A Naturalist and Other Beasts: Tales from a Life
in the Field • by George B Schaller • Sierra Club
Books
Dr George Schaller is renowned for his pioneering
studies on the behavior of charismatic fauna such as
the giant panda, mountain gorilla, tiger, snow leopard,
African lion besides lesser known species like the
Southeast Asian takin, Mongolian gazelle etc. Those in
India are well aware of his pioneering work The Deer
and the Tiger, as well as his studies on the tahr and the
Kashmiri Markhor and the snow leopard.
The world’s best known field biologist is a rare animal
in many ways…amongst Schaller’s many achievements
is that unique ability to combine scientific precision and
knowledge with remarkable wit and an unabashed love
for his subjects in his writing. His is not the scientific
tome, inscrutable to his readers. Schaller’s quest is for
"a deeper understanding, one beyond soulless statistics."
He is convinced that "an appeal for conservation must
reach the heart, not just the mind." And this he seeks to
do, with his beautifully sculpted words that touch the
soul and enrich the mind. The book is an interesting
collection of 19 essays that take us through the vast
expanse of his travels to discover new species in
Vietnam, on the trail of the jaguar in Brazil’s Pantanal
Swamps and in the vast expanse of the Hindu Kush in
search of the elusive snow leopard. He despairs for the
tiger, yet he says, "The situation is not wholly bleak, and
tigers can continue to burn bright in the forests if
countries devote willpower and long term commitment
to their survival."
The writing is engaging, inspiring, evocative…without
getting too effusive, let’s just say, it’s simply brilliant.
Read it.
Prerna Singh Bindra
Monday, July 19, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
nothing but pugmarks....
The furor over a tiger knocked off by a speeding vehicle in Bandhavgarh is yet to settle, when news filtered in that the carcass of a cub in Pench Tiger Reserve had been burnt, its paws chopped off for a tantric ritual ‘to gain wealth’ by forest chowkidaars and a member of a village eco-development committee. It is suspected that this might be a cover up of poaching and the carcass consigned to flames to get rid of any evidence. Either ways is bad news—it is just the latest instance where Madhya Pradesh has shown a shameful disregard for the national animal.
With the highest number of tigers in India at about 300 (its disputed), Madhya Pradesh is the ‘Tiger State of India’. For years, it wore this batch with pride, nurturing its tigers, and their sanctuary. MP has no less than six tiger reserves, Kanha—the jewel in the crown flourished under competent, committed officers, Bandhavgarh produced the first ‘star’ tiger, Sita, who was ‘cover girl’ for National Geographic, good protection ensured a breeding population in Pench and Panna, Satpura is another haven for tigers, while the new kid on the block Sanjay-Dubri is yet to make its mark.
Then came the Panna debacle. Enough has been written about Panna’s vanishing tigers. Tigers poached, trapped, poisoned till there were none, even as state officials claimed that ‘all is well’, in the face of repeated warnings by researchers, conservationists and by the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court. Besides, the confessions of a poacher who claimed to have sold skins sourced from Panna tigers. Rather than protect its tigers, the state concentrated on concocting pugmarks. cooking up false census figures and producing paper tigers. Eventually, in May 2009, Panna was declared ‘tigerless’. To date, there have been no arrests, and officers responsible for the decline-and the cover-up, have been promoted.
This indifference to tiger conservation has been witnessed repeatedly. The state government cleared the proposal for the expansion of NH 7 which cuts through the critical Kanha-Pench corridor, threatening one amongst the four most vital tiger landscapes in the country. The expansion has met with a resounding refusal from the central government. While that battle continues, MP threw another googly, advocating a high-end tourism proposal by a private agency bang on the same corridor. While there is no denying the benefits of sensitive tourism, a proposal to have a fancy resort blocking a crucial corridor smacks of tiger-insensitivity.
The less said about the recent Bandhavgarh ‘accident’ on May 18th, that killed a tiger, nay a tigress with three young cubs—thus finishing off with one drunken blow, four tigers—the better. In the vehicle that allegedly killed—at night when vehicular movement and pleasure trips are banned—the critically endangered cat was forest staff, an influential lodge owner and an official of the local administration. The machinery to save the guilty is currently working overtime in Bhopal, and advice for an impartial CBI enquiry has gone unheeded. Note that this is the fourth such incident, the third in Bandhavgarh, of a tiger crushed, fatally, under the wheel. A fourth in Kanha, allegedly involving a forest vehicle, remains unconfirmed.
The state is currently occupied in plans to set up a captive breeding centre for white tigers in Rewa, which once housed Mohan, a famous white tiger, in a royal menagerie. It’s a fancy idea, bound to attract media attention and many tourists, but white tigers are the offshoot of a recessive mutant gene and have zero conservation value. Why concentrate on, and pour funds in such inane schemes when our tiger reserves remain starved of funds and focus? Worryingly, few committed officers have little support and lead a lonely battle to manage tiger reserves.
Does MP still deserve its status of a Tiger State? It still—just—has the maximum number of tigers in the country, but aren’t numbers a moot point when it was failed to protect and respect its wealth of tigers? The Tiger State must earn its stripes.
@prerna singh bindra
In The Hindustan Times, July 7, 2010
With the highest number of tigers in India at about 300 (its disputed), Madhya Pradesh is the ‘Tiger State of India’. For years, it wore this batch with pride, nurturing its tigers, and their sanctuary. MP has no less than six tiger reserves, Kanha—the jewel in the crown flourished under competent, committed officers, Bandhavgarh produced the first ‘star’ tiger, Sita, who was ‘cover girl’ for National Geographic, good protection ensured a breeding population in Pench and Panna, Satpura is another haven for tigers, while the new kid on the block Sanjay-Dubri is yet to make its mark.
Then came the Panna debacle. Enough has been written about Panna’s vanishing tigers. Tigers poached, trapped, poisoned till there were none, even as state officials claimed that ‘all is well’, in the face of repeated warnings by researchers, conservationists and by the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court. Besides, the confessions of a poacher who claimed to have sold skins sourced from Panna tigers. Rather than protect its tigers, the state concentrated on concocting pugmarks. cooking up false census figures and producing paper tigers. Eventually, in May 2009, Panna was declared ‘tigerless’. To date, there have been no arrests, and officers responsible for the decline-and the cover-up, have been promoted.
This indifference to tiger conservation has been witnessed repeatedly. The state government cleared the proposal for the expansion of NH 7 which cuts through the critical Kanha-Pench corridor, threatening one amongst the four most vital tiger landscapes in the country. The expansion has met with a resounding refusal from the central government. While that battle continues, MP threw another googly, advocating a high-end tourism proposal by a private agency bang on the same corridor. While there is no denying the benefits of sensitive tourism, a proposal to have a fancy resort blocking a crucial corridor smacks of tiger-insensitivity.
The less said about the recent Bandhavgarh ‘accident’ on May 18th, that killed a tiger, nay a tigress with three young cubs—thus finishing off with one drunken blow, four tigers—the better. In the vehicle that allegedly killed—at night when vehicular movement and pleasure trips are banned—the critically endangered cat was forest staff, an influential lodge owner and an official of the local administration. The machinery to save the guilty is currently working overtime in Bhopal, and advice for an impartial CBI enquiry has gone unheeded. Note that this is the fourth such incident, the third in Bandhavgarh, of a tiger crushed, fatally, under the wheel. A fourth in Kanha, allegedly involving a forest vehicle, remains unconfirmed.
The state is currently occupied in plans to set up a captive breeding centre for white tigers in Rewa, which once housed Mohan, a famous white tiger, in a royal menagerie. It’s a fancy idea, bound to attract media attention and many tourists, but white tigers are the offshoot of a recessive mutant gene and have zero conservation value. Why concentrate on, and pour funds in such inane schemes when our tiger reserves remain starved of funds and focus? Worryingly, few committed officers have little support and lead a lonely battle to manage tiger reserves.
Does MP still deserve its status of a Tiger State? It still—just—has the maximum number of tigers in the country, but aren’t numbers a moot point when it was failed to protect and respect its wealth of tigers? The Tiger State must earn its stripes.
@prerna singh bindra
In The Hindustan Times, July 7, 2010
Wildlife sans borders
One of the most wonderful sight—and sounds—I have experienced was of a group of 10-or was it 20 great Indian hornbills--beautiful birds-huge dappled in black and yellow winging their noisy way from Mathanguri (in Indian Manas Tiger Reserve) across the river and into Royal Manas Park in Bhutan, where they proceed to prodigiously feed each other not unlike young couples in love..
Its almost a daily ritual--birds flying from India into Bhutan to feed on figs through the day, and as dusk falls wing their way back home in India to roost.
Amazing.
We know birds migrate, fly from Siberia through many countries to reach their summer home in India. Tigers or for that matter any wild creature don’t recognise boundaries or care about ‘sensitive’ borders. During a visit to Ladakh, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force showed us the very rare kiangs-or the Tibetan wild ass which traverses the border regularly. While they might go over to China searching for fodder in this harsh, cold desert, they apparently hurry back since hunting pressure is more on the other side! Snow leopards and their equally endangered prey markhor, go back and forth between India and Pakistan in the high climes of the Himalayas.
There has been a recent case of an ‘Indian’ tiger in the Sundarbans swimming into Bangladesh waters. There is regular ‘exchange’ of tigers between India and Nepal all along the Terai—tigers from Bardia have known to come over to Katarniaghat, part of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. As do elephants and rhinos. A ‘Nepali’ rhino came over to Valmiki from Chitwan across the border, took up residence—though it was sadly killed in a train accident later.
Borders are fences drawn by man, animals are free ranging and cannot restrict them to manmade boundaries or norms. Our last pockets of wilderness are along national borders, be it Thar in Rajasthan home to the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard, or the Siachen glacier region where snow leopards reign. Across South-Asia tiger habitats transcend borders like the Hukawng Valley Reserve in Myanmar which is contiguous to similar forest in India, and China. This same situation applies in most tiger range countries where tiger habitats transcend borders.
Maintaining contiguity and connectivity between forests-be it across international borders—is crucial to maintain genetic vigour and prevent extinction.
Another serious concern is that porous borders facilitate smuggling of wildlife derivatives. Most seizures in Nepal—or in most South-Asian countries - tiger or leopard skin, bone, ivory, bear bile have been sourced from India, because it is the best supply source. Currently, two Indian, two Chinese, and one Nepalese are cooling their heels in Nepal prison for smuggling in pangolin –a Schedule I animal—scales from India. Wildlife crime is clearly a trans-boundary issue.
There is a need for constant dialogue and exchange of information between the management of cross-border protected areas and tiger reserves under the umbrella of bilateral protocol. In simple terms, should the need arise for the director of Dudhwa to meet with his compatriot from Nepal who manages the Royal Bardia National Park he shouldn’t have to work his way through the bureaucratic maze of state government, Ministry of Environment & forests, External Affairs, Finance or whatever—and await their nod till the problem blows into a full-fledged crisis. If tigers (and their killers) can move freely across borders, then their managers need some flexibility to do so too, admittedly within an official framework.
The Nepal Minister of Forests and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara recalls a recent instance when the brutal killing of three one-horned rhinos in Kaziranga was followed by a similar spate of slaughter in the Royal Chitwan National Park. Intelligence information showed that the poaching incidents were linked but Nepal’s request to meet the Kaziranga officials went unheeded.
The need of the hour is to have transboundary protocols which facilitate dialogue and exchange of information between countries sharing tiger habitat. There is scope for joint patrolling along borders, sync in management systems and estimation exercise and tackling wildlife trade.
India must take the lead in pushing for transboundary protocols, because with the maximum number of tigers—and Asiatic Elephants, it had so much more at stake.
in The Sunday Guardian, July 4, 2010
Its almost a daily ritual--birds flying from India into Bhutan to feed on figs through the day, and as dusk falls wing their way back home in India to roost.
Amazing.
We know birds migrate, fly from Siberia through many countries to reach their summer home in India. Tigers or for that matter any wild creature don’t recognise boundaries or care about ‘sensitive’ borders. During a visit to Ladakh, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force showed us the very rare kiangs-or the Tibetan wild ass which traverses the border regularly. While they might go over to China searching for fodder in this harsh, cold desert, they apparently hurry back since hunting pressure is more on the other side! Snow leopards and their equally endangered prey markhor, go back and forth between India and Pakistan in the high climes of the Himalayas.
There has been a recent case of an ‘Indian’ tiger in the Sundarbans swimming into Bangladesh waters. There is regular ‘exchange’ of tigers between India and Nepal all along the Terai—tigers from Bardia have known to come over to Katarniaghat, part of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. As do elephants and rhinos. A ‘Nepali’ rhino came over to Valmiki from Chitwan across the border, took up residence—though it was sadly killed in a train accident later.
Borders are fences drawn by man, animals are free ranging and cannot restrict them to manmade boundaries or norms. Our last pockets of wilderness are along national borders, be it Thar in Rajasthan home to the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard, or the Siachen glacier region where snow leopards reign. Across South-Asia tiger habitats transcend borders like the Hukawng Valley Reserve in Myanmar which is contiguous to similar forest in India, and China. This same situation applies in most tiger range countries where tiger habitats transcend borders.
Maintaining contiguity and connectivity between forests-be it across international borders—is crucial to maintain genetic vigour and prevent extinction.
Another serious concern is that porous borders facilitate smuggling of wildlife derivatives. Most seizures in Nepal—or in most South-Asian countries - tiger or leopard skin, bone, ivory, bear bile have been sourced from India, because it is the best supply source. Currently, two Indian, two Chinese, and one Nepalese are cooling their heels in Nepal prison for smuggling in pangolin –a Schedule I animal—scales from India. Wildlife crime is clearly a trans-boundary issue.
There is a need for constant dialogue and exchange of information between the management of cross-border protected areas and tiger reserves under the umbrella of bilateral protocol. In simple terms, should the need arise for the director of Dudhwa to meet with his compatriot from Nepal who manages the Royal Bardia National Park he shouldn’t have to work his way through the bureaucratic maze of state government, Ministry of Environment & forests, External Affairs, Finance or whatever—and await their nod till the problem blows into a full-fledged crisis. If tigers (and their killers) can move freely across borders, then their managers need some flexibility to do so too, admittedly within an official framework.
The Nepal Minister of Forests and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara recalls a recent instance when the brutal killing of three one-horned rhinos in Kaziranga was followed by a similar spate of slaughter in the Royal Chitwan National Park. Intelligence information showed that the poaching incidents were linked but Nepal’s request to meet the Kaziranga officials went unheeded.
The need of the hour is to have transboundary protocols which facilitate dialogue and exchange of information between countries sharing tiger habitat. There is scope for joint patrolling along borders, sync in management systems and estimation exercise and tackling wildlife trade.
India must take the lead in pushing for transboundary protocols, because with the maximum number of tigers—and Asiatic Elephants, it had so much more at stake.
in The Sunday Guardian, July 4, 2010
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