The King is Dead; Long live the King

(Prerna Bindra in The Pioneer)

There is no denying that the tiger is again at crisis point, but is any player, be it the government or the NGOs tackling the real issues asks Prerna Singh Bindra.

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Recent media reports point to the second biggest tiger crisis, since Project Tiger was established in 1973 in an attempt to save the big cat from imminent extinction, when their numbers were an abysmal 1,800. Just as it was celebrating its success on reaching the magical figure of 4,000 tigers in 1990, the 1993 crisis loomed up. Eight tiger skins and 400 kg of bones were seized in August that year, and tigers went missing in Ranthambhore, Sariska and Dudhwa.

It's sinister how the tragedy is replayed. The story repeats itself now in 2005. The tiger is extinct in Sariska, the familiar and the famous tigers of Ranthambhore are just not being seen anymore and a report claims that 30 have disappeared from emerald forests of Panna. There are other untold stories, equally tragic. Sightings in Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh are low. A recent three-day visit did not yield a sign of even a single tiger. In Palamau, officials privately admit that they have no clue about the number in the park. It is now the natural habitat of naxalites, and those who venture inside have paid with their life. A forest guard attempting to protect the park and its tigers was brutally killed. Indravati in Chhatisgarh is a similar story, as is Nagarjunasagar in Andhra Pradesh. Hunting is a time-honoured tradition in Namdapha Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh and again the number of these big cats present there is anybody's guess.

But were there as many tigers in the first place or did they only exist in the imagination and files of the park officials? One is not even questioning the pugmark census method, though it has many detractors. The undisputed fact is that most park directors conjure up imaginary tigers to show a higher population; it avoids unpleasantness, keeps their job safe and creates a feeling of false security. Except for the species concerned. In Dudhwa, the official census claims 104, a ridiculous figure in a habitat comprising of only 884 sq Kms. Billy Arjan Singh says there are nine but even if one were to label him too fatalistic, even five times the number belies the census claims. Last year's census in Ranthambhore and Sariska profess 47 and 16 to 18 tigers respectively. It is reckoned, privately, by officials and experts that there were never that many. The maximum Ranthambhore had was 30 to 35. Sariska had eight, and now, of course, there are none.

The most obvious culprit in this horrifying decline is poaching. Last year the biggest seizure of the last decade was in Tibet, where 39 tiger and 579 leopard skins, all sourced from India. After that there have been a spate of seizures, including one on January 31 in Delhi, where two tiger skins, 60 kg of tiger bones, leopard paws, 14 tiger canines were found. One tiger skin and skull in seized in Katarniaghat. Private investigations from local poaching gangs around Sariska have confirmed that the tigers in the reserve were hunted and their skins and bones sold. They can't find any more tigers in the sanctuary to harvest.

What we must urgently recognise is that the hunt is still on. Undercover investigations have revealed that India's most infamous name in wildlife crime, Sansar Chand is on the prowl. Currently he is facing a crisis as his wife and niece are in police custody, and there is an un-bailable warrant against him. His daughter too is on the run. Sansar Chand has allegedly sent word to his vast and organized network of poachers to slaughter all tigers, leopards and elephants and to smuggle their skins, bones and ivory to fund his lawyers and to pay for contingencies.

In days of yore tigers were slaughtered in even greater numbers. But then they had contiguous forests to retreat to. In other words, if all the tigers of Sariska had been wiped out in the year 1950, then within say five years, a few tigers from Ranthambhore would have been able to take over the emptied territories and a vibrant new population would emerge. Today the real threat to the tiger is the extirpation of its habitats. Three nuclear reactors are planned near the Sunderban, Nagarjunasagar and Kanha respectively. Dams, mines, four and six lane highways, chemical complexes, massive tourism project… all these spell death for the tiger as surely as Sansar Chand's lethal attention does.

The government is unable to retaliate, unequipped to handle poaching and are even unwilling to acknowledge the crisis. It is a well-known fact that most tiger reserves are understaffed by 30 percent and due to freeze in recruitment most of the existing staff are too old and poorly equipped with defunct weapons. Then there is a total lack of basic infrastructure. The bigger tragedy is that neither the government nor the Project Tiger is willing to acknowledge the problem. Hiding behind bureaucratic talk and diplomatic answers does not help matters. But one would stop short of laying the blame solely on the door of Project Tiger. With all its faults, and there are plenty, the most serious being the imminent catastrophe that looms over the future of the Panthera tigris tigris. It has resurrected doomed forests and in a limited way postponed the total obliteration of the tiger and other endangered denizens like the barasingha.

The problem is that Project Tiger itself is like a tiger sans teeth. It funds the tiger reserves across the country, but has little authority over it. The directors are appointed at the discretion of the state government, and even worse, rarely do the funds released by the authorities reach the reserves. The money is routed through the state exchequer, and in most cases that's where it stays. In Manas, of the 1.7 crores sanctioned, the park got only a percentage, that too an year later. One fallout was that daily wage labourers could not be paid. This, in one of the parks most besieged by militants and poachers. Rhinos have been wiped out, tuskers are rare and tigers have been reduced to unknown numbers. The poachers didn't spare the foresters, either. In the past six years, poachers in Manas have killed eleven guards. Can one expect forest guards to protect the tiger when they are uncertain about their next meal? Is it even morally correct to pat us in the back about the 'great tiger success story' and discuss concerns in hi-flying international conferences when the ground reality is so pathetic? The situation persists in other parks, even high profile ones like Corbett. In states like Bihar, Assam, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh funds are not released, while the others are delayed for months.

The fate of the tiger lies in the hands of a battery of disjointed, disinterested state governments, who place the national animal at the bottom of their priority list, if at all. The system rots, says a senior forest official. Good officers rarely last, hastily transferred by politicians interested in getting those ready to fill their coffers and bend to their will. In Sariska, for example, three park directors have changed in just over a year.

One of the most serious concerns is that the tiger, or indeed the forests and wildlife, have no political support at all. In a press conference that the Honourable Minister of Environment and Forests, Thiru A Raja had with the media, he waxed eloquent about putting in place a speedy system for giving clearances to mining, industrial and other developmental projects in sanctuaries and forest areas. His knowledge on issues concerning wildlife bordered on the ridiculous. He and an equally ignorant journalist discussed at length the issue of reopening of trade in shahtoosh as proposed by the Jammu and Kashmir government, which were the "feathers of an endangered bird, the chiru." Mr. Minster, here's news for you. The 'chiru' is endangered alright, but it is a mammal, not a bird and there is an ongoing international campaign to stop the illegal slaughter of about 10,000 animals each year.

In the war against wild India, state governments are campaigning hard and Maharashtra is leading the battle, to dilute the Forest Protection Act, 1980, which essentially prohibits use of forest land for commercial purposes and is widely accepted as the one law that has proved to be a saviour of our forests. The National Board for Wildlife, an advisory body on crucial wildlife issues has become a joke. Government sycophants have replaced the teams of wildlife experts and strident defenders. The honourable Prime Minister may have written a letter expressing concern and asking for action to save the tiger, but it is a classic case of the right hand being unaware of what the left is doing. What use is a well-meaning letter, when his government is busy playing vote bank politics, which will ensure the death of wilderness in India? The government has allegedly drafted a bill entitled 'The Schedule Tribes and Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2005,' which writes tiger expert, Valmik Thapar, if pushed through parliament will ensure the end of every bit of wilderness in India. Effectively, the law will give those dwellers and tribes who have lived, illegally, in forests for the past ten years the legal stamp of approval, paving the way for urbania taking over our green cover.

The tiger is undoubtedly the star of India's animal kingdom with well-appointed saviors. One would have thought and hoped that the tiger army of Project Tiger, forest officials, NGOs, scientists and individuals would have rallied together to save the beleaguered animal. But the saddest part of the story is that a battle rages on among those who claim to protect the tiger. NGOs, the government, scientists and individuals have pitched themselves against each other and are washing their dirty linen in public.

The project tiger directorate accuses the NGOs of adopting an anti-system approach and that few have done anything creditable. NGOs in turn mince no words about the failure of project tiger. A former director of Project Tiger trashes the present one for fudgeding tiger figures and lack of transparency in funding. It is a free for all, and caught in the crossfire is the tiger. A slinging match ill-afforded.

By starving tiger habitats of protection funds and by interfering with the implementation of the law, politicians and planners are putting in place another little understood complexity for India. The forests are being used by insurrectionists and terrorists of all persuasions as a hiding place and a source of funding. Veerappan used sandalwood to finance his support from the Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka. The Peoples' Movement in Andhra Pradesh uses katha to finance its armies that will continue to have an unlimited supply of guns and land mines so long as they can turn our unprotected forests to cash. Put another way, our forests are financing the internal de-stabilisation of India. But the powers that be are so busy participating in this orgy of destruction that they cannot see the catastrophe looming ahead.

All those concerned need to get over their territorial right over the tiger and join hands to take on the real battle: against an indifferent political system, the poachers and industrialists and miners whose only interest is to exploit the tiger's habitat. It appears that the tiger has become a victim of its popularity. He is the star on show for tourists in tiger reserves, and therefore translates into big money for tour operators. For most, the tiger is nothing but a cash cow, evident from the 30-odd tourist cars, which chase the hapless beast in reserves, flouting every rule in the book. He is the main magnet to attract funds, and a recent study by an independent UK-based agency shows that there are 550 NGOs in Delhi alone working to save the tiger. What work they do and where the money goes is the question.

Another study showed the huge funding poured into 'saving the tiger' is mismatched with the quantum of work, also citing specific examples of a few well-known and some not so well known NGOs. Predictably, these findings were not made public because of the connections some of these NGOs enjoy. As for the forest department, there are good officers who are rarely allowed to function. In most cases those totally unacquainted with wildlife work are put in charge of parks and reserves and entrusted with wildlife work. A classic example is the present Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan, who announced his grand plan to save the tiger in Rajasthan post the Sariska-Ranthambhore disaster: "We must save the tigers the way South Africa is doing it, they increased the population from two to eight." Someone should educate the man who holds the highest wildlife post in his state that these two tigers were raised in captivity in the US and now thrive in semi-captive conditions, and are handfed their daily bread. South Africa has never in its history had wild tigers. Is it any wonder that with such people at the helm, the obituary of all the major protected areas -Sariska, Ranthambhore and Bharatpur-is all but written?

Getting over the present calamity is a monumental task, but given the will it can be done. The first step is to recognise that a crisis exits and then work collectively and urgently to save the tiger. Empower Project Tiger, and bring the disjointed reserves under one umbrella, not subject to the varying whims of wayward state governments. Split the Ministry of Environment and Forests, with one arm looking at urban pollution and the other devoted to wildlife. Create a separate wildlife service, well trained and manned to combat poaching, properly versed in wildlife management. In the interim take assistance of the police and national and international investigative agencies to break the back of organised wildlife crime. Foresters must be given immunity, like the police, in encounters with poachers. NGOs must join hands to direct funding towards equipping forest service, strengthening infrastructure for better management. The protected area network - which is just four per cent of India-must be made inviolate. Bold decisions need to be taken.

Sariska, Dampha, Nagarjunasagar, and Indravati which have no or unviable tiger populations may need to be chopped off the project tiger list. Instead other areas with healthier populations like Kaziranga, with a high tiger density and Nagarhole must be brought under the Project Tiger's umbrella. There are other areas which desperately need Project Tiger support, like the Pilibhit Forest Division. These 750 sq Kms areas have about 30 tigers and other very rare species like the hispid hare and over 400 species of birds have been recorded.

This is a tall order, almost an impossible dream, but if at all we are to save the tiger than dream we must. Project Tiger has a strong history and foundation to build on and India has for years led other countries in conservation. Let us not lose our national heritage for petty, immediate concerns. Let us not lose the tiger for want of a collective effort. Let us not rob the tiger of its future.