3rd Tiger Crisis - Nightmare Revisited

The following article appeared on 31st March 2005 in Asian Age, newspaper published from Delhi under the title "The Big Story - I bet you haven't seen a tiger lately. This is why"

HOME

The article chronicles a virtually uncontrolled trade in tiger and leopard skins as well as bones, and otter skins from India to Tibet and possibly beyond to further east. A seizure of 45 leopard skins and 14 otter skins in Delhi on 6th April 2005 shows that India to Nepal and then to Tibet route remains open. The hallmark of such seizures has been, signatures in Tibetan on the back of the skins. Once again such signatures were seen. A Tibetan and two Nepalese were arrested.

Ashok Kumar
Wildlife Trust of India

The Third Tiger Crisis: A Nightmare Revisited

The nightmare back. Tigers in India are in severe crisis. I am reminded of the winter of 1992 when an accomplished wildlife photographer of Kolkata met me in Delhi. He had just come back from Ranthambore. He spoke with dark intensity that several tigers well known to him were missing. Unlike tigers elsewhere in India, Ranthambore tigers are highly visible and identifiable to many who travel to Ranthambore regularly. The Gypsy drivers for instance, who make a living from showing tigers to tourists. Similar stories began reaching me from other resources. There was something amiss. I spoke to the then head of wildlife in India, Sanjoy Debroy, a much respected name. He traveled to Ranthambore and wrote a confidential memo describing late rains that had scattered the prey of tiger: His conclusion was, the fears are misplaced.

I was not convinced. There were too many straws in the wind pointing to a trade in tiger bones but not so much in skins despite some seizure.

An investigation into the trade was taken up which in August 2003 led to the biggest ever seizure of tiger parts in India. There were nearly 400 kgs of Tiger bones, but also there were 8 tiger skins, 38 leopard and so many other skins that it took a small truck to move it all. The location was Majnu Ka Tila in Delhi, and the the prime accused was a Ladakhi. The seizure established the trade route to Tibet and Delhi as the prime wildlife trading centre of India. The government appointed a committee to suggest means of controlling the trade, a report was prepared in record time but till today the central recommendation of establishing a wildlife trade control bureau has not been carried out.There was international uproar, some initiatives were taken up including setting up of Global Tiger Forum which remains a lame duck.China though shut down its factories making medicines containing tiger bones, and existing stocks were sealed.

No major seizure took place for a while and the system settled into a happy repose. Much later followed major seizures of tiger and leopards skins in 1999. Gaziabad, Khaga in Uttar Pradesh and Haldwani. Again there was international concern declared as a second tiger crisis was declared. This was handed over the Indias's crack investigation agency, the CBI which made good headway. At the end of the day, they had a small team for wildlife investigation, and this is not their main task. . A secret report of the West Bengal government on a Siliguri seizure a decade back which had shown Delhi to Siliguri to Nepal and to Tibet route was not acted upon. Wildlife managers settled back into complacence.

The state of bliss went on. Tiger sightings were still happening. In Madhya Pradesh, tiger shows were happening though this is no way to see tigers in the wild. I myself saw a total of ten male, female and cubs in one morning in Kanha some five years ago. With some help of course from wireless messages. As the government well knows, if you do nothing, which our Government loves to do, the problem goes away. Memories are short. Every new initiative is too much like work.

I was asked at this time, if the 'sightings' are that great, has the tiger crisis gone away? I could only think of a flippant answer: Since the government has failed them and the NGOs are not much better, the tigers have decided to deal directly with the tourists. Indeed, hardly anyone came back from Ranthambore,Kanha or Bandhavgarh without seeing a tiger. Yet woeful conditions in Nagarjunsagar,Indravati, Dampa, part of Nameri clear felled to settle Bodo tribals, no clear idea of what was happening in Namdhapa and Pakhui since no one can tell much in the forest of that density,Palamau slipping away,heavy poaching pressure in Dudwa, over one lakh village cattle entering Buxa each day, all that was overlooked.Small seizures of tiger and leopard skin continued, none big enough to catch headlines. The totals were large, but the government had no system to keep totals. The ostrich approach continued.

But, what happened at Sariska was a true shocker. Conventional wisdon is: Tigers just do not completely disappear from tiger habitat.See what happened to Ranthambhore after the poaching wave of 1992. The tigers bounced back. There are wise words from tiger hunting days. Sher ki jagah kabhi khali nahi rahti. If a tiger is killed, another soon occupies the vacated territory. This worked when tiger numbers were large, cover extensive and many dispersing tigers without territory.

A tiger needs prey, water, some concealment and can tolerate some human proximity if they do not interfere. I have seen old days when Dudwa was North Kheri Forest Division. In 1972, I wrote an article, " Tiger of North Kheri". Timber felling went on and tigers were all around. But then there were vast forests to the north of Dudwa in Nepal, later felled to settle ex-armymen who were good with the gun.

But the island that Sariska is, there is now no doubt that it has been cleaned out. Then came the news of Ranthambhore where the tigers had been taught to trust man, by a man who meant well. Fateh Singh Rathore. How many professional tiger conservationist rode on his coat tails. But at the end of the day Ranthambhore is also an island with immense biotic pressures. The adjoining Kaila Devi Sanctuary is in shambles. The open secret - Ranthambore is now a grazing ground in monsoons for all the local cattle.

Then came the stories from Panna and Bandhavgarh the standard victims of Madhya Pradesh mode of political juggling of pliant forest officers who will capitulate and join the system. It is a rare individual who shows initiative and commitment. A good officer is soon swotted down because the system of governance in India rewards time servers and looks at the capable with great suspicion. This then is the problem, and it is not restricted to conservation of nature and wildlife of which tiger is the most powerful symbol. Governance itself is on razor's edge. Are there solutions for Tiger Conservation. This is not going to be easy when the system itself is collapsing around our ears. I am talking of a stage when a personal petition to Supreme Court drafted overnight was needed to rectify fund flow to Valmiki Tiger Reserve where the entire staff had walked out due to non-payment of salaries for 14 months. The problem has not gone away elsewhere. Manas Tiger Reserve has a backlog of Rs three crores of central funding as of now, and the list goes on from state to state.

In the meantime, the professional wildlife traders now based mostly in Delhi, are sending out purchase messages to professional hunters all over India including the south to kill and collect as much as they can. All of the trade takes the well-known route of north India to Tibet via Nepal and other routes. Otter skins are always in this trade as they are in great demand in Tibet. There is as yet no plan in place to detect and halt this trade on the scale it operates. The small cell created at MoEF with UK funds has halted nothing of this trade. NGO efforts to do so remain miniscule.

The National Board of Wildlife which met on 17th March 2005, took a decision to establish the National Wildlife Crime Bureau. It remains to be seen if this decision will be carried out. Such a decision was taken at the first meeting of the National Board chaired by the then Prime Minister. The hurdle of FA in each ministry has so far turned out to be more difficult to cross than a decision taken by a National Board chaired by a Prime Minister. FA is the representative of the Finance Ministy embedded in all other ministries.

One expected so much more from the Congress party which heads the UPA Government. Perhaps, Madam Sonia Gandhi should enforce what she said in a letter to me some five years ago that protection of nature and wildlife is an article of faith of her family. When Project Tiger began, Indira Gandhi would personally chair the meeting of the steering committee, I am told at times for a full day at a time. She institutionalized protection of wildlife from an era of Shikar and declining habitat to create MoEF and other institutions such as Wildlife Institute of India and took on aides who carried out her directions. Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and Forest Protection Act. were two landmarks. That is the kind of leadership which needs to be reinstalled.

In the meantime, the diary of a wildlife trader arrested in October 2004 at a place in northern India records his turnover for the year at 40 tiger skins, 654 leopard skins and 32, you do not have to guess, otter skins. Not difficult to guess where they came from.

The final picture is gloomier as never before. At stake is not merely the charismatic tiger but the forests, rivers that flow out of these forests and moderation of climate but also all other creatures protected by that umbrella.

Ashok Kumar