The Hindu Business Line : It’s ‘sudden death’ time

“When in the jungles never speak of a tiger by its name, for if you do, the tiger is sure to appear,” said Kunwar Singh, a poacher, to Jim Corbett when he was a boy. That could have been in 1885 or 1890. In India 2008, it is hard to see a tiger in a forest.

Around 1946, Lord Wavell noted in his journal that Corbett placed the tiger population in India at 3,000 to 4,000. A nationwide census based on tiger pug marks arrived at a population of 1,800, which was “even fewer tigers than more fuzzy estimates had yielded just three years earlier. At that time, the number had been estimated at 2,500,” says Mahesh Rangarajan in his book India’s Wildlife History.

In April 1973, Project Tiger came into being with a cost tag of Rs 40 million.

When tigers disappeared from Sariska it was disappointing and the “large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage” (as Corbett described the tiger), today finds only a few hands raised to battle for him. The recent report on “Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India, 2008,” puts the count at 1,411 (lower limit 1,165; upper limit 1,657). It does not compare population numbers though the Project Tiger directorate (now the National Tiger Conservation Authority) should have enough data over the years.

The authors of the Report – Y.V. Jhala, Rajesh Gopal and Q. Qureshi – may argue tiger numbers are not comparable as earlier studies were based on pug marks, while the 2008 effort depends on landscape with the tiger being a part of the entire forest.

“The study shifts the focus from tiger number and protected area oriented conservation practices to landscape level holistic conservation strategies,” says the Report.

The point is taken, but that is not sufficient reason for not giving past estimates by various groups. For the authors, tigers do not seem to be facing a crisis.

In an objectionable vein of restraint, they say: “The above assessment has shown that though the tiger has lost much ground due to direct poaching, loss of quality habitat through anthropgenic pressures and loss of its prey by subsistence level poaching, there is still hope.

“Individual tiger populations that have high probability of long-term persistence by themselves are only a few. These are Nagarhole-Mudumalai-Bandipur-Wynad population, Corbett population, Kanha population and possibly Sunderbans and Kaziranga-Korbi Anglong populations. Tiger populations that exist and can persist in a meta population framework are Rajaji-Corbett, Dudhwa-Katarniaghat-Kishenpur (along with Bordia and Shuklaphanta in Nepal), Satpura-Melghat, Pench-Kanha, Bhadra-Kudremukh, Parambikulam-Indira Gandhi and KMTR-Periyar provided their connectivities are protected and maintained.”

Experts believe the tiger population has slipped by at least 70 per cent over the last few years and fear the animal may slip away forever from the Indian jungles.

Sunderbans has not been assessed with a new research protocol being put in place including radio-collaring.

Sunderbans again will probably have a thin tiger population with the Report warning: “Although deltaic mangrove systems are known to be very productive, most of that productivity remains confined to the aquatic system, and the habitat can support only low densities of terrestrial mammalian prey, and in turn, tigers.”

The tiger population reported are those above 1.5 years of age and the Report is close to an elegy for the animal and the forests it resides in.

It is the fashion (set by Sunita Narain) to plead for the involvement of local communities and Report 2008 pays homage by repeating the solution. Local communities have helped in Manas, but that seems to be an exception.

Tribals do not live in a pristine world and from the little this writer has seen they want to relish city life like all of us. No way can the forests absorb the tribals and others by providing jobs and resettlement (at government cost) is a sensible way out.

The Central Government has agreed to give Rs 10 lakh cash to a family to exit the forest or provide resettlement at the same cost; the Centre has no objection to payments more than Rs 10 lakh provided the State governments pick up the bill.

Possibly, the Rs 10-lakh offer should be price indexed as land prices in India Interior are on a furious rise. Also as immediate policy, all posts in the forest departments need to be filled up by populations living in the forests with the salaries of beat guards being doubled and payments made promptly. If the State governments are reluctant to take up the financial load they could think of handing over the sanctuaries and national parks entirely to the National Tiger Conservation Authority on a caretaker basis.

The National Tiger Authority wants to create non-violate core zones. It states, “ongoing study and analysis of the available research data on tiger ecology indicates that the minimum population of tigresses in breeding age, which are needed to maintain a viable population of 80-100 tigers (in and around core) require an inviolate space of 800-1,000 sq. km.”

How is the land, grabbed by a growing population (can tigers or forests exist girdled by a one-billion plus population?), to be acquired when existing parks have lost most of themselves and their corridors to planned nibbling by the forest dwellers forming a powerful voting bloc.

For instance, the source (tiger) population of Arunachal Pradesh are formed by the Pakke and Namdhapa sanctuaries.

“The value of these populations as sources for dispersing tigers would be enhanced by management to increase prey base and through participatory conservation models in tribal-owned forests.

“These populations represent the historical entry points of tigers as a species into the Indian sub-continent and would therefore, have higher genetic and conservation value.” One is not thought to be sufficiently liberal arguing for forests and tigers.

To the query should human beings be placed below forests and tigers, this writer would say yes. It is “sudden death” time for forests and tigers; human beings can wait.

P. Devarajan

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