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Number 3
“Jhumru” just before he charged (see Numer 2 below) on the same day, same slide roll and the same bloody scanner.
Number 2
“Jhumru” - now a big mature male who stays in an area called Lahpur in the heart of the Ranthambhore National Park. I had taken this one on a Slide film and scanned it very poorly. Dated 24th April 2002 - when he was not so big and mature.
My most viewed pictures on Flickr
Here are 5 of my most “viewed” (though not necessarily the best) pictures on flickr.
This one is actually one of my all time favorites. Its a picture of “Machali” and her latest litter. She is one of the most photographed wild tigers in the world. She is super cool, super model and just does not give a thought to vehicles surrounding her. Got this picture on the 17th of January 2007.
Persian Dwarf Sand Gecko
In the end of September 2007 Doctor Dharmendra Khandal - the Field Biologist of Tiger Watch - went on a tour of the Thar desert in Rajasthan with a few of his friends. I could not join them because that is the time we have to start getting out Lodge in Ranthambore - The Ranthambhore Bagh- ready for the tourist season, that starts on the 1st of October.
The most interesting find was this little Persian or Sindh Dwarf Sand Gecko that they found in the Barmer district of Western Rajasthan. This is the first time that this gecko has been reported from anywhere in India. Keep it up Dharmendra.
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
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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
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Mail from Roy
I got a mail from Roy Fallon - my good friend from UK. He is very keen on Indian wildlife and is a great friend of tigers. Lately he has been very concerned about the “tiger crisis” in India. I think every one interested in wild tigers should go through this mail exchange that we just had.
Dear Roy,
Nice to hear from you.
The tiger situation is indeed bad (to say the least).
It appears that the government of India (the Federal government) is waking up to it but we just hope they don’t take a few years to to do so. The Prime Minister has been giving some statements lately that the tiger situation is really bad and they have to take some urgent steps to correct it. They have “plans” to set up a nation wide cell against wildlife crime and a National Tiger Conservation Authority, something like the FBI. They are also planning to recruit retired military personnel to guard the tiger reserves. I really hope that these plans are implemented “properly” and soon. There is not much time left. In fact we are already about 6 to 7 years late.
I may not really be an authority on tigers in India but I do know much more than the average Joe and I foresee a few major problems with these plans:
1. Timing
If anything has to be done it has to be done now. The Indian government has a very strong tendency to delay implementation till it does not matter any more. Right now even a bad plan would do a lot of good if it is executed right away. Doing something right away is definitely better than doing nothing at all. I just hope that they do not keep planning and delay the implementation of the few ideas that they have. And believe me they have a very few ideas.
2. Data
It is a shame that we don’t have enough scientific data on tigers, their habitat and their problems. There is hardly any research material on tigers in India. Research on tiger was discouraged in all parts of India. Whatever little data that we do have is very basic and often faulty.
One Field Director of Ranthambhore tiger reserve had once told me that “we do not need any research on tigers. We know all there is to know about them and the problems that they face.” He then went on to tell me that “one of the biggest problems that tigers face is traffic jams from photographers.” Was this guy nuts? Yes he definitely was. The problem is that the Government has given him the authority to implement whatever weird ideas that he comes up with.
He was talking about “traffic jams by photographers” when people were shooting tigers all over Ranthambhore. A shot by a camera is forever but a shot from a gun is not. And what traffic jams was he talking about? In a Park like Ranthambhore – which probably gets one of the highest number of tourists out of all the tigers reserves in India – a maximum of 40 vehicles are permitted to go at any one time. These are divided into 5 different zone. So one zone does not have more than 8 vehicles at any given time. These vehicles have to stay on the man-made tracks in the zones. They just can not stray off the track, while the tiger can go where ever he pleases to go. When ever the tigers feels disturbed by visitor’s vehicles he just walks away from the tracks and that’s it. I have seen this repeatedly in Ranthambhore for the last 10 years.
We joke that when ever there is a wildlife related crime the Forest Department officials are the last people to know about it.
The data that is submitted from the field through the Forest Department is “faked” to make the Field officers look good. For instance “Tigers don’t get poached they migrate”, “habitat is never degraded”, “there is an annual 10% rise in tiger population in all India reserves”. The list goes on.
Conservation cannot work unless there is a good and regular supply of data, intelligence, observations etc. We just have to open up the parks to researchers from all over the world. I think that every protected area should have at least on team of researchers, that is neither responsible to the Forest Department nor funded by them.
3. Monitoring
As long as Indian tiger reserves do not have an independent monitoring team, the “faked” data will keep coming up. These teams should have total and unlimited access and they should report to a Centralized authority. Their funding should not be from the Forest Department and they should not be responsible to the Forest Department. Their finding should be published online and should be available to everyone in the world. Tigers belong to all of us on this planet. They are not the exclusive preserve of the Government of India. Even if no action is taken on the findings of such monitoring teams at least let the world know about what is really going on in the tigers reserves. Such teams should carry out an “annual audit” which should be submitted to the highest authority. Believe me nothing works like “Public Pressure”. This team should be different from the research team, like activists to scientists.
4. Role of the states
Forests and wildlife in India have a funny legal status. Technically Forest and Wildlife is a state subject. That means that it is controlled by the state government and not the Federal government. We have a Central authority (it was the Project Tiger a few months ago but it is called “National Tiger Authority” or something like that now) that gives directions to the state Forest Department but the directions are not binding on them. In fact the State Forest Department often has a mind of their own.
For instance the Project Tiger conducted a nation wide survey through the Wildlife Institute of India that came out with some horrifying results, such as, there are no more than 1300 tigers left in India, Madhya Pradesh barely has 250 or so tigers (and not 600 – 700 odd that they claim) and so on. However, most of the states (and it started with Madhya Pradesh) refuse to accept the census.
We have a weird situation here. The Prime Minister of India is going around saying that tigers are on the verge of extinction in India while the State Governments are saying that their state has no problems with tigers. There might be a problem with other states but none in their own state. If they don’t even acknowledge that they have a problem how the hell are they going to sort it out.
All the Tiger Reserves in India should be under the direct control of the Federal Government and not the State Government.
5. Role of Conservationists
We have a small group of “bleeding heart” conservationists in India who are a big stumbling block for any tiger conservation measure. They are part of the “planners” at the Central level and they come out with some of the weirdest ideas you can imagine. Most of them do not have any following at the ground level. They do not like new people to do any kind of conservation work.
I will give you an example: When tigers were decimated in Sariska tiger reserve in Rajasthan state (and they were nearly decimated in Ranthambhore, that lies in the same state) the Chief Minister of Rajasthan set up a “State Empowered Committee” of Rajasthan Government to look into the problems that tigers in Rajasthan face and to suggest solutions for the same. The Chairman of this committee was a Member of Parliament from Rajasthan and there were a few “well known conservationists” in the committee. When the committee was formed we thought that the Chairman will push the issue under the carpet but the “conservationist” members will kick some ass. What finally happened was exactly the opposite. The “so called conservationists” diluted the issue while the “only man” in the entire committee turned out to the the Chairman.
It is high time the Government “expanded” its group of non-governmental tiger experts to include people from the field in India and experts from all over the world. The two best “tiger guys” in the world are based in USA and our government has nothing to do with them. Can you imagine that?
6. Role of tourism
Indian conservationists and the government does not accept the fact that “tourism is the most powerful conservation tool that they have.” It is a well known fact that in protected areas that are surrounded by high human population density (and most Tiger reserves in India are) tourism is probably the only savior for wildlife. The Forest Department and the conservationists in India believe that tourism is a big “disturbance”. Well managed tourism is the biggest conservation tool in the world.
I will give you an example. The worst managed tiger tour reserve in India is Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh. The tourism area is about a 100 square kilometers (much smaller than Ranthambhore) and on an average there are 50 to 75 vehicles in that area. This area also has the highest tiger density any where in the world – almost 5 to 10 times higher than other places. There are about 30 adult tigers and almost 15 to 20 cubs right now in an area of 100 square kilometers. The numbers are growing every year, while tigers all over Madhya Pradesh are getting decimated.
Wildlife tourism has to be used as a conservation tool in India. We have no choice on this front.
For a long term tiger crisis solution in India we have to address the above issues. I just hope the Prime Minister is listening.
Cheers,
Aditya Singh
PS: I am putting your mail and my reply on my weblog. Check out www.ranthambhore.blogspot.com soon
–
The Ranthambhore Bagh
Ranthambhore Road
Sawai Madhopur 322001
India
—— Forwarded Message
From: ROY FALLON
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:45:24 +0100 (BST)
To: Aditya Singh
Subject: Contact
Hi Aditya
Just contacting you to see how things are going. Lots of good discussion on the Wildlife India forum the last few days. I have replied to a few of them myself.
Looking at the tiger situation from the outside, as I am, it seems difficult to understand why the authorities in India cannot get to grips with the situation. They seem to know exactly who and where the poachers are at almost any one time, yet nothing gets done that is of any significance.
The government seems to leave the problem to the local authorities to sort it out, but I cannot imagine anything getting done in that way. The locals are too dissorganised and too easy to corrupt. The poachers dont stay in one area, they cross borders and seem to just laugh in the face of the law.
I think it requires a national force to be set up, like the U.S.A.’s National Guard and their F.B.I. to harrass and chase these poachers until they can hardly draw breath.
They seem to be left to do exactly as they please and even if they are caught they are released and the penalties are paltry.
When India, loses its tigers, and I am convinced it will, it will be an unimaginable disaster for the whole country. Worse than any earthquake.
The Madhya Pradesh tourist authority has stated that more than 80% of India’s tourism is nature driven and that 75% of it is tiger tourism. They have said that the imbalance of tiger tourism is actually causing problems because certain areas are getting worn out due to the demand to see tigers, whilst others are getting less tourism than desired. Well let the tigers spread themselves out and that will be solved. Open up the corridors between the forests and the tigers will work out where they need to be.
The thing is, most of India’s tourism budget is generated by tiger watchers. That is a massive amount of money coming into the country. When the tiger has gone, people will start going elsewhere. If you take the whole population of India, I am sure that the poachers would hardly show up as a number on a graph, but these greedy and ruthless few are depriving the whole nation of its pride and heritage.
Not just the nation of India but the whole World.
African governments saw this coming a long time ago and did something about it. They made poachers public enemy number one, with the exception of that lunatic in Zimbabwe and the puppets in Uganda and the Gambia.
A lot of people will still go to India to see the Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple at Amritsar etc. but they will just do a round trip of all these and similar places and that will be the end of their interest in the country. The Taj Mahal, I am sure, is a wonderful and beautiful building, but at the end of the day, thats all it is… a building… made by men. The tiger is a gift from the Gods, whichever God(s) exist. Once people have travelled to see the amazing monuments, forts and palaces of India they have seen them and there is nothing more to see about them. But when they see a tiger, walking in the forest, it is an emotional experience that they will want to repeat over and over again.
I sincerely believe that to save the tiger from extinction is to save and preserve all the creatures and the forest environment.
The balance has to exist, the tiger feeds on the herbivores and the herbivores feed on the forest, if the tiger dissappears the lesser carnivores multiply and get out of control, they then ravage the forest of its prey stock, then they enter the villages and farms and take the domestic livestock.
This has been proven in Australia, of all places, where a whole colony of dingoes were exterminated as pests. The dingoes were the apex predators in the area and when they were gone the lesser predators bred like wildfire and decimated the other wildlife of the area, and of course, they then turned to domestic stock….man’s management or man’s interference?
Even the smallest and most insignificant ecosystems that you can think of fall apart in the same way.
A local farmer here in my town, built himself a huge house on, green belt land (land not to be built on). He built a load of stables and a dog boarding kennels. Here in England, those bloody peacocks are seen as a bit of a status symbol. If you are someone who think that you special, you have a load of land round your house and you get yourself a few peacocks to make it look pretty and picturesque. So this farmer got himself 6 peacocks and, as all lazy farmers do, he let them run around his grounds without any protection. So they laid eggs, when the eggs hatched there were baby peacocks running around the grounds.
Guess what???
It may astonish and surprise you, because it did astonish and surprise the farmer, when the local foxes killed all the peacock chicks. So what did this guy, who had introduced an unnatural prey species into the foxes territory, do? He shot all the foxes, of course. He dragged the fox cubs out of their dens and he battered them all to death with a shovel. He proudly acclaimed this feat of bravery to anyone who would listen.He stayed away from me of course, and he still does.
Now, as strange as it may seem, he is complaining about the local wildlife again. Obviously not because his peacock chicks are being eaten, cos there are no predators left to do that. But now he is over run with rabbits, rats and hedgehogs. The rats and hedgehogs are eating all his peacock and chicken eggs and the rabbits are eating all his horse, dog and peacock foods, the rats are at that stuff as well. So now, he is setting traps for the rest of the wildlfe on “his” land. Of course he calls the rabbits, rats and hedgehogs pests and blames them for his dilemma but any child of 8 could tell him that he is the real pest.
Anyway mate I gotta go now, time to get some dinner, my stomach thinks that my throat has been cut.
Talk soon
Roy Fallon
Migration
Recently a judge in the Rajasthan High Court passed a ruling that Ranthambhore should be closed for 2 days in a week so that the animals can get “rest” from tourists.
The Park is shut for tourists during the monsoons from July to end September. The people living around the park have a free run during this time. They go in for grazing their cattle, stocking up firewood for the winters, collecting forest produce like antlers etc, poaching etc etc. There is zero patrolling and I really mean zero. We joke that the rarest sight in Indian parks is a “Forest Guard patrolling his beat”. But believe me this is not a joke.
On a conservative estimate the amount of people who go into Ranthambhore on monsoons (when the park is shut for tourists) is ten times more than the amount of tourists who visit the park throughout the year. However, the authority just chooses to ignore people who go to the park in the monsoons and since there is no official record of such offenders, they officially do not exist.
Every year a few tigers disappear in the monsoon months and are never seen again. The official version (when there is one) is that the tigers have migrated. Migrated to where? This story is probably true for all parks in India, with the exception of Kaziranga - where they shoot first and ask later.
When I moved to Ranthambhore, about 10 years ago, there were over 30 tigers. How am I so sure? Well there was a family in the lake area - a tigress with 3 full grown cubs. There were four other families with three to four cubs each in Kachida, Chiroli, Lahpur and Thumka. There were 4 big males and a few sub adult males and at least 5 tigresses without cubs.
Since then I have seen over 60 cubs grow up to maturity and separate from their mother and then disappear to be never seen again. They just disappear , sorry “migrate” and are never seen again. A noted poacher had told me once that sub adult tigers are the best ones to “milk” - they are nearly full grown (perfect skin size) and no one notices their disappearance. Believe me, when I say that professional poachers actually “milk” tigers for their skin and bones. They never wipe out the entire lot. They really messed up in Sariska - where they ate the chicken instead of the eggs every day.
NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY IN INDIA
Planning your trip
1. Identify the subjects that you want to shoot and the best locations and the best times in the different locations to shoot them.
The first thing that you need to ask yourself is what all are you looking to shoot. Once you have figured this out then make an “Ideal Wish List” of all the shots that you want. You may never get most of them but this is a good way to start planning your trip. The next step after you have got your “Wish List” together is to identify the different locations, which would suit your purpose.
Once you have frozen the destinations that you want to visit, the next step is to find out the best seasons in the different locations for shooting your preferred subjects. At the same time you would also need to figure out how many days would you need in each of your preferred destinations to get reasonably good photo opportunities. For instance, if you want to shoot Asiatic Elephants, one week in Corbett National Park in May, will get you a lot of great pictures. However, if you went to the same Park in December, a month would not be good enough.
2. Plan your itinerary well.
A well-planned itinerary will save you a lot of time and money. The two main things that you have to plan for are:
• Travel arrangements – have to be planned so that you spend the least amount of time in transit and the maximum amount of time in the field taking pictures.
• Naturalists, Guides and Drivers – These are the people who can make or break your trip. They are your local contacts who have probably spent years in the field and know the place like the back of their hands. It is very important to have a good local team and to build a good working relationship with them, since they are the ones who arrange the shooting opportunities. Remember to tip them well and to let them know at the onset that you are going to do so. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys and you definitely do not want monkeys to guide you in the shoot.
Planning you itinerary well is easier said than done, especially if you are going to an area where you have not been before. Most of the Tour Operators and Ground-handling agents claim to know a lot about photography but very few of them actually do. One good way to find out how much your tour operator knows is to ask them specific questions and judge from the answers. You could also ask them to give you references of the photographers that they have dealt with and them cross check with the photographers.
Before your Departure, Care and Maintenance
1. Get information about your locations.
You definitely need some up to date information about all the places that you plan to visit, a few weeks before you leave for your trip, so that you come prepared. I have met a lot of people who land up with the wrong films, without beanbags etc - just because they did not have the right information. Some of the most important information that you need is:
• Light conditions - The light conditions in most parts of India are highly variable depending on the seasons. For instance, in a Ranthambhore National Park (a great place to shoot action shots of tigers) the temperatures vary from 4 degrees centigrade (in peak winters) to 45 degrees Centigrade (in peak summers) and so the light goes from really soft in winters to really harsh in summers.
• Wildlife viewing – The kind and number of wildlife that you see depends a lot on the weather conditions. Generally speaking, you can see more mega-fauna in the summers (when the light is very harsh) than in winters (when the light is fantastic).
What you need is “current information” about the different locations, just before you are leaving for the trip and not general information about the different places.
2. Find out what all equipment you would need.
• Camera bodies – I would recommend at least two camera bodies for each format that you shoot in. I personally use two digital SLR bodies and two film camera bodies) in which I load films of two different speeds – mostly 100 and 400 ISO). This really helps because when action is happening I do not have to change lenses.
• Lenses – This is tricky one but I would recommend carrying one wide angle lens, one normal lens (around 50 mm), one zoom in the range of 70 to 200 and one longer telephoto (300 mm is great for most mega fauna but may not be powerful enough for birds and lesser fauna). At least one of the two longer lenses should be a fast one (f 2.8 or 4.0). I personally prefer to carry a 17-35 mm, one 24 to 80 mm, one 120 to 300 mm Sigma f 2.8 (an amazingly versatile lens) and a 500 mm. I also carry a 100 mm macro (though I do not do too much of macro work) and a 1.4 times converter.
• Digital Cards and Hard drives and/or Laptops – If you are using digital format, you are strongly advised to carry spare memory cards and to carry a portable hard drive and/or a laptop with sufficient memory. In most of the bigger towns you can download the cards on to a CD or DVD (just ensure that the pictures are deleted from the computer that they have been downloaded on as most Indians do not understand the meaning of copyright) but it is still better to carry spare memory.
• Films or Tapes for video – Carry all the films and tapes that you think you will need. In fact it is better to carry excess. It is not advisable to buy films or tapes locally as they are usually not stored properly. In case you have to buy them in India then go to a big store in one of the big cities. Remember to carry the films and tapes in hand baggage, as the powerful X-ray machines in the airports can destroy them.
• Tripod / Monopod / Beanbags - These are probably the most important pieces of equipment that you would need. If you are going to do most of your shooting from jeeps or elephant backs then the tripods are not very useful. Monopods and Beanbags work very well if you are in a jeep. If you are on an elephant back then you have no choice but to hand hold the camera.
• Cleaning equipment – Dust is a big problem in India and you would probably have to clean the equipment every day. It is very important to carry all the cleaning equipment that you think you would need and you would need a lot of it. If you are using digital SLRs, be very careful when you change the lenses or you would end up with a lot of dust on the sensor.
• Bags – I would strongly recommend carrying one bag that fits all your equipment. It helps if you have straps on the back.
• Batteries / Chargers / Adapters – Indian electricity works on 240 volts and 50-60 Hertz and circular plug points. You may need to carry adapters for the chargers accordingly. It is recommended to carry spare batteries.
• Flash – Flash photography is not permitted inside most of the National Parks and Sanctuaries in India and in many ancient monuments. However, I would still recommend that you carry a flash, even though you may not be permitted to use them in many places.
3. Check & Clean your equipment before you leave for the trip.
Insurance for the equipment is advisable though not necessary. In case the insurance is very expensive (and it usually is), you can do without it but just be very careful especially when you are in transit. Make a list of serial numbers of camera bodies and lenses.
4. Test your equipment before you hit the field. Never (and I mean NEVER) go out to the field with untested equipment.
Some tips for nature photography in India
• Vehicles, Drivers and Guides – Most of the wildlife photography in India is done from a small Suzuki jeep (locally known as Gypsys). These are not very comfortable but are very tough and do very well on bad terrain. There is often not enough space in these Gypsys to set up a tripod (unless you remove or fold one of the two rear seats). However, beanbags are very handy if you are in one of these vehicles. Since these vehicles are small, they can at the most take 3 photographers (ideally only 2). It is very important to get a good driver, since he is the one who is going to set the angle for you. It is also very important to brief the driver and the guide (who are compulsory in most wildlife sanctuaries and parks) about the angles etc that you like (and you will have to do this).
• Best time in the day for shooting – The best light conditions are found in the early mornings and the late hours of the evenings. This is also the time when wildlife is most active. This is particularly true for summers, when the light is good only for about an hour or two in the mornings and evenings.
• Best time in the year for shooting – Generally speaking, in most parts of India, winters is a much better time to shoot than summers. In winters the light is softer, the wildlife more active and the backgrounds more colorful. However, this is a broad generalization. In summers, it is generally easier to find wildlife (this is most apt for mega-fauna like tigers, elephants, deer etc) because they tend to congregate around the few water holes that still have water.
• Dust – In most of India (especially in the wildlife areas) dust is ever present (and in large quantities). This can be tough for the equipment and it is advisable to be prepared for it. However, dust can also make for great backgrounds, particularly at dawn and dusk.
• Patience – You most probably already know about the amount of patience required in nature photography. However, I would like to add that in India you need much more of this quality than you would in other countries.
• Shooting from Elephant back – Elephant back safaris are very popular in many wildlife reserves in India (except in Western part of India). Elephants are the most marvelous off road “vehicles” and can reach almost everywhere. However, they are not very comfortable and on elephant back you have no choice but to hand hold the camera. If you are planning to do a lot of shooting from elephant back, then it is advisable to use high-speed films and lenses. Image Stabilizing (IS) or Vibration Reduction (VR) technology is very handy when you are on elephant back. Wild animals show a lot of tolerance towards elephants and elephants can get very close to wild animals, so you do not need a very large telephoto when on an elephant back. I personally think that a 70 – 200 mm f 2.8 zoom (with IS or VR) with a 400 ISO film or sensor setting is ideal for shooting from elephant backs.
• Safety of your equipment – In most of the wildlife parks and sanctuaries, your equipment is generally safe. However, I would advise you to be very careful when traveling in trains and when you are in urban areas. In such areas, stick to your equipment.
Look out for bonuses
India, with its vibrant colors, diverse culture and teeming population is paradise for photographers. A friend of mine once remarked that if you blindfold yourself, take a camera and walk down a market, taking random pictures, you can end up with a few great shots – that is you do not get run down. India offers a lot of great photo opportunities in every day life. Take advantage of this and look out for bonuses. Even if you are going to a Nature reserve for photography do not miss the brilliant opportunities that you will get in railway stations, roads, markets etc. I would recommend that you keep a camera handy all the time.
