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Faltering “Tiger State”:GOVT INDIFFERENCE JARRING, by Proloy Bagchi, 11 Oct, 2010 Print E-mail

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)

 

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