Sunday Reading

New Delhi, 27 April 2010 

Just 1411 Tigers

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

The advertisement campaign that there are only 1411 tigers left in India has attracted wide attention. It has also moved a large number of hearts. People from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh want to know the root of the problem. They are perplexed how such a catastrophe is taking place right under the Government’s nose and no solution has been found to stem the decline of the tigers’ population.   

One of the reasons for this decline is obviously poaching, which is done because there is a huge demand for tiger body parts and its skins. The body parts are used in a wide variety of traditional medicine and black magicians use its skin as a seat. In order to meet these demands there are criminal gangs that fund the poaching operations in India. It’s an organized crime conducted in collusion with local people, forest communities and the wild life protection officials.

Poor infrastructure is another reason for the decline of the tiger population. The under-equipped forest guards find it difficult to protect the tiger reserves. Most of these have very limited frontline staff and each would have to cover an area of 65-70 sq km. This is ridiculous task and sometimes forest officials would inflate the figures of the tigers to save their jobs. The tiger reserves also exist in an environment where thousands of indigenous communities live side by side. The relationship with the local communities and the forest is the "weak link” in the conservation effort of the tigers.

Of late tiger conservationists want the local communities out of the reserve as it felt that they are a hindrance in protecting the animals. However, the local communities are shifted from the core areas of the reserves without being given any alternative access for grazing or fuel collection. They have no other option but to turn to the reserves for their survival and poach tigers for their livelihood.

Additionally, the developmental priorities of the government are causing an irreversible ecological transition in the tiger reserves resulting in the decline of their population. Extractive industries like mining and manufacturing and power plants are found in the reserves. Thus the insidious encroachment of the development projects is coming in the way of saving the tigers. 

Clearly the fate of the tigers is entwined with the area of forest reserves. The depleting forest area poses a challenge to the conservation plan and it is estimated that 726 sq km of forest area has decreased in the past one decade.

Indeed, tigers are territorial animal. They literally need land to roam freely. With the birth of a male tiger, this search starts. Either the old tiger gives way or the male has to look beyond the protected areas of the forest and move into the guarded area of the forest. The tiger could expand its space when the outside world was forested, but now when the forests are degraded, they have no where to go except outside the reserve zone.

The total core area of a national park is about 17,000 sq km. A tiger needs a minimum 10 sq km territory to roam, mate and live. If we compare this with the dwindling forest space, then we can rationalize why we have so few tigers left.

The census has revealed that many more tigers lived outside reserves than those inside. The 2001 census put the number at about 1,500 tigers inside and as many as 2,000 outside. The 2005 census found the number of tigers in the reserves between 1,165 and 1,657 but did not account those living outside. What happened to them? Where did they disappear? Were they all killed by those who live outside the reserves?

This could be true because the people who live outside the reserve are poor and resent these animals. The tigers kill their cattle, the herbivores and wild boars in the reserve eat their growing crop. Thus those living around tiger land are at the receiving end and therefore it would be in their best interest to kill the big cats and its preys.

So where do we go from here? How do we save the tiger? Do we plan to expand and increase the forest area or save those people who live outside the reserves or save the tigers? The best way would be a combination of all three. We have to protect the forests from depleting. The conservation of the tigers should not be at the expense of the indigenous people who live outside the reserve. The best way could be a co-existence formula between the forest, the tigers and the indigenous people. 

Unless we re-imagine the conservation efforts differently there is little hope to expect anything from the ad campaigns. The hard fact is that more forest land is needed to safeguard the tigers and for this systematic planning must be done. The tract of land outside the reserves has to be to be planted with trees that will help survive the cattle and the goats. In addition, we have to look after the people who live outside the reserves. They should be generously compensated for the crops destroyed or their cattle killed and provided with alternative access to grazing and fuel collection.

Moreover, substantial and disproportionate development investment in the areas adjoining a tiger reserve must be ensured. This would benefit the people around the reserves and they must be made partners, owners and earners from the tiger conservation plan.

All this, however, does not mean that we should not improve the infrastructure and manpower to watch and ward the forest. This is equally essential to stop poaching. Efforts should also be made to improve the prey population so that tigers can feed upon them easily. More camera traps should be set up to monitor the tigers and their prey. These could be also used for surveillance against the poachers and the timber cutters, who are depleting the forest with impunity.

Indeed, the entire apparatus for the conservation of the tigers from bottom up should be streamlined. The head in-charge of the tiger reserve should be made accountable and their work should be periodically monitored. Anyone found neglecting his/her duty should be taken to task.

Unfortunately, the tiger conservation plan is infested by lobby and pressure groups that call the shots. They are the ones who block the positive move to conserve the tigers. It’s thus imperative that the wings of such groups should be clipped.

The media campaign should move from making noises that there only 1411 tigers left. Instead, it is its duty to drum up a new agenda for the conservation of the tigers. The focus should shift to reclaim the forest land and how to add on it. It should also address the issues confronting the indigenous communities.

Finally, the countrymen must wakeup to the reality and identify the solutions and volunteer to monitor the changes taking place on the ground. Unless something drastically is done to change the discourse of tiger conservation, nothing concrete is going to come out from making sheer noises that there are only 1411 tigers left. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)