The Hindu Business Line : Pugmarks aplenty but cats hard to spot

"Hum Korku mein ek vishwas hai. Tiger jub budda ho jata hai thab dikhai padtha hai. Javan tiger kabhi dikhte nahin (There is a Korku tribal belief. Only an aged tiger is seen by tribals in the forest. Young ones are never seen)." That came from Sukh Lal, a 35-year-old Korku tribal, as we trekked the Raipur range of the Melghat Tiger Reserve for five days. We spotted pugmarks of tigers, leopards and sloth bears but not the animals.

For five days from April 21, the Maharashtra State Forest Department conducted a Tiger census and we joined them on an invitation from Kishor Rithe, battling to keep the reserve pristine.

For us the tiger estimation exercise was a first and we learnt a bit about its intricacies. Tiger pugmarks leading to and out of water holes are usually visible on a morning trek. When Sukh Lal spots a tiger footprint, he walks around it examining it from various angles as it provides clues to the long walks of the cat and its territory. The footmark on the forest floor is traced with an ink pen on a rectangular glass piece held in place by a metal frame. The imprint is then captured on a tracing paper.

As a double check, a plaster of Paris cast of the footprint is made. For this a square metal frame is fixed on the pugmark and a helper pours a dense mix of water and the plaster of Paris into the frame and waits for it to dry for about 15 minutes. Details, such as the place and time, are inscribed on the cast with the aid of a dry piece of wood. The cast is then deposited with the officials of the Forest Department. A tape is used to measure the stride of the cat from pugmarks left by the movement of the hind legs.

The pugmarks of a full-grown leopard and a tiger cub are identical; only the stride of the leopard is slightly over 90 cm while that of a tiger cub is less than 90 cm. The leopard leaves a tight trail with the toes and pad compressed while the toes are spread in the case of a tiger. Technically experts go by toe spread and toe advance, the space left between the pad and the toes. A male tiger leaves a squarish pugmark while a female's is rectangular.

It is not as if any of us became experts overnight as it has taken more than 14 years of trekking for Sukh Lal to make a sure comment on the pugmarks left by the tiger, leopard and sloth bear. Sukh Lal has named the tiger population and from the pugmarks, can tell whether they belong to Akash or Badal or Jaya or Hema.

We were four — Navneet Maheshwari, Dinesh Kothari, Giri Venkatesan and myself. We formed two groups and trekked various parts of the Raipur range starting at around six in the morning and ending at around 12 in the afternoon. Overnight, Kishor and Sukh Lal would decide on the beats (pagdandi) for the groups to take and we stuck to the gameplan. After a noon break, we would move together in and around the Raipur rest house to have a glimpse of birds and village life.

On the beat, we also did some bird watching, such as spotting a male and female crested bunting feeding on the ground, some 20 feet away from us. Kalampani, Chikkalam, Madijidap, Kuladaap and Malur Road areas were the beats that the group covered over five days. On the way back from Raipur, one met other young groups scanning the forest floor for the footsteps of the tiger. They admitted to spotting pugmarks but never the cat, which is hard to get in a sanctuary, spread over 1,676.93 sq. km of tropical, dry, deciduous forest.

The tiger estimation exercise is an annual affair and is followed by a waterhole count on a full moon night. There are around 400 waterholes in Melghat and two guards are placed at each waterhole to do a physical count, though there is a chance of a double count in this procedure. For Melghat, the waterhole count this year falls on May 2. In 1993, the tiger population was estimated at 72 while in 1995 it was 71 and moving up to 72 in 1996 and 73 in 1997, going by data on the Net.

For the sanctuary, water is a problem and Kishor Rithe admits the norm should be one waterhole for every square km, as the summers are long and hard with temperatures climbing from around 20 degree Celsius in the morning to about 42 degrees in April by around 11 a.m..

In the Raipur range, the best waterhole is at Chikkalam with old mango trees shading the water body. One evening from around 5 p.m. to 8.30 p.m., we split in two groups to watch the proceedings at the waterholes in Amrai from machhans. Staying late on machhans on moonless nights is not fruitful as one cannot see the animals in the silent darkness. In fading light, Giri and myself spotted a barking deer and a chital. The two took a few tentative steps towards the waterhole before backing off to merge into the forest.

But for Sukh Lal the forest darkness is something he is comfortable with, having been born in Melghat. A dark-skinned young man with a fetching smile, Sukh Lal Babulal Kasdekar earns Rs 1,500 a month. He has four daughters and one son. One of his daughters suffers from low haemoglobin count and Kishor's wife is treating her. As he is reticent, I have to prise forest lore from him but when he decides to open up it is top-class fare about sighting various animals and the risks taken.

On Sunday afternoon when we packed up, Sukh Lal came over and promised to show us a tiger on our next visit. "Agli baar hum tiger dikhaoonga (Next time I will show you a tiger)," and added, "Ye kismet ki bath hai (If you are fated to see it, you will)."

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