sleep but could not get through to him. They had not returned from the area of operation.
The next morning I called the Deputy Director as soon as I got up and what he told me was that they were conducting raids in the area till late in the night. They had managed to apprehend two main accused – Ram Khiladi Gujjar (the owner of the goats that had been killed by the tigers) and one of his friends / relatives Mukesh Gujjar. The Deputy Director also mentioned that these two main accused had told them that on the afternoon of the 4th March the two tigers had attacked the heard of goats and killed two goats. The tigers had injured a third goat that later died in the village. The herders managed to scare the two tigers off the kill. They put one of the goat’s body on top of the tree while they guarded the second goat’s body (to keep the tigers away). Ram Khiladi went to the nearby Khandar town and bought a bottle of strong pesticide (locally known as Aldrin though it is a different brand) and some syringes. He and Mukesh injected one of the goat’s carcass with this pesticide a number of times and poured the rest of the pesticide in the offal’s of the goat. They then left the poisoned goat in the nallah and cordoned a part of the nallah off with thorny branches. By the time they finished doing that it had become dark. That night the tigers did not return to the kill. However, the next night (on the 5th March) both the tigers came back and ate the entire poisoned goat. The two accused found the bodies of the tiger the next morning just after sunrise.
Unfortunately these two tigers died because the three goats that these two tigers killed were more precious for the herders than two living tigers. Rupees 2000 (about 40 US dollars) of financial loss for two people killed two living tigers. This unfortunately is the reality of tiger conservation in wild India and no amount of campaigning can change this. Unless a living tiger has financial value for most of the people who live near tiger habitats, tiger are not going to survive.
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………….
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| From Ranthambhore |
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| 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
Indala Plateau – Final for this year
We finally got all the work in Indala finished and did it just in time. The monsoons have arrived here and the rains make most of the tracks to Indala impassable. All the three wells were dug some time ago, the waterholes are ready, the water recharging structures done and the Deputy Field Director has posted two guards (who stay in tents) near each of the waterholes. All sorts of wildlife have already started using these waterholes. When Andy Rouse, Salim Ali (India’s best tiger driver – if you know what I mean) and I had gone there to take a few pictures, we found fresh pugmarks of a male tiger in the first waterhole and pugmarks of a tigress with three cubs close by. We could only photograph the first well because it was getting dark by the time we finished with that one and we had to get out of the park (which takes nearly 2 hours).
I would like to thank Paresh Upadhyaya (USA), Jayananda Govindaraj (Chennai), Ratnabh Bannerjee (New Delhi), Nitin Mistry (Goa), Hitesh Chug (New Delhi) and Andy Rouse (UK) and the clothing company “Paramo “ that sponsors his conservation work. Andy / Paramo and I each picked up about 35% of the bill while the others contributed towards the balance 30%. I still have about Rupees 35,000 left with me.
The Deputy Field Director and I discussed ways to spend this amount and we came out with a good one. There is an old lake in Indala, very close to the Indala village, which is going to be relocated outside the park very soon. This lake was made about 70 years ago by damming a non-perennial stream. About 10 years ago the dam broke and since then the lake died out. We have decided to fix the dam and to strengthen the banks of this lake. We have Rs 35,000 to do this but it is going to cost about Rs 200,000 to complete, which we will somehow manage. We had started work on the lake a few days ago but it rained a day after that and it may now be tough to complete the work. In that case we will take it up in one of the dry spells that we get in the monsoons. If we can manage that then we will have a full-fledged lake in Indala plateau when the National Park reopens in October after the monsoons.
The waterholes are ready…….
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.
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.