Events &
Issues
New Delhi, 11 October 2010
Faltering “Tiger
State”
GOVT INDIFFERENCE JARRING
By Proloy Bagchi
A tigress
nursing three cubs, allegedly hit by a vehicle in Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh
Tiger Reserve died of internal haemorrhage at “Jhurjhura” on 19 May last. The
killing caused a furore in India
and abroad. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) member-secretary
enough evidence was available to indicate that the vehicles involved in the
accident entered the Reserve illegally after 9.30 PM. However, as the cars allegedly,
carried sons of two State Ministers the investigations were squelched thanks to
the power and influence of the ‘culprits’.
Vociferous
demands including from the Union Ministry of Forests & Environment (MOEF),
for enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), were ignored.
Instead, the provincial Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was asked to
investigate. According to those aware of the ways of the State, this was done
only to put a lid on the case. Apparently, this is true as the investigations
have led nowhere even after five months. Those responsible have remained
anonymous.
The Jhurjhura
tigress’s death only exemplifies the State Government’s attitude of utter
indifference towards protection of tigers. With the tiger population plummeting,
every activity, or lack of it, makes news leading to visible desperation in the
country. Sighting of new-born cubs, mating or refusal to do so by tigers and
deaths --- natural or due to internecine fights --- all make news.
Numerous
non-Governmental national and international organisations are running campaigns
to raise awareness about the need to save the depleting species. Amidst this
universal concern, Madhya Pradesh’s brazen apathy appears insensitive, jarring
and even bizarre. Notwithstanding, the State anointing itself the sobriquet of
“The Tiger State.”
This is
ironically given its recent record in tiger conservation has been far from
satisfactory. Only last year, the Panna Tiger Reserve lost all its tigers. That
too despite a very early warning in 2004-05, by a long-time researcher of Panna
tigers, RS Chudawat, followed by several repeated advice by Central teams of
professional tiger-watchers from various tiger conservational organisations
such as NTCA. Not only that. The Supreme Court-constituted Central Empowered
Committee, etc. were not paid heed to. The State’s forest bureaucracy
obdurately ignored them all and remained in denial mode.
The Special
Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the MOEF to enquire into disappearance
of tigers from Panna severely indicted the State for failure in various areas
of tiger conservation. Not to be outdone, however, the State’s Forest Department
set up its own investigative team under the Chairmanship of a retired Principal
Chief Conservator of Forests.
The State’s
report blamed the disappearance of tigers on the emerging skewed sex-ratio with
males out-numbering females which induced the latter to migrate out of the core
area into the buffers leading to them being poached. The report did an
excellent cover-up job and did not fix responsibility on anybody. In fact, none
has so far been held accountable for the loss of the Panna tigers.
The
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), the most articulate and
vehement denier of extinction of tigers in the Reserve till the State Forest Minister
admitted it, was only moved out for a short time and promptly brought back as
soon as the State-level panel submitted its report.
The
lackadaisical attitude of the State’s Forest Department was further evidenced
by the disappearance of tigers from the Sanjay National Park in Sidhi district
which once boasted 30-odd tigers and today doesn’t seem to have any. A
Panna-like revival is on the cards but would be successful only if proper care
is taken. Even in Panna, two cubs born of a recently relocated tigress went
missing and are now presumed dead. Again, a sub-adult tiger in the Bandhavgarh
Reserve was crushed under the wheels of a tourist vehicle that gained entry
because of lax control-systems in the Reserve in April 2009.
Worse, the Government
nonchalantly gave approval to the widening of a highway connecting Nagpur with Seoni, no
matter it cuts across the corridor that tigers and other wildlife use to commute
between the Kanha and Pench tiger reserves. Having fragmented the tigers'
habitat, the broadened road with speeding vehicles will severely imperil their
survival. The Government’s indifference is also reflected in its lack of
enthusiasm to protect and nurse tigers recently discovered in Shivpuri’s Madhav
National Park and in the jungles around Dewas.
It’s not
that the Government and its foresters do not know what needs to be done. They
know it all having been in the profession for decades. But they have to pull
themselves up by their bootstraps and shun one-upmanship vis-à-vis their counterparts in various Central tiger organisations
and institutions towards whom they have adopted an adversarial attitude. After
all, in so far as tigers are concerned the objectives of both are the same.
The Forest
Department will also have to shed its obsession with tourism. That unrestricted
tourism is a bane of tourist sites, especially national parks, is being
increasingly appreciated. The infamous tiger-shows that virtually corral tigers
and the Department’s new initiatives of monsoon and eco-tourism with forest
patrols may fetch revenue but are not conducive to conservation. Animals also
need to be left to themselves, at least, for some time.
The need for
escalated efforts to protect wildlife cannot be over-emphasised. While higher
posts are promptly filled up, those in subaltern levels have remained unfilled.
Recent regularisation of part-timers has not helped as most are above 45 years of
age. The need is of revised recruitment policies for induction of young and
energetic guards, properly equipped and armed to enable them to actively
participate in the fight to save tigers. A fight which, as commented by an
official of Wildlife Trust of India, is increasingly being “fought only with
the Generals but no soldiers”.
Above all,
what is required for saving the tigers is political will, which will bring in
its wake a change in attitude of the bureaucracy, including foresters. Exemplified
by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi whose initiative in launching Project
Tiger brought about a remarkable attitudinal change among officials.
As wildlife
conservationist Belinda Wright asserts, “If Chief Ministers are on board there
will still be some hope”. Unfortunately in MP, the CM is not yet “on board” and
at the bureaucratic helm are those who (over)saw the disappearance of tigers
from Panna. Clearly, the tiger is under threat in the “Tiger State”.
----- INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
|