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Little Bittern sighted in Ranthambhore national park on 22/23 May 2010
A Little Bittern (Ixobrychus minutus) was sighted and photographed for the first time in the plains of India. A keen birder from Delhi Wing Commander Vijay Sethi photographed it on the 22nd and 23rd May 2010. He found the bird near Malik Talao in the heart of the park. He was accompanied by local naturalist Salim Ali. This is the first time ever that this bird has been photographed in the plains of India.
Nikhil Devasar, founder of Delhi Bird Club commented “this is the only Indian
report outside Kashmir in 10 years! According to Birds of South Asia, by
Pamela Rasmussen, it is a summer visitor to Afghanistan and parts of
Pakistan as well as Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Records from elsewhere
in India are very questionable but as it is one of the Eastern African winterers
odd birds must pass through Northwest India occasionally, though their rarity
suggests they move north further west. This is presumably a late passage
migrant en route from Eastern Africa.”
The pictures were sent to Pamela Rasmussen who confirmed the Identity of
the bird. She commented - “Interesting, confirmed the record! Of course they
may be more regular than proven in other areas than Kashmir, as the species
is easy to overlook. But most likely a late migrant.”
Sighting and Pictures by Vijay Sethi 22 – 23rd May 2010, Malik Talao,
Ranthambhore national park, Rajasthan, India.
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.
A great article
Wildlife is on the brink
Wildlife is on the brink and it is high time we took a critical look at our conservation realities
and policies.
Most that share landscapes with wildlife, for instance, live extremely low
impact lives yet they pay the biggest cost for conservation.
Question of survival: Tribal settlements in Orissa¹s Simlipal Biosphere
Reserve.
If there is one dominating sense about the fate of wildlife in this country,
it is that of Œthe end¹. The wiping out of the tiger from the Sariska and
Panna Tiger Reserves has been headline news; poaching and trading in
wildlife parts con tinues unabated; human wildlife conflict ‹ be it with
carnivores like leopards or tigers, large mammals like elephants or smaller
animals like wild boar, deer or monkeys ‹ is seriously on the rise; lakes,
rivers and other wetlands are either being dammed, poisoned or encroached
upon; climate change threatens to change the world in an unprecedented
manner and as a combined consequence wildlife numbers are dwindling
precariously and many species of birds, animals and plants stand dangerously
close to the precipice of extinction.
The Forest Rights Act
An important new twist was added to wildlife conservation debates a couple
of years ago with the enactment of the Scheduled Tribes and Other
Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, popularly
known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The debate over this act has been
volatile and the opposition, particularly from a section of wildlife
conservationists and former forest officers, has been and continues to be
strong. A lot has been written about these concerns and strong affirmation
came from a rather unlikely source around a year ago. A report in Newsweek
(³India¹s missing tigers², May 5, 2008) took the argument to an unexpected
extreme when it argued that Œdemocracy and economic development¹ were
driving the tiger to extinction in India.
Many might actually agree with this articulation, but even a cursory
analysis will reveal that the conclusions are as ill-informed as they are
short sighted. An entire argument cannot be built on the analysis of and
comment on just one piece of recent legislation in the country: the FRA. The
law is a recent one and its implementation, if it is happening at all, has
just about begun. While fears about forest and wildlife loss may indeed be
justified, selectively wiping away history and placing the responsibility
for the tiger¹s demise at the door of this one legislation and one set of
people is not only irresponsible but also can be counter-productive.
Particularly so since because one aspect of India¹s conservation history ‹
the role of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ‹ continues to be repeatedly
invoked, like in the Newsweek piece. A whole generation of wildlife
enthusiasts and conservationists believe, and with good reason, that Indira
Gandhi ensured that Indian wildlife still has some hope. She was the
architect of critical legislations and frameworks that certainly helped
protect wildlife and her personal interest and intervention like in the case
of Silent Valley in Kerala ensured that many critical habitats were saved.
It is a legacy we cannot deny or wish away, but we also need to ask whether
we can keep hanging on to the past? Our socio-political-economic-cultural
realities have changed drastically since her time. It is the same nation and
yet it is different . Wildlife conservation today, like anything else, has
to be placed within this rapidly changing context. It is crucial to
recognise that the same wildlife conservation policies will not succeed
today just because they did in a different era. If she were alive today,
Mrs. Gandhi would perhaps have agreed.
There is also a whole new Œpost-Indira Gandhi¹ generation of wildlife
biologists involved in cutting edge research across wild India. Many of
their formulations of problems and solutions are extremely nuanced and far
more representative of realities on the ground. They need to be asked and
they need to be listened to.
Condemning the most vulnerable
It is no one¹s case that wildlife conservation is easy. The challenges are
immense and no one but the most optimistic will argue that the future for
our wildlife is bright and hopeful. However, blaming the poor and the
tribal; demanding their displacement to protect wildlife; seeking stricter
and military-like protection is the wrong place to start. By doing this we
are also ignoring many other realities. Most of the communities that share
landscapes with wildlife, for instance, live extremely low impact lives and
yet they are made to pay the biggest cost for conservation.
It is also not a coincidence that innumerable people¹s agitations across the
country today are fighting policies and projects (big dams, large scale
mining, increased industrialisation) that predate on the basic survival of
forest and land dependant communities. Neither is it a coincidence that many
of these are important habitats that support a great diversity of threatened
flora and fauna. It is as important that we recognise this overlap as it is
for us to recognise that both communities and wildlife are, together, losing
this battle. Nothing ‹ be it the laws and the courts, the politicians and
the bureaucrats or the media and the wildlife conservationists ‹ are able to
help them.
Hope and the FRA
Increased mining across the country, for instance, has been one of the most
significant sources of concern for its impact on forests, tribal communities
and important wildlife populations. In an ironic twist now, it is being
suggested that the FRA might actually be the only hope for preventing mining
in forest and wildlife rich areas. Efforts towards this end are already
being made in states like Orissa and in particular in the Niyamgiri hills
where the Dongaria Kondh Tribal community itself is fighting to save the
forests. Additional hope has been kindled following the July 30, 2009
notification of the MoEF stating the forest land diversion for non-forest
purposes should ensure compliance with the provisions of the FRA.
In this larger context then, it comes across as completely unfair to argue
that rights for the poor, the marginalised and the historically
dis-privileged necessarily means the demise of our wildlife? Can we turn the
question and wonder if, in fact, ³it is not too much democracy but too
little of it that lies at the root our wildlife crisis?² That a more
empowered people might actually fight better and more successfully? We don¹t
have the answers today; what we do have is the choice of which question we
will ask.
Missing tiger found
There are reports in the local and national newspaper that a male tiger – officially known as T 3 (picture below – taken before he was radio collared) – has been reported missing from the Ranthambhore national park for over two months. This tiger (we call him Bahadur or Bunty) is the male cub of Machali (Ranthambhore’s best known tigress) from her previous litter. He is about 4 years old and use to be found in the heart of the park between the lakes and a place called Lakkarda (with in the bigger circle in the map below).
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| From Ranthambhore |
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| From Ranthambhore |
T 3 was one of the first tigers of Ranthambhore to be radio collared by the Wildlife Institute of India. However, there was some defect in the transmitter in his radio collar and it never really worked properly.
Somewhere in the second half of October he moved of this area and was not seen since then. The Forest guards did try for many days to track him down but had little success. Recently it came out in the newspapers that this tiger is missing. We have no idea why he decided to change his territory.
In the middle of November we had Daniel and Daniella Free (our regular guests from UK) staying with us. On the 17th of November 2008 they had gone for a safari on zone number 5 that goes right across the park. In the early afternoon they spotted a male tiger (without a radio collar) near the Thumka chowki (smaller circle in the map above). Their guide (Vijay Singh) told me that they had seen a young and confident male crossing the forest track and that the male had blood marks on his chest, probably from eating a kill. At that time we were sure that it was not T 3 that they saw because they had seen a tiger without a radio collar.
Daniella was generous enough to give me two pictures of this male (pictures below) and just yesterday I got down to match those two images with the other pictures that I have. And guess what it turned out to be T 3 without the collar. I immediately called up the forest authorities and informed them. The Deputy Field Director came over to the shack that we call our office and took a copy of the images. Even he took a long time to believe that this male had somehow managed to get rid of the ugly collar around his neck.
Three cheers for T 3 without the collar.
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| From Ranthambhore |
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. 
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.