As each TigerLink drew to a close, Fatji’s (Fateh Singh Rathore) calls would get more frequent. When was the issue out? Had we covered (the latest crisis!) from Ranthambhore? What did the editorial—and the director’s note-say? Was it strong, delivering the requisite punch? As I write now, I miss Fatji. Apologies, Fatji is sorely missed, always. But it is the tiger who is the worst loser, who has lost their staunch champion. For us, he was a tiger among men, for the tiger, he was one among them..
Last year we lost Billy (Arjan Singh), this year, Fatji passed away. Two stalwarts gone…
To move on to species they lived for: What ails the wild tiger?
We know the answer, we know the cure.
We also know that the tiger’s last, and only, hope is India.
But we refuse to take the tough call that will stem its rapid decline. Inspite of the backslapping and self-congratulations, somewhere, we are failing the tiger.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s divide the problem into two broad heads: One category is the larger picture, the tiger, in context of the ‘society’—for want of another word—it lives in. These issues are seemingly insurmountable, chronic, the ones those overwhelm you in their enormity. Where is the room for wild tigers in India, with her rapidly increasing population (1.3 billion, 50,000 added annually), and her thirst for growth and a consumerist lifestyle? How do you counter the incessant threat of highways, coal mines, power projects and expanding human habitation in tiger habitats and corridors? How do you convince politicians hungry for votes, and corporates greedy for money that the highway cuts into a crucial tiger corridor or that the coal mine sits on prime tiger real estate?
While we, doggedly, try, try and try to keep the bulldozers away, there are other issues that demand urgent attention. These, perhaps, are more workable, more immediate. Poaching is the single biggest reason for rapid population declines, indeed local extinctions. Yet, what have we done to curb this slaughter? Sure, we cannot overnight convince the Chinese that tiger penis soup isn’t the magic mantra for manhood, but what has India done to control the supply? Why isn’t there sufficient, well-trained and equipped frontline staff to take on poachers? Why don’t we strengthen our Wildlife Crime Bureaus along the lines of the agency to control narcotics smuggling?
Mismanagement, or is some cases, no management is another concern. I was part of an exercise to assess tiger reserves. Of the eight I surveyed, only one reserve had a dedicated field director and deputy director—the rest divided time between commercial forestry and conserving tigers. Incidentally, only two of the reserves had any protection strategy in place, and functional on the ground. There must be an honest, exhaustive assessment of what ails our tiger reserves, and the all-important next step to act on the concerned issues.
Why is crucial tiger habitat-deemed to be inviolate, being pillaged not by outside agencies but by the forest department themselves? The Bhanwar deh waterhole, a prime tiger nursery, waterhole in Berda in Ranthambhore was destroyed for an anicut. This is just one among the other such construction (or destruction) in Ranthambhore, and reserves across the country, where civil works reach a peak when the financial year comes to a close.
Tiger reserves are meant to serve tigers, not officers or people.
Conflict: That is killing not just the tiger, but also tolerance for the cat, is one of the most complex issues. Yet we can put in place simple mechanisms to ease the suffering. Like speedy, fair compensation for loss of cattle, and life. Have rapid response teams in place, depots to meet the local need for fuel and fodder.
The failure of the state governments to come on board on tiger conservation has been repeatedly stressed. Very true, but the centre cannot be absolved of responsibility either. The push for coal mining and highways into tiger habitat is mainly from the centre, with the PMO pressing for mining to be allowed into the recently-demarcated ‘no-go’ areas. The budget for the National Tiger Conservation Authority, which funds protection initiatives on the ground, was been cut by a fourth. The next economic superpower, India, does not have enough money for her tigers.
But the worst onslaught is brewing: by changing laws and policies, we are striking at the very foundation on which our glorious (but all-too-short) conservation history is based. The Forest Rights Act weakened the Wildlife Protection Act and largely stripped away the sanctity of Protected Areas. Its impact on wild habitats has been discussed in detail in previous issues (look for it also under ‘Focus’), but a new set of recommendations for FRA rules by the very influential National Advisory Council will be disastrous for wild habitats as they open up ‘rights’ in PAs even further.
India announces her tiger estimates shortly. But reports from the field indicate that the exercise was not a thorough one—in some cases cameras didn’t work. In others, cameras have not even been set up. Why are we rushing then to announce numbers at a grand tiger mela? Indications are that tiger numbers have increased, but the relevance of numbers diminishes when we consider that a chunk of it is tiny, fragmented populations with little genetic viability. Corridors connecting these populations are crucial to their survival.
To end on a positive note, the tiger reserves we assessed fall in India’s ‘red corridor’ impacted by left-wing extremism. Most, like Nagarjunasagar, Valmiki and Similipal were previously written off. But here, far from the spotlight, lie India’s untapped treasures, with tremendous potential.
Let’s put in our best efforts to raise these-and other such-reserves.
Friday, March 25, 2011
World bank..and tigers
Bittu Sahgal's open letter to the minister of env and forests on the world bank 'saving' tigers...
Frankly, I have no doubt that Mr. Zoellick actually does love tigers personally and that is a good thing. However it would be grave error to believe that his personal love for tigers can ever end up with a change of heart for the World Bank. Sadly, the Bank does not work that way. Many Presidents have come and gone. Virtually all of them said they want to do something good for wildlife and "the poor". Yet the Bank continues trundling over habitats and people.
Besides, we need to internalise one thing. Today the World Bank is undoubtedly the planet's number one financier of climate change and biodiversity loss. Not in the past. Their current lending is aggravating damage to ecosystems. The fig leaf they use is "Your country asks for the loans". The reality is that they promote and influence government decision making through Prime Ministers and Vice Chairmen of Planning Commissions who are "oriented" towards the Bank and IMF's GDP mission.
Seriously. Just five minutes spent on understanding the Bank's "GDP-led justification for environmental destruction" over the past four decades in India (and Brazil, and sub-Saharan Africa, and Indonesia and Malasia and....) will probably provide better insight than reams of specific data (all of which Mr. Zoellick could summon in one day, with just one instruction). The best possible advice we should give the World Bank and those in it that want to gain from the tiger's PR potential is: "Physician Heal Thyself." Once they embark on a mission merely to repair the past damage they have done, the first step towards any change of heart will have been taken by the Bank.
I would in fact request you to instruct the MoEF to immediately undertake an exercise to evaluate the impact of World Bank lending to all sectors in India on ecosystems and wildlife. If you were to officially ask the World Bank to submit just cold facts it would be obliged to share with you specific project documents, internal assessment reports and other documents that list the adverse impacts of their own lending. But I would not hold my breath waiting for such cooperation from the World Bank, so here is some food for thought.
1. The Morse Report: Do ask Mr. Zoellick to focus on the biodiversity aspect of the report. Tiger forests were destroyed in M.P. and projects spawned by the Narmada Project continue to damage M.P.'s tiger habitats.
This internal report was commissioned by the World Bank itself. It is identified with the Narmada Project, but a quick read lists several systemic failure on the part of the Bank. These systemic failures have still not been dealt with apart from cosmetic changes. They are vital to understanding the what and why of Bank culpability on the environmental front. I suggest very strongly that Mr. Zoellick be asked to fish this telling document out and that he reads at least its introduction and conclusions. This was the most honest internalBank report that I know of. Never since has the Bank allowed this degree of honesty to emerge from any of its "independent" reports.
The then President of the World Bank, Lewis Preston, gave Bradford Morse a free hand and subsequently urged vigorous internal actions to remedy the shortcomings of Banklending, largely on the rehab front. However, even these the proposed remedial actions ultimately were deemed unworkable, and the Bank Group withdrew from the project in 1995. In 1992, the Bank instituted a major review of its resettlement activities, and published the results as Resettlement and Development: the Bankwide review of projects involving involuntary resettlement 1986 - 1993. The environmental lessons that could have been learned were not. The Bank merely abandoned the geography and moved on.
2. Coal Sector Rehabilitation Project (CSRP): The total project cost was US$ 1,700 million. Money was spent on facilitating the tearing up of tiger habitats, largely with machines purchased for open cast mining. The objective was to boost coal production from 240 million tons to 329 million tons. The project was abandoned half-way, the damage was never repaired. One of the most tragic victims of this project were the elephant and tiger habitats of Bihar... the Hazaribagh coal belt. The area involves the upper watershed of river Damodar, the North Karanpura Valley. These coalfields projects were initiated in 1985-87 and involved opening up of 70 new mine. Two mines (Magadh and Amrapali) received environmental clearance with a lot of arm twisting by the Bank, despite the fact that evidence of destruction of wildlife corridors was placed on record by Delhi University researchers, with maps and detailed reports of both tiger and elephant presence. Machines purchased then and infrastructures set up are still opening new coal mines. The many coal scams we read about were facilitated by this project.
3. Forestry projects that were rechristened "Social Forestry" Projects or "Farm Forestry" Projects: These involved clear felling of natural forests and replacing them with fast growing species. On paper, however, the bank said these were on 'wastelands' and farms. The Bank's strategy was to borrow nomenclatures from social and environmental activists for projects that financed profit for corporations, but ended up sounding like they were designed to improve the lot of the poor and "enhance the productivity" of natural forest ecosystems. Virtually every Indian state fell for the line and the damage done by the Maharashtra Forestry Project, The Madhya Pradesh Forestry Project, the Uttar Pradesh Forestry Project, the Andhra Pradesh Forestry Project, the Bihar Forestry Project and the Kerala Forestry Project on tiger habitats will probably never be repaired. PK, or Mr. M.K. Ranjitsinh, or any other ex-Forest Officer will be able to ratify the fact that the World Bank actually changed the biodiversity profile of India with its lending to this sector.
The IFC even ended up loaning $120 million to finance four of India's leading pulp and paper companies. These firms account for roughly 60 percent of the India's farm forestry programs. They justifiy taking bamboo and clearing tiger forests including the connecting corridors in Chandrapur, Maharashtra that link the Tadoba Tiger Reserve to Kawal in Andhra Pradesh to the South and Indravati Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh to the East. Further something like $345 million in IDA credits were given by the Bank for what they called "social forestry" but which ended up stripping the biodiversity we now realise is vital to our fight against climate change.
Note: In 1984, the World Bank approved the India National Social Forestry project for $165 million for the four Indian States of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It was co-financed by the US Agency for International Development (AID) and had four objectives:
1. To increase production of fuel wood, small timber, poles and fodder.
2. To increase rural employment, farmer's incomes and opportunities for participation by landless people.
3. To reforest degraded areas, wastelands, and reduce soil erosion.
4. To strengthen forestry institutions.
A 1988 midterm review conducted by US AID discovered that the project had failed. The damage was never repaired. The World Bank was never held accountable.
4. India Ecodevelopment Project: The project had the effect of 'training' forest officials to shift their focus away from protection to "rural development". The project involved around US$ 100 million in loans and grants. It was a failure and has been abandoned by the Bank, but the corruption it spawned has spurred many state government that were not a part of this to incorporate similar ideas into their functioning. Thus we see cement roads in forests, JCB machines tearing up one quiet water holes to cement them, annicuts where no water could possibly be stored. Amazingly much of the construction work ends up being done in March, just before the next budget. Everyone involved with even a cursory assessment knows that the World Bank Ecodevelopment project seriously harmed the biodiversity. Yet the self-congratulatory assessment of the Bank's staff was:
"The ratings for Ecodevelopment Project for India were the following: the outcome was satisfactory, the sustainability was likely, the institutional development impact was substantial, and the Bank and borrower performance were both satisfactory. The lessons learned indicate that the project helped improve relations between forest departments and local people from a high conflict situation to one of improved cooperation and collaboration through implementation of the ecodevelopment model."
5. World Bank-financed Dams, roads, mines: The Bank is CURRENTLY pushing a one billion dollar loan for national highways that threaten the Pench-Kanha Tiger Corridor, the Nagarhole-Wynaad Tiger and Elephant Corridor, the Kaziranga Karbi Anglong Panbari-Dollamora elephant corridor and others. They have already damaged the southern aspect of the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve by funding road expansion. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
It would be a very good idea for you to ask what kind of assessment and action Mr. Zoellick is willing to promise before allowing future funding of projects that damage wildlife habitats, wetlands, grasslands,coasts, rivers and mountains. Only when we have a promise from them that they will not finance new destructive projects and will accept the responsibility of undoing the damage from past projects should we even sit to talk with them about how India can save the tiger. If you ask three students to put together the above document and ensure that the bureaucrats within the MoEF cooperate, a damming document of Bank culpability will emerge to demonstrate how the push deforestation and virtually caused deep and widespread corruption in the Forest and Wildlife Departments of all states to be institutionalised.
BOTTOM LINE? THE WORLD BANK KNOWS WELL WHAT DAMAGE THEY HAVE INFLICTED. BUT THEY CONTINUE FINANCING MORE DAMAGE. THEIR STRATEGY HAS ALWAYS BEEN "ENGAGE IN DIALOGUE, WHILE THE PROJECTS ARE PUSHED THROUGH".
That is what I see taking place towards the end of this month when they will throw pennies at us to fly people here and there and put them up just so they can say:"We are engaging with India on the issue of saving the tiger."
Frankly, I have no doubt that Mr. Zoellick actually does love tigers personally and that is a good thing. However it would be grave error to believe that his personal love for tigers can ever end up with a change of heart for the World Bank. Sadly, the Bank does not work that way. Many Presidents have come and gone. Virtually all of them said they want to do something good for wildlife and "the poor". Yet the Bank continues trundling over habitats and people.
Besides, we need to internalise one thing. Today the World Bank is undoubtedly the planet's number one financier of climate change and biodiversity loss. Not in the past. Their current lending is aggravating damage to ecosystems. The fig leaf they use is "Your country asks for the loans". The reality is that they promote and influence government decision making through Prime Ministers and Vice Chairmen of Planning Commissions who are "oriented" towards the Bank and IMF's GDP mission.
Seriously. Just five minutes spent on understanding the Bank's "GDP-led justification for environmental destruction" over the past four decades in India (and Brazil, and sub-Saharan Africa, and Indonesia and Malasia and....) will probably provide better insight than reams of specific data (all of which Mr. Zoellick could summon in one day, with just one instruction). The best possible advice we should give the World Bank and those in it that want to gain from the tiger's PR potential is: "Physician Heal Thyself." Once they embark on a mission merely to repair the past damage they have done, the first step towards any change of heart will have been taken by the Bank.
I would in fact request you to instruct the MoEF to immediately undertake an exercise to evaluate the impact of World Bank lending to all sectors in India on ecosystems and wildlife. If you were to officially ask the World Bank to submit just cold facts it would be obliged to share with you specific project documents, internal assessment reports and other documents that list the adverse impacts of their own lending. But I would not hold my breath waiting for such cooperation from the World Bank, so here is some food for thought.
1. The Morse Report: Do ask Mr. Zoellick to focus on the biodiversity aspect of the report. Tiger forests were destroyed in M.P. and projects spawned by the Narmada Project continue to damage M.P.'s tiger habitats.
This internal report was commissioned by the World Bank itself. It is identified with the Narmada Project, but a quick read lists several systemic failure on the part of the Bank. These systemic failures have still not been dealt with apart from cosmetic changes. They are vital to understanding the what and why of Bank culpability on the environmental front. I suggest very strongly that Mr. Zoellick be asked to fish this telling document out and that he reads at least its introduction and conclusions. This was the most honest internalBank report that I know of. Never since has the Bank allowed this degree of honesty to emerge from any of its "independent" reports.
The then President of the World Bank, Lewis Preston, gave Bradford Morse a free hand and subsequently urged vigorous internal actions to remedy the shortcomings of Banklending, largely on the rehab front. However, even these the proposed remedial actions ultimately were deemed unworkable, and the Bank Group withdrew from the project in 1995. In 1992, the Bank instituted a major review of its resettlement activities, and published the results as Resettlement and Development: the Bankwide review of projects involving involuntary resettlement 1986 - 1993. The environmental lessons that could have been learned were not. The Bank merely abandoned the geography and moved on.
2. Coal Sector Rehabilitation Project (CSRP): The total project cost was US$ 1,700 million. Money was spent on facilitating the tearing up of tiger habitats, largely with machines purchased for open cast mining. The objective was to boost coal production from 240 million tons to 329 million tons. The project was abandoned half-way, the damage was never repaired. One of the most tragic victims of this project were the elephant and tiger habitats of Bihar... the Hazaribagh coal belt. The area involves the upper watershed of river Damodar, the North Karanpura Valley. These coalfields projects were initiated in 1985-87 and involved opening up of 70 new mine. Two mines (Magadh and Amrapali) received environmental clearance with a lot of arm twisting by the Bank, despite the fact that evidence of destruction of wildlife corridors was placed on record by Delhi University researchers, with maps and detailed reports of both tiger and elephant presence. Machines purchased then and infrastructures set up are still opening new coal mines. The many coal scams we read about were facilitated by this project.
3. Forestry projects that were rechristened "Social Forestry" Projects or "Farm Forestry" Projects: These involved clear felling of natural forests and replacing them with fast growing species. On paper, however, the bank said these were on 'wastelands' and farms. The Bank's strategy was to borrow nomenclatures from social and environmental activists for projects that financed profit for corporations, but ended up sounding like they were designed to improve the lot of the poor and "enhance the productivity" of natural forest ecosystems. Virtually every Indian state fell for the line and the damage done by the Maharashtra Forestry Project, The Madhya Pradesh Forestry Project, the Uttar Pradesh Forestry Project, the Andhra Pradesh Forestry Project, the Bihar Forestry Project and the Kerala Forestry Project on tiger habitats will probably never be repaired. PK, or Mr. M.K. Ranjitsinh, or any other ex-Forest Officer will be able to ratify the fact that the World Bank actually changed the biodiversity profile of India with its lending to this sector.
The IFC even ended up loaning $120 million to finance four of India's leading pulp and paper companies. These firms account for roughly 60 percent of the India's farm forestry programs. They justifiy taking bamboo and clearing tiger forests including the connecting corridors in Chandrapur, Maharashtra that link the Tadoba Tiger Reserve to Kawal in Andhra Pradesh to the South and Indravati Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh to the East. Further something like $345 million in IDA credits were given by the Bank for what they called "social forestry" but which ended up stripping the biodiversity we now realise is vital to our fight against climate change.
Note: In 1984, the World Bank approved the India National Social Forestry project for $165 million for the four Indian States of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It was co-financed by the US Agency for International Development (AID) and had four objectives:
1. To increase production of fuel wood, small timber, poles and fodder.
2. To increase rural employment, farmer's incomes and opportunities for participation by landless people.
3. To reforest degraded areas, wastelands, and reduce soil erosion.
4. To strengthen forestry institutions.
A 1988 midterm review conducted by US AID discovered that the project had failed. The damage was never repaired. The World Bank was never held accountable.
4. India Ecodevelopment Project: The project had the effect of 'training' forest officials to shift their focus away from protection to "rural development". The project involved around US$ 100 million in loans and grants. It was a failure and has been abandoned by the Bank, but the corruption it spawned has spurred many state government that were not a part of this to incorporate similar ideas into their functioning. Thus we see cement roads in forests, JCB machines tearing up one quiet water holes to cement them, annicuts where no water could possibly be stored. Amazingly much of the construction work ends up being done in March, just before the next budget. Everyone involved with even a cursory assessment knows that the World Bank Ecodevelopment project seriously harmed the biodiversity. Yet the self-congratulatory assessment of the Bank's staff was:
"The ratings for Ecodevelopment Project for India were the following: the outcome was satisfactory, the sustainability was likely, the institutional development impact was substantial, and the Bank and borrower performance were both satisfactory. The lessons learned indicate that the project helped improve relations between forest departments and local people from a high conflict situation to one of improved cooperation and collaboration through implementation of the ecodevelopment model."
5. World Bank-financed Dams, roads, mines: The Bank is CURRENTLY pushing a one billion dollar loan for national highways that threaten the Pench-Kanha Tiger Corridor, the Nagarhole-Wynaad Tiger and Elephant Corridor, the Kaziranga Karbi Anglong Panbari-Dollamora elephant corridor and others. They have already damaged the southern aspect of the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve by funding road expansion. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
It would be a very good idea for you to ask what kind of assessment and action Mr. Zoellick is willing to promise before allowing future funding of projects that damage wildlife habitats, wetlands, grasslands,coasts, rivers and mountains. Only when we have a promise from them that they will not finance new destructive projects and will accept the responsibility of undoing the damage from past projects should we even sit to talk with them about how India can save the tiger. If you ask three students to put together the above document and ensure that the bureaucrats within the MoEF cooperate, a damming document of Bank culpability will emerge to demonstrate how the push deforestation and virtually caused deep and widespread corruption in the Forest and Wildlife Departments of all states to be institutionalised.
BOTTOM LINE? THE WORLD BANK KNOWS WELL WHAT DAMAGE THEY HAVE INFLICTED. BUT THEY CONTINUE FINANCING MORE DAMAGE. THEIR STRATEGY HAS ALWAYS BEEN "ENGAGE IN DIALOGUE, WHILE THE PROJECTS ARE PUSHED THROUGH".
That is what I see taking place towards the end of this month when they will throw pennies at us to fly people here and there and put them up just so they can say:"We are engaging with India on the issue of saving the tiger."
Thursday, March 24, 2011
leopards
This bit of info comes in from the Corbett foundation.
This is what we do to leopards-beat them, burn them, stone them-and skin them for trade.
Conflict is a very serious concern..and of course the most difficult, complex issue to tackle.
Yesterday 3 individuals were injured by a leopard in Dhamdhar village in Kalagarh Tiger Reserve, one of the two divisions of Corbett TR. The villagers somehow locked the leopard in a cattle shed. The forest department team managed to catch and put the leopard into a cage. The moment department started its transportation to nearest range office located in Rathuwadhab, violent mob attacked the staff, got hold of cage, attacked leopard inside the cage using iron rods, sickles, other sort of available items and finally burnt it alive by pouring kerosene and petrol on it. The department has lodged complaint against about ten individuals.
This is what we do to leopards-beat them, burn them, stone them-and skin them for trade.
Conflict is a very serious concern..and of course the most difficult, complex issue to tackle.
Yesterday 3 individuals were injured by a leopard in Dhamdhar village in Kalagarh Tiger Reserve, one of the two divisions of Corbett TR. The villagers somehow locked the leopard in a cattle shed. The forest department team managed to catch and put the leopard into a cage. The moment department started its transportation to nearest range office located in Rathuwadhab, violent mob attacked the staff, got hold of cage, attacked leopard inside the cage using iron rods, sickles, other sort of available items and finally burnt it alive by pouring kerosene and petrol on it. The department has lodged complaint against about ten individuals.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
a tribute to Fatji
i couldn't do it...write a tribute to Fatji...this is a feeble attempt to try and explain this wonderful, delightful, person..so committed to tigers. A friend, mentor, guide, guru.
Those who say, ‘what difference can I make, I am only one person’, haven’t had the good fortune to know Fateh Singh Rathore: who created Ranthambhore, put it and its tigers on the world map, gave the tigers space, and the star status they enjoy today… and most importantly inspired and nurtured an army of tiger aficionados who fight for its cause today.
Fateh Singh Rathore embodied the Power of One. He changed the world of the tiger... if the tiger lives today, in Ranthambhore, and in our hearts, we owe it to him.
It is a task impossible to encapsulate a man’s life in limited wordage… how do you quantify his contribution, or capture his joie de vivre, his work, his commitment, his passion?
Let’s get the basics first: TigerMan Fateh was a man of modest education and feudal upbringing and went through a series of jobs—all ending in a bit of disaster (“I was the disaster”, he would chortle) before he was appointed as a ranger in the forest department. In the early days, it wasn’t the forests or its denizens that held his interest, it was his Royal Enfield motorbike, and he recalls the time when he scampered—trembling—up a tree when a tiger, curious about the roar of the bike, came investigating!
That changed. And the fear… turned to love.
Perhaps, the first indication of Fateh’s change of heart was his growing resentment of shikar (those were pre-protection days). When he spotted yet another pair of shkar's tying a machan he decided to act. As the hunters waited at night, ght, bait in place, rifles in hand for the ‘doomed’ tiger, Fateh spoiled the party, leading a loud procession beating drums, singing bhajans. The Americans went, disgruntled, and the tiger, was spared. This was vintage Fateh, always game for a gag, and fiercely protective of his tigers, and Ranthambhore… a passion and commitment that continued to his dying day. It never wavered-even when he was beaten up, almost to death, in 1981 when trying to protect the forest from grazing; or when, post retirement, he was barred from entering his beloved park by the state, for speaking out the truth that Ranthambhore, and its tigers were dying.
'Mr Ranthambhore'devoted his life to the park: he walked the forest with his band of men, laid out the network of dirt roads to facilitate protection, took on poachers, bureaucrats and politicians, patiently won the trust of villagers, persuading and coaxing them to relocate from the park. He cried with the people, sharing their grief as they walked away from their ancestral home. Months later, he brought in the headman, who delighted in seeing the tiger walk across what was once their village. The tiger..had come home.
Under his vigilant, caring eye, the tigers flourished, and shed their fear of man… opening their world, sharing their secrets giving the park the fame and stature it enjoys today. Ranthambhore today is a hub around the tiger—with NGOs, a school, a multi-specialty hospital, a thriving tourism industry, the famous Ranthambhore school of Art that has trained local artists, a hostel for the poachers' children to educate them, owing largely to the vision of one man.
But for Fateh it was not what he did for the tiger, but what the tiger did for him. "I owe the tiger everything", he would say, “they made me world-famous.”
Fateh loved tigers, he had an instinct--almost a spiritual connection. He could feel their presence. ‘Tigers,’ he announced on my first visit to the park with him, as I peered at a landscape devoid of cat... and sure enough within minutes, our Gypsy was surrounded by four tigers. A mother, and three sub-adults, who arranged themselves around the vehicle, effectively blocking our path for over an hour. No, I did not know fear. I had another tiger in the Gypsy with me!
Fatji–as many of us knew him, was larger than life, full of exuberance, warm, childlike, generous to a fault and took to heart all who loved his forest.
On March 1, 'Mr Ranthambhore' left us, losing the battle to cancer. The tigers knew they had lost their friend-and champion. At 4 am the next day, hours before the funeral, a tiger appeared behind his house, roaring thrice-maybe in final farewell, maybe to pay his last respects but I like to think, to reassure that the spirit of the tiger rested within him, forever.
There cannot be Ranthambhore without Fatji, but there must, for it is there that he lives on. There will always be a Ranthambhore flush with tigers, it is the only way we can serve the memory of the man who lived for it.
Published in The Sunday Guardian, March 13, 2011
Those who say, ‘what difference can I make, I am only one person’, haven’t had the good fortune to know Fateh Singh Rathore: who created Ranthambhore, put it and its tigers on the world map, gave the tigers space, and the star status they enjoy today… and most importantly inspired and nurtured an army of tiger aficionados who fight for its cause today.
Fateh Singh Rathore embodied the Power of One. He changed the world of the tiger... if the tiger lives today, in Ranthambhore, and in our hearts, we owe it to him.
It is a task impossible to encapsulate a man’s life in limited wordage… how do you quantify his contribution, or capture his joie de vivre, his work, his commitment, his passion?
Let’s get the basics first: TigerMan Fateh was a man of modest education and feudal upbringing and went through a series of jobs—all ending in a bit of disaster (“I was the disaster”, he would chortle) before he was appointed as a ranger in the forest department. In the early days, it wasn’t the forests or its denizens that held his interest, it was his Royal Enfield motorbike, and he recalls the time when he scampered—trembling—up a tree when a tiger, curious about the roar of the bike, came investigating!
That changed. And the fear… turned to love.
Perhaps, the first indication of Fateh’s change of heart was his growing resentment of shikar (those were pre-protection days). When he spotted yet another pair of shkar's tying a machan he decided to act. As the hunters waited at night, ght, bait in place, rifles in hand for the ‘doomed’ tiger, Fateh spoiled the party, leading a loud procession beating drums, singing bhajans. The Americans went, disgruntled, and the tiger, was spared. This was vintage Fateh, always game for a gag, and fiercely protective of his tigers, and Ranthambhore… a passion and commitment that continued to his dying day. It never wavered-even when he was beaten up, almost to death, in 1981 when trying to protect the forest from grazing; or when, post retirement, he was barred from entering his beloved park by the state, for speaking out the truth that Ranthambhore, and its tigers were dying.
'Mr Ranthambhore'devoted his life to the park: he walked the forest with his band of men, laid out the network of dirt roads to facilitate protection, took on poachers, bureaucrats and politicians, patiently won the trust of villagers, persuading and coaxing them to relocate from the park. He cried with the people, sharing their grief as they walked away from their ancestral home. Months later, he brought in the headman, who delighted in seeing the tiger walk across what was once their village. The tiger..had come home.
Under his vigilant, caring eye, the tigers flourished, and shed their fear of man… opening their world, sharing their secrets giving the park the fame and stature it enjoys today. Ranthambhore today is a hub around the tiger—with NGOs, a school, a multi-specialty hospital, a thriving tourism industry, the famous Ranthambhore school of Art that has trained local artists, a hostel for the poachers' children to educate them, owing largely to the vision of one man.
But for Fateh it was not what he did for the tiger, but what the tiger did for him. "I owe the tiger everything", he would say, “they made me world-famous.”
Fateh loved tigers, he had an instinct--almost a spiritual connection. He could feel their presence. ‘Tigers,’ he announced on my first visit to the park with him, as I peered at a landscape devoid of cat... and sure enough within minutes, our Gypsy was surrounded by four tigers. A mother, and three sub-adults, who arranged themselves around the vehicle, effectively blocking our path for over an hour. No, I did not know fear. I had another tiger in the Gypsy with me!
Fatji–as many of us knew him, was larger than life, full of exuberance, warm, childlike, generous to a fault and took to heart all who loved his forest.
On March 1, 'Mr Ranthambhore' left us, losing the battle to cancer. The tigers knew they had lost their friend-and champion. At 4 am the next day, hours before the funeral, a tiger appeared behind his house, roaring thrice-maybe in final farewell, maybe to pay his last respects but I like to think, to reassure that the spirit of the tiger rested within him, forever.
There cannot be Ranthambhore without Fatji, but there must, for it is there that he lives on. There will always be a Ranthambhore flush with tigers, it is the only way we can serve the memory of the man who lived for it.
Published in The Sunday Guardian, March 13, 2011
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