Indianaturally

Page 3 Tiger

2012-01-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

It was a programme devoted to Save the Tiger.

Hence, I found it a little difficult--and forgive me for also being perplexed, foxed --as i tried to place the significance of that beautiful, brassy blonde dressed (or is it the other way around?) in shimmering red silks gyrating to Kiss me..kiss me ..kiss me (i wonder, if she was entreating the tiger, and knew what she was letting herself in for)
No, i am not being a spoilt sport-I do not mind 'em item numbers, and shimmering silks), but not at the backdrop of the desperate, bitter battle to Save the Tiger.

I will not name the function-or the organisers (and not just because this is just one of the many similar 'valiant' attempts in saving the tiger). I am sure they meant well. And i know there were those present, whose heart beat, and bled for the tiger. Even as they cringed at the irony of it all--not quite comprehending, but perhaps accepting that this was the new way to do things.
It has been done before. It will be done again.
Saving tigers--and children-and the starving millions by the Champagne Circuit.

I know--I think--this is how the message was driven home--amongst the politicians, the corporates--people who 'matter', people with the money, and the power, but perhaps not the will to go down the lonely forest chowki in the heart of the remote forest, to confront reality, and to salute the man who protected the tiger--
without a steady wage, with no protection against poacher and beast..."

No offense meant here(not to People, and certainly not 'beast', but is food for thought. )

Editorial, TigerLink, Nov-2011

2011-12-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

This time I would like to concentrate on the lesser-known but very serious threats to the tiger. But before I draw attention to the policy changes that will hit the tiger hard, I must comment—with much anguish—about a horrifying episode in Chhattisgarh: A young tigress, beaten and bludgeoned for over six hours by a mob numbering over ten thousand... till agonisingly, mercifully, finally death ended her torment. But the horror doesn’t end here, the villagers then took out a victory procession —holding the bleeding, mangled body of our national animal aloft while dancing, shouting, singing in a joyous expression of triumph.
I can only hang my head in shame.
I can only imagine the sheer horror of the moment, the terror of the cornered tiger, as she sought, in vain, to flee her tormentors.
I can only wonder at the ‘beast’ in men.
It’s a national shame. Yet, the episode has fizzled out our conscience… if it made an impression at all. Though the shocking images were flashed on national television, and made their rounds on the internet, it barely created an uproar, let alone a sense of outrage. You can find out more about this incident inside, but I would like to emphasise on some pertinent points again: Why did we let this matter — the tigress was regularly killing cattle, creating animosity — reach this horrifying climax? Will anyone be held accountable? Will we put measures in place to ensure we do not see such a tragedy again?
Conflict, as I have stressed often enough, is one of our most worrying threats. Conflict occurs across tiger country, taking a terrible toll on both people, and tiger. Its impact goes beyond the immediate loss of life and livelihood. It leads to loss of support for the tiger and fuels poaching.
We must take on board the gravity of the issue. Isn’t a tiger's murder, being celebrated in a victory procession, a strong enough message? A body blow?
But beyond the obvious, there are other insidious threats to the tiger: weakening protectionist laws and policies. At a recent lecture, former MEF Jairam Ramesh highlighted five initiatives that were taken during his stint in the MoEF. Three among these are of particular note. The first is that state government-executed infrastructure works requiring less than five hectares each of forest land were exempted from the approval processes of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The FCA is the single most effective tool to conserve forests, especially outside protected areas. Most tiger corridors and sink habitats fall outside PAs, and taking these forests outside of the purview of the law will see rapid fragmentation and degradation of crucial links in tiger habitats. It is worth noting here that approximately about a third of the tiger population is likely found outside the tiger reserves.
The second move was an amendment that was approved in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, which ensures that local forest officials can lodge cases only after they obtain the written consent of the gram sabha, or local village level governing bodies. One need not really elaborate on the dire implications of this amendment, which will only encourage forest offences. By whom, and how, will an offence be registered if it entails written permissions?
Another initiative, launched with much fanfare in April 2011, is “freeing” bamboo, which has been redefined as non-timber forest produce. This basically means that bamboo can now be collected by the local people just like other forest products including tendu or sal leaves — freeing it from any control by the forest management. This can have disastrous impacts on the habitat, given that bamboo is good carnivore cover and much favoured by elephants. The disturbance caused by the influx for bamboo (and other Minor Forest Produce) collection, in our already fragmented habitats are another worry. Add to this the fact that there is a move by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Tribal Affairs, to ‘amend that MFP be allowed to carry in appropriate means of transport, as against headloads and cycles as specified now. Some other means of transport can only imply trucks, tractors, etc. which needs roads. I need not say more.
No one will dispute the fact that we need community support to protect forests, but as Vivek Deshpande asked in an article titled “Giving up governance is no governance”, published in The Indian Express: “does that mean simply give away forests to forest-dwellers (including non-tribals) under the fond belief that they have the wherewithal to do it responsibly for all time to come, with no checks and balances needed? Is giving unregulated, unfettered forest control in the hands of village communities a step in the right direction?”
No, I am not denying the bad governance, corruption that plagues the forest department (covered extensively within this issue), indeed most departments. But is doing away with governance the answer? Can we do away with the police or defence forces because of human rights violations and corruption? No, we dare not due to its impact on our safety and security as a nation. Can we not grant the same importance to our eco-systems? Aren’t we romanticising, the gramsabha, the symbol of the pulsating village republic? Isn’t it as susceptible to vested interests, corruption, caste conflicts, etc., as has been seen often enough? The story of villagers managing their own forests simply isn’t practical, especially when our forests contain large mega-fauna, where fatal conflict is a real possibility, and which carry huge commercial value.
The repercussions of this laissez-faire forest economy do not bode well for the tiger — the need of the hour is to improve our protection system, and implementation of laws, not dilution of existing ones.
India has achieved the near-impossible task of saving tigers amidst a population of over one billion people and at the same time, preserving its growth aspirations. We are now embarking on intensive monitoring of tigers, an exercise which will indicate the health of our tiger population on an annual basis, and have also initiated, with much caution, the process to relocate villages in a fair and voluntary manner to create inviolate space for tigers. Such an effort is unmatched in other tiger range countries. Is it wise then, to derail the process by retrograde policies and weakening legal protection?

Climate Change & MPs

2011-08-28T02:58:00.000-07:00

Bittu Sahgal and I made a presentation to the Parliamentary Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change. Not one MP was a climate sceptic. Not one questioned the disastrous consequences of Climate change. All recognised we were facing the consequences now. All agreed that the loss of forests is a disaster. Noone underestimated the value of forests.
One asked how could small rivers-reduced to a filthy trickle could be restored to life. Another wanted the message of Tiger as the symbol of a healthy eco-system to be better decimated. An MP from Kerala (bless him!)questioned why was the forest department plating exotics which were of little value and depleting ground water. Why not indigenous trees? Another from Sikkim (bless him too) wants a working group of MPs from the Mountain States.
I rarely engage with the politicians –but coming so soon after the rather enthusiastic response from the MPs to a talk I gave on tigers, this gives me some hope.
But, will this interest, this knowledge translate into action?
Will our political representatives take hard decisions to protect wildlife? Environment?
Livelihoods?
We wait. We hope.

Will write a longer piece on this shortly.

Check this out!

2011-08-07T01:13:00.000-07:00

http://notestothedog.blogspot.com/2011/08/among-faithfuls.html

on my other blog..since it is not wildlife :-)

Inroads into Tiger Country...

2011-05-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

have in my inbox a delightful set of camera-trapped photographs, of creatures wild and rare: a leopard slinking past, prickly porcupines marching in a row, a sloth bear with a baby on its back, a tiny mouse deer tip-toeing past, and a tigress, in all her glory. The picture of the tigress with her two cubs frolicking near her is enough to lift the spirit, and for one blessed moment, the spectrum of threats that plague our wildlife fades away as one takes in the evidence of the next generation of tigers. Breeding tigers signify that the forest and prey is healthy, and that it's safe for a tigress to raise her cubs. It implies that all hope isn't lost in the tiger's world.

But good news comes with a rider: the sword of Damocles hangs over the futures of these animals. Not even two miles away from where the tigress and her cubs were captured on camera is the Mannanoor-Dornal road, where no less than 1,000 vehicles ply every day. To side step a little, the photographs are from the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh, India's largest tiger reserve, which saw a remarkable comeback after over 15 years of insurgency. But that's another story. For the moment, the only issue I will concentrate on are the roads in prime tiger habitat, a grave concern all across India.

The Mannanoor-Dornal road leads to the Srisailam temple and to an expanding town with a population of about 25,000, along with buildings, bazaars and trash heaps — all in the heart of a tiger reserve. Though traffic is banned at night and there are speed breakers to slow down vehicles, irresponsible, rash driving persists, killing many wild animals. Pressure to remove the speed breakers to facilitate speedy VIP movement, and to ease the night traffic ban, is constantly increasing.

The real impact goes much beyond the road killings. The birth of a road implies the death of wilderness. When a road opens up an area, it serves as an ancillary to further development, as a result of which human footprint increases in the area. For example, a road circumventing and cutting through the Velavadar National Park (Gujarat) is proposed to be upgraded, essentially to cater to the special industrial and investment zones coming up in the vicinity. Roads fragment an already highly fragmented habitat. They break contiguity of habitat, which results in the impingement of forests and well-worn migratory paths of animals. They break tree cover, slice vegetation and causes stress to wildlife living along the roads, due to increasing disturbance. Roads give easy accessibility to timber smugglers and poachers. A recent case had poachers shoot at Gaur and Sambar from their vehicles inside sanctuaries in Karantaka!
The issue is critical: the much publicised expansion of the NH 7 through the Kanha-Pench corridor slashes across 60 km of crucial tiger habitat, isolating and dooming sections of India’s most viable source populations.

The issue is critical: the much publicised expansion of the NH 7 through the Kanha-Pench corridor slashes across 60km of crucial tiger habitat, isolating and dooming sections of India's most viable source populations. Less publicised but equally damaging is the "six-laning" of the NH-6. Stretches on this highway form part of crucial tiger corridor, which connects the Nagzira Sanctuary and the Navegaon National Park in Maharashtra. No one bothered about mandatory clearances till a PIL was filed. By then, the work was already completed and thousands of trees had been chopped.

There is consistent pressure for the expansion of NH 37, which circumvents Kaziranga, the park with the highest tiger density in the world. An upcoming highway connecting Vijayawada with Ranchi will fragment almost all of Orissa's tiger and elephant landscapes. A proposed road connecting North Bengal to Sikkim will cut through the pristine Neora Valley National Park and the Pangolakha sanctuary, a biodiversity hotspot, and home to no less than four big cats. With the target being to add 20 km of highway everyday, the scale is pretty nightmarish, as far as the impact on natural habitats is concerned.

The tragedy is that most roads that run through crucial wildlife habitats have viable alternatives, but do not figure in the planning of policymakers.

As for our cubs in Nagarjunasagar are concerned, will they live to see another day? Who knows? The cats are known to traverse the Mannanoor-Dornal road, and if the tigress is crushed, the cubs will die. If they survive into adulthood, they must hunt for new territory, but with a road bisecting their forest, and a town—and man—nearby, their future is precarious. India has promised the tiger a future. They survive in just about one per cent of India, and barely five percent of our land is protected as forest area. If we continue to make inroads in this space, it will be the end of wild India.

My column in The Sunday Guardian

the leopard is dead, but the fire rages on...

2011-04-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, 23 March 2011, a leopard entered Dhamdhar village in Kalagarh Forest Division, Corbett Tiger Reserve. Sighting the furtive cat, a crowd gathered and began shouting, pelting stones, sticks, rocks..whatever they could lay their hands on. The leopard fled and took shelter in a cowshed and in the chaos, three people were injured—none too grievously. The forest department tranquilised and captured the leopard, but by then mob frenzy had peaked. They attacked the leopard—trapped, terrified and helpless in the cage—with iron rods, sickles and stones, before finally dousing it with kerosene and setting it ablaze.
This particular leopard had never killed man-nor injured a soul, except when cornered by an angry mob... yet, it paid a heavy price for the mere sin of being alive... and wild.
The picture of the leopard’s charred body made it to one or two spots on TV and a vague mention in print (with cricket,2G & wikileaks, there was little scope). I am unaware if it made ripples either in the corridors of power which define wildlife policy, or in the collective conscience of a society that calls itself humane and is proud of its ahimsik traditions. To me the charred visage, frozen in agony represents the face of the accelerating conflict in the country and the degeneration of our attitude towards the wilds. It defines India’s changing relationship with nature.
Revering nature is part of our heritage. Most ancient religions of India don’t differentiate between the soul of a human and an animal. We pray to the elephant god Ganesha, the monkey god Hanuman and the vulture god Jatayu. The tiger symbolises fertility and in some cultures newly-weds seek its blessings. We worship the sun god, and the river Ganga is sacred. It is this veneration and values that have stood wildlife in good stead. They have kept it alive, against the worst of odds.
Think about it: India has about a dozen large animals—carnivores like tigers, leopards, lions and wolves; elephants, sloth bears—all capable of harming humans, living amongst its teeming millions. We have leopards living in agriculture fields and on the fringes of expanding towns, wolves and hyenas in villages, tigers clinging to shrinking habitat on the fringe of the forest, and onto human ground. It must be added here that given the proximity, conflict is minimal.
It is truly amazing—and laudable—that an underdeveloped (then) India, with its booming population and many pressing concerns kept aside land and funds for Project Tiger, that revived this dying animal while most of Europe and the US persecuted their carnivores to extinction.
But… the tide is turning.
The problem is complex. At one level it is about our fraying relationship with nature, of a ‘distancing’ from the earth. At another, it is about development and growth, and its ‘face-off’ with environment and ecology. India’s expanding middle-class has a ferocious appetite to consume—and the direct impact is on our natural resources. Does this India, hurtling down the fast road to economic superstardom and with its growing aspirations have room on its land, and in its heart for nature?
As a nation, we are losing touch with our roots, with nature. A child growing up in a box—read apartment—has little concept of climbing trees and chasing butterflies, wild flowers or clear streams. Nature, at best is a manicured park, or Animal Planet.
The milieu has shifted even in rural India. While there is huge dependence on forest resources for sustenance and livelihood, better means of communication and the growing economy have raised aspiration levels here as well.
At the heart of this all is human-wildlife conflict. The mix of shrinking, fragmented natural habitats, pressed in by villages and towns is lethal. Conflict, especially when fatal, fuels further conflict. Tolerance has sustained wildlife in this overpopulated landscape, but for how long? The reverence is fading. This particular leopard had done no wrong, unless you count venturing into human habitat. It was fear, and intolerance of the ‘intruder’ that lit the fire. The leopard died... but the fire has not yet doused; its flame has engulfed many species, including the tiger, and the veneration that we once had for animals.
This is not the first time a leopard has been burnt to death, nor will it be the last... unless we take the gravity of the situation on board, unless we work with communities who bear the brunt of conflict; unless we work out strategies to tackle conflict and to manage wildlife in—and more importantly around protected areas, and our rural landscapes; unless we nurture and hold sacred the values of nature worship.

@prerna singh bindra
printed in The Sunday Guardian on April 3,2011

i am..ahem..a changemaker!

2011-04-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

For a Beautiful World - Prerna Singh Bindra, Conservation journalist and Editor, TigerLink, also Member of National Board of Wildlife

Prerna Singh Bindra plays many roles as a Changemaker - an advocate, a journalist, a writer and editor, and a lobbyist for conservation. She has consulted with Friends of Women¹s World Banking where she assessed needs for micro financing for rural women, and helped streamline systems to make micro finance accessible; she has authored books and done many investigative stories exposing the illegal shahtoosh and ivory trade and the elephant massacre in Orissa; she edits the journal Tigerlink; she lobbies with governments, media on conservation issues; she is part of several wildlife committees and recipient of the Carl Zeiss Award for excellence in networking and engaging the public at large for the cause of wildlife conservation, as well as the Sanctuary Asia Wildlife Service award for in-depth and consistent coverage of conservation issues.

She is the voice of the voiceless fauna and thinks from their point of view. She believes that they have as much right to live and die in dignity as any human being does. They were born free. They should live free.

She has been inspired by Rachel Carson’s seminal work Silent Spring that sparked the environment movement as we know it today. "She showed the world what pesticides have poisoned our world--the presence of toxic chemicals in water and on land, in our soil and food, and its impact on other creatures of the earth. Rachel warned of the presence of DDT in mother’s milk because of it. She faced the wrath of the pesticide industry, but her work resulted in the banning of DDT and setting up of environment regulations. Rachel Carson showed the world the power of the pen, and what one woman can do to change the world," says Prerna.

Dr Jane Goodall is another one of her heros. She is the world’s foremost primatologist and conservationist who went into the jungles of Africa to study wild chimpanzees s in 1960. Her study and books changed the way we looked at our next of kin. "I am inspired by all those women who fight against all odds to stand up for their rights, such as Bhanwari Devi, gang raped by the upper-castes in a village in India risked her life and faced social boycott to fight for justice and bring her rapists to book; my help who works double shift to educate her daughter even though she faces the ire of her husband who believes that women don’t need education; and my mother who changed lives around her simply by being kind and always lending a helping hand to anyone in need."

A sense of passion and conviction - a sense of ‘I believe' is what it takes to succeed in life, according to her. "It is when you believe in something, that you find the courage to follow your convictions, in spite of the odds. When I started to write (I worked for a national newspaper writing on films, shopping, fashion, theater) on wildlife and conservation issues, the editor scoffed. No one would read that stuff; do it in your own time, with your own resources he said. There was little room for environment in popular press then, but I persisted, thought of new ways to present a story, packaged it well. Got meaty stuff: essentially gave the editor little choice. The stories made it to page one and the editor of a rival daily said they now had a to employ an environment reporter too." That is the power of one's conviction!

She also says that you have to empower others around you and recognize their skills and expertise, tap it, encourage it. Knowledge is meant to be shared, not locked in, or used for personal glory. There are no set formulas for success except hard work and that little ‘extra’ something that you put in. Working with others as a team is another essential aspect to success. There are bound to be differences, divergent viewpoints, but strength lies in unity. Half-hearted work gets you nowhere - put in your best, do your best and you cannot go wrong.

"I never give up! In my line of work—conservation—there are many failures. In times of despair, I liken it to that of a onco-surgeon: You do your bit that might delay the inevitable, but more often than not, you lose the battle - the cancer of greed will ravage the forest. Even if you lobby and campaign against a road cutting into tiger habitat, it may still happen. It’s a murky battle; you are up against big business, politicians-there are powerful lobbies at work. But you don’t give up… you battle on. For somewhere, sometimes without even knowing it, you will have made a difference. And that one success that you had makes it worthwhile. An issue I raised on frontline staff not getting wages in a tiger reserve resulted eventually on funds being released for the reserve.

"I was the first journalist (no official had been in either) to go into Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Orissa after it was the attacked by Naxals and draw attention to it. Following it up with other efforts, by a lot of people, resulted it it has been taken up us a special initiative by central government, and today, inspite of many problems, the park has seen some positive changes. A story that focused on tourism infrastructure acted as an impetus for a survey around tiger reserves to study the impact of tourism on tigers and their habitat. Currently, guidelines and rules for tourism around wildlife habitats. This is what makes it all worthwhile, the small changes that you can help make. And not just in some concrete action, but also in the way of thinking. The cause is greater than the self."

If she had to do anything differently in her life, she says she would have written a diary. "I get lazy by the end of the day. I get tired of the battles, and putting pen to paper (again!) and have so much of the wonderful things I did, the places I have seen, the people I have met...is lost."

On a lighter note, she says in Julie Andrews words: I have confidence in me! And in what I do - that is her superpower! As a 15-year-old, she did not know what direction her life would take and didn’t have any elaborate plans. She just knew she loved animals. It was this emotive connect and a strong sense of injustice she felt on their behalf that led her up this path. She is glad that she didn’t plan her life that let her follow her heart, even though it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. "On the other hand, it would have been good if I had aspired for more, realised the potential and the potential of what is possible with hard work, and courage. This is something most girls need to know. Maybe I would have used the opportunities I had and not passed them over and I would have told myself to have more fun, I was too serious a teen!"

She feels in the next 30 years, her job is just going to get more difficult. With a rapidly expanding population and raised aspiration and lifestyles, the threats to wildlife and pressures on its habitat are accelerating by the day. But she pins her hope on the growing army of young crusaders who understand the urgency. "They are the inheritors of the earth and they are working in myriad, wondrous ways to help heal the world. A child took up odd jobs, shoe polishing and car washing included to donate to tiger conservation, another has set up a website to acquaint kids her age (around ten) with environment issues."

She feels that the younger generation has a lot to offer and from them she has learnt to take more risks and occasionally, to throw caution to the winds. "One child taught me the import and impact of what one does. I used to write a nature column for children. It was just something I did - at times it was merely a deadline to be met. Then I met this little boy who had struck in his scrapbook all my Nature columns and would eagerly await the next one. We talked about why the sparrows were missing in his garden and why my dog followed me everywhere and why tigers need to be saved. I had planted a seed, and I never knew it."

She feels that there is no right time to act - any time is a good time to act. The only thing to remember is to think before you act, but sometimes you gotta just act. If you think too much, you won’t take the plunge. "It’s like marriage, you know—if you think too hard, the downside starts showing," she says with a smile. "Don’t wait for others to act. Don’t assume it is someone else’s responsibility. Your act will be the mobilizing force."

She advises emerging social entrepreneurs to have complete, consistent commitment to their ideas and to take that idea forward at the right moment; people are the key so have the right people on board; seize opportunities; and invent new approaches to solve a problem. "You need to impact the thinking of the people, plant a thought process, an idea. Highlight issues—whether it is the hacking of the city’s green lungs or a road cutting through elephant forests or a mine pillaging tiger habitat and fertile fields—and bringing them into the public domain. And keep innovating, exploring each and every opportunity to reach your goal."

She feels in the next 50 years women will be working on much of the same issues as they are today. "Women have come a long way, but the battle for personal freedom will continue. I think one of the major issues women will work on is preserving natural resources. Women are the hardest hit when natural resources are scarce. Though I am mainly talking of women in the rural landscape, in the future this scarcity is going to cross the rural-urban and the rich-poor divide, it will affect us all—be it water, fuel. Woman is a nurturer and I believe she will have a major role to play healing the planet." According to her, the woman of the future will be more confident, empowered and in more key leadership positions and governance.

When the world gets too much and she is overridden by thoughts of what the future holds, she has just one place to go to sort her thoughts and regain her calm to focus on her mission. "The joy I feel when I am in the forest, one with nature, is beyond description - watching a tiger or an elephant calf at play, listening to the sound of the stream, the robin singing its love song, watching a rainbow streak across a sky, a leaf fall slowly on the forest floor, a squirrel making a nest. I know then that ours is a beautiful world and I will do my best to keep it that way!"

Editorial, TigerLink March, 2011

2011-03-25T20:51:00.001-07:00

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.

World bank..and tigers

2011-03-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

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."

leopards

2011-03-24T01:18:00.001-07:00

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.

a tribute to Fatji

2011-03-12T21:05:00.000-08:00

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

The tiger is fighting for space..must it beg for funds too?

2011-02-16T17:19:00.001-08:00

Rohan's cartoon above appeared with this column in The Sunday Guardian dated Feb 13, 2011

It was at a private function celebrating the tiger, and its deep association in India’s religion and culture that Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia spoke about his wondrous encounter with the tiger in Ranthambhore. The Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh was present as well, and he seized the moment, pointing out the amazing picture of five tigers that graced the wall, “those tigers are sitting on a minefield, “ said he, or words to that effect, with no less than 40 or so mines fringing their reserve (Tadoba). Point made, obliquely, on the raging ‘go-no go’ debate on coal, he went onto to other matters. There is an imperative stressed, to relocate villages, purely on a voluntary basis from core critical tiger habitats. This was one of the major recommendations of the PM appointed Tiger Task Force. Tigers need inviolate areas to breed. People want to shift out, it was a difficult life inside the forests, away from the mainstream, and they must be given the best incentive to do so. The central government offers an enhanced package now for rehabilitation. But, appealed Jairam, they need the funds to take this forward, and a bigger budget from the Planning Commission. To make it happen. To save tigers.Evidently, the deputy chairman wasn’t listening. When the budget for the current financial year came in, it was a shock. For the year 2011-2012, the National Tiger Conservation Authority got a mere Rs 150 crores as against the expected 700 crore. If it weren’t so tragic you would hear me laughing. Think about it: The opening ceremony of the Common Wealth Games (our national shame) was just about the same amount. The budget has been on a steady decline: 194 crores in 2010-11 as against Rs 204 crore that they received in the financial year 2009-2010. Since its inception in 1973, Project Tiger has got about 800 crore. Even within the environment ministry, the Mission Clean Ganga got Rs 500 for 2010-11—a noble mission, but till now, its clearly been money down the drain. The Prime Minister of India has reiterated India’s commitment to save the tiger, time and again. Why isn’t that reflected in policies, actions? Why is it that the government repeatedly lets down the tiger, be it the matter of the expansion of highways that cuts into crucial tiger habitat-a mere one or two per cent of India—or King Coal ripping apart forests. The tiger-and its defenders--must battle for every inch of space. Now, it appears the tiger must beg for money, too. From India, the world’s next economic superpower. There is a pressing need for Rs 5,000 crores for the current (running) and next planning period ie from 2010-11 to 2017. For 2011-2012, the NTCA presented its case: Rs 1,100 crore was a must if they were to make a headway to shift villages out of core critical tiger habitat. The Planning Commission seemed to have agreed on about Rs 700 crores. In a previous interview to this columnist, Dr Rajesh Gopal, member secretary, NTCA said, “There are 762 villages with about 48,000 families inside core areas. The minister has taken this up with the Planning Commission and we hope to have sufficient funds to give relocation a fresh impetus.”High hopes. With the current budget it will be a miracle if we can just about manage to cover basic vitals like protection, habitat and crisis management. The relocation process, and conservation, has just suffered a major blow. The centre provides the bulk of the budget for reserves-the funding is largely the ‘carrot’ the centre uses to push the states on tiger conservation—which rests somewhere at the bottom of the barrel as far as priorities are concerned. With all its weaknesses and failures, Project Tiger has rendered an umbrella of protection to the tiger, and we need to make it a force to reckon with, not weaken it further. India has the maximum number of tigers, it is here that the effort to save the tiger took birth and became centrestage in a global arena. The world looks onto India as the leader in tiger conservation..but unless we show a steely resolve and put our money where our mouth is, that may soon be history.

for Rohan's 'wild' cartoons, check out: http://www.greenhumour.blogspot.com/

Going Green, Going crAZY :-)

2011-01-30T04:04:00.000-08:00

Among my new year resolutions for 2011, was “to strive to be more- (since I make this solemn promise pretty much every Jan 1st)-eco-friendly.”
It’s hip, going green. You would think it’s a cake walk. I lived in that dream world too, till i learnt better. I was excited by the thought of buying those ‘hot ‘green’ products on the shelf: herbal cosmetics (says who). And if they were authentic herbal stuff: Where were the herbs harvested? Was it sustainable harvesting? Who monitored if it was sustainable? Let’s say the herb in question is amla. Though grown commercially, it is also harvested by local communities from forests. Maybe a tiger’s forest. Of course, this provides livelihood, but the flip side is that human presence and disturbance in the forests disturbs wild animals like tigers. And such harvesting needs to be done in a sustainable manner. The same logic applied to the bamboo furniture I was eyeing.
Cotton was another fantasy:Natural fibre, I thought. How wrong I was. Cotton is the world's most pesticide intensive crop-in India it uses up half of the country’s pesticide. A cotton T-shirt uses upto 7,000 lts of water. The Bhopal Union Carbide plant manufactured ‘carabaryl,’ a pesticide used mainly for cotton. Oh My God..
Next thing I tackled was food. I bought organic dal, bran atta, spices, jam, pickle, oil (note-no meat, therefore no cruelty. Another thought: Is there organic meat. How? ) and sat down-with a clear conscience to enjoy my meal. But the label that caught my eye ruined my appetite. My meal had travelled well over a thousand miles. The carbon trail, so said the damn green calculator nullified the no (I assume) pesticide, fertilisers etc. Currently I am looking for organically, locally grown-and certified stuff. I am not looking at the electricity (web search) and fuel (physical hunt) spent in the process.
My friends—those that remain—call me a bore.
I don’t do Mac Donald’s. Mac is not only cruel to the cows, but is raising ‘beef’ for burgers has cleared thousands of acres of prime rainforests. Malls, currently the place to hang out, are a prime grouse—they guzzle energy and water; and represent the consumerist culture that is majorly damaging our environment and ecology. Worse, one in the capital was built over my favourite wetland where I watched migratory birds every winter, and another luxury mall stands over the graveyard of the Delhi Ridge. I crib at weddings-not because of the relatives overdose and matchmaking aunts-but the gross waste. Quickie parties or picnics are a no-no, it just means Styrofoam cups and plates. While we are at it-why is everything disposable these days-be it razors or cameras or undies--for that matter. Why is it that nothing gets repaired-if your refrigerator goes wrong, out it goes to the dump. Ditto comp, washing machine..you get the drift? The durables aren’t durable.
Back to the entertainment scenario: Films. That’s what I like to do. I usually enjoy ‘em. Most of ‘em. Some leave me cold, unknowest to us a seemingly innocent film leaves a trail of devastation. Finding Nemo, wonderful animation of clown fish wanting to get out of its glass bowl and back into the freedom of vas seas-had little boys and girls –wanting their own Nemo, in their own glass bowl—and fishing them down to toilet to grant them freedom. I will not get into how that shot up the demand for this coral fish, and how many died in the process.
I loved Three Idiots, but I knew the devastation it caused to the wetland where the climax scene was shot.
You don’t want to go shopping with me. Really. Try looking at a simple bar of soap through the green scope. Is it organic? Locally made? Vegan? Pesticide free? Does not have pal oil (primary culprits in destruction of rainforests) ...
Mobiles are a nightmare. I am attracted to the new, younger models, but my lust died when I learnt that creating cellphones was killing gorillas-by destroying their forests. It goes like this: Tantalum, a mineral in your mobile phone is mainly sourced from Congo, which is home to one of the most endangered species on the planet, and our close relative--The Mountain Gorilla.
Damn.
Diamonds are not my best friend. The bitter truth is I can’t afford them-but as I virtuously intone, neither can the planet. Mining for diamonds-and gold has destroyed prime forests. Some of the best tiger’s forests are being pillaged for diamonds-an example is near Panna and big diamond companies are snooping around reserves in Chhattisgarh. The greed for gold is clearing the world’s largest tiger reserve in Burma.

Point is, everything has a footprint, a rather large, grimy, toxic footprint, how do you know which is a wiser choice. You must have heard this one: Paper bag or polythene. The latter refuses to disintegrate and chokes the soil and drains, kills cows and marine animals; while paper is pulped trees. I use cotton (I know, I know) bags. Neither have I come up with a solution for Toilet paper or Water.
I follow all--ok, almost all--that The List (Ten Simple things YOU can do to Save Planet Earth) advises: Switch off appliances, lights, CFL bulbs, use low-flow water, no flowing taps. This bit is easy. But try telling your Help, “no flowing water while doing the dishes, or the clothes. I also gave her excess water from the bath tub (filled to a tenth of the potential) for swabbing. No polytenes, and waste veggies to be dumped in the garden. She left. And spread the word that Madam is stingy, she saves water-and uses rotten vegetables!
I am ashamed to say I saved the Help, not the planet.

published in The Sunday Gaurdian, Jan 30, 2011

Killing the tiger, not the conflict...

2011-01-23T03:44:00.000-08:00

Open letter to Montek Singh

2011-01-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

DEATH OF A WETLAND

2011-01-04T04:00:00.000-08:00

Okhla, a wetland transcending Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, is a Wildlife Sanctuary and an Important Bird Area with nearly 400 bird species—a little under a fourth of the total number of birds in India. It counts amongst its residents the critically endangered white-backed and long-billed vulture besides the threatened Pallas Fishing Eagle, Sarus Crane, Bristled Grass Warbler. At the barrage you could—if you were fortunate—watch the attractive Indian Skimmer skimming the water to snap up fish, or the mating dance of the black necked stork as it cranes it glossy neck to meet its mate. Or listen to the lilting song of the golden oriel. Come winter, and the wetland welcomes waders, geese, ducks, poachards, gulls, teals, gadwells. Surrounding the fecund wetland were open spaces—parks with trees where birds perched and nested; and residents strolled.
The wetland served another purpose, replenishing the soil and the water table in the areas around.

Not that any of it mattered. In our scheme of things, lifeless statues paying abeyance to past and present leaders (no offence meant) matter more than mere birds who have no voice or vote. Which is why it was seen fit to chop down over 6,000 trees and pour concrete over slush and soil to construct a Rs 700 crore Memorial Park honouring Dalit icons bordering the bird sanctuary.

It has been a protracted battle to save the wetland ever since the Uttar Pradesh government started the project in 2008. It’s curtains for the park now, and the birds. On December 3, the Supreme Court gave the park the green signal stating that “the project is not so calamitous to the (Okhla) bird sanctuary.”

It did not matter that the project violated every green law in the book: the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), The Environment Protection Act (EPA). The project also skipped approval from the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife as is mandated for a project that falls within ten km of a national park or a sanctuary, even though this was pointed out in an affidavit of the MoEF in October this year.

It is apparently of little consequence that UP has failed in following the Supreme Court order that mandates states to identify and declare Eco-Sensitive Zones around PAs which would regulate such projects which grievously harm the ecology.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests played a dubious role going around in circles, failing to take a firm stand--flip-flopping from an initial recognition that the park would be in violation of both the FCA & the EPA, to turning turtle two months later. In response to a PIL filed in the Supreme Court in August-end the MoEF said that, "The project's construction work does not seem to violate any Act/Law… it did not attract provisions of the EIA notification or the Forest (Conservation) Act."

Then again, in September 2009 the MoEF told a SC panel that the memorial park would have an adverse impact on the sanctuary and surrounding ecosystems, though there was no mention of the illegality of the construction at the sanctuary’s doorstep.

Admittedly, the court has given safeguards—trees closer to the sanctuary and reduction in the construction area. But where is the mechanism to ensure, and monitor, the safeguards?

I went to Okhla, the day after the ruling, watched the vast expanse of marsh and water, the storks and the cranes silhouetted against the smog and the concrete. Heard the song of the birds, fighting to rise above the roar of the traffic. The Okhla sanctuary clings on tenuously amidst the sprawl of urbanisation and we have added the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back by signing away its green buffer to columns and plazas and pedestal. As I watched the sunset (symbolic, I thought) dipping slowly into the horizon I wondered: Are we worshipping false Gods? Why do we fail to respect urban forests and wetlands, that serve as our green lungs and recharge ground water.

First published in The Sunday Guardian, December 19, 2010

Saving India's Tigers

2010-12-24T10:03:00.000-08:00

Read to know how the frontline staff works to saves the forests:

Budh Singh’s Tree

Meet Budh Singh, an Ahir cowherd. If he is lucky he will be contracted to stand watch all day, 20 m. above the ground, to give park authorities an early fire warning. For his 12 hour service he will be paid about Rs. 100 per day. And that often is all that keeps hunger at bay for his family. He gets no meal allowance. No subsidised transport. No gratuity. No medical benefits. No pension.

Prerna Singh BindraA thin sheet protects him from the blazing sun, a bundle of sticks fashioned into a platform keeps him from plummetting to the ground. He survives on dry rations and a gourd of water, but maintains a lonely vigil to keep our most precious forests from going up in smoke.

As global mean temperatures rise and cause soil moisture to evaporate, his job becomes ever more difficult... more crucial. Every tree in the forests he cares for is a store house of carbon – the same carbon that world leaders say "must not reach the atmosphere". In fact they plan to travel all the way to Cancun, Mexico later this year to find ways to decarbonise our atmosphere. Yet, no politician in any real position of power in India recognises, or respects Budh Singh's contribution to the climate battles ahead. This is why over 20 per cent of all the greenhouse gas emissions originating from India can be laid at the doorstep of ecosystem destruction.

So. While our nation's advisors scratch for ways to produce clean energy, gassify coal, and poison us with prohibitively expensive nuclear waste, they might find it more profitable to ask for Budh Singh for a leg up so they can climb atop his tree, and take a 360 degree look around at the clear-as-day solution to climate change that keeps eluding them. Sightless and visionless, our technocrats, bureaucrats and economists can, tragically, neither see the forest, nor Budh Singh's tree, where Prerna Singh Bindra found him perched one summer morning, protecting the Kanha Tiger Reserve as though his life depended on it.

By Bittu Sahgal, Sanctuary Asia, June 2010

Saving tigers in St Petersburg?

2010-12-05T04:18:00.000-08:00

Even as governments, conservationists, scientists, economists converged in St Petersburg for a Global Tiger Summit last week in an ambitious plan to ‘reverse the decline and double tiger numbers’; on the ground, the star of the show-the tiger was otherwise engaged, in a particularly embittered battle. Far away from the cushioned luxury of St Petersburg in a remote corner of the Morigaon district of Assam a young male tiger was shot dead by the police. The tiger had ‘strayed’ from its forest, the Orang National Park, and into human territory. It was hiding in a paddy field when the woman stumbled on the crouching tiger and the panicked cat lashed out killing the woman. A terrorised, enraged crowd gathered, turned on the tiger, who hit back killing a policeman. It was shot dead.

This is not an isolated case. You could go back a little in time, and move westward to Chatiabalrampur, a village near Shahjahanpur where irate villagers gheraoed—and almost burnt –forest jeeps, demanding the death of the tiger. Six people had been killed over the past month in the forests around Pillibhit and Shahjahanpur. The tiger was captured, and is serving time in the Lucknow zoo.

Conflict—the lethal face-off between Homo sapiens and Panthera tigris is a no-win situation, taking a toll on both man and beast. We are seeing fatal face-offs all across tiger habitats be it in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, UP or Uttarakhand. This is the reality not just in India, but across all range countries. I have just received a photograph from Riau, Sumatra, that you don’t want to see: Of a tiger trussed up, and slung across a bike-as dead as a dodo. He had a mangled leg, probably was entrenched in a steel trap. He may have broken free, but unable to hunt, it had killed a human. The tiger was trapped by officials, and died subsequently most likely, from stress and injury. Notably, this occurred in the buffer of a biosphere reserve that has been heavily encroached.

Conflict is rooted in habitat loss and fragmentation: Shrinking, patchwork forests push tiger into human dominated landscapes, and into deadly confrontation. The impact of conflict goes beyond the immediate loss of life and livelihood (in the case of cattle killing). It leads to loss of support for the tiger and fuels poaching. What we need is to take on board the gravity of the situation.

We really don’t need to sit in Petersburg to solve the problem in Morigaon or Sumatra or in the Sundarbans spread across both India and Bangladesh or elsewhere for that matter. The mantra to save tigers is simple: An inviolate habitat, sufficient prey and strict protection.

We need a sound policy and strategy to deal with conflict. We need to have constant dialogue with local communities, there must be a well- equipped and trained Flying Squads to deal with such crisis situations, not knee jerk reactions.

Core tiger habitats must be sacrosanct—and not crisscrossed and cut with highways and irrigation colonies—so that tigers can breed. Tiger reserves must have buffers, not mines and power plants; tiger corridors must be notified and accorded some protection—its rudimentary if we are to address conflict.

There was another tragedy occurred in the same week: A tiger skull was seized near Tadoba Tiger Reserve. Yet another tiger slaughtered to feed the insatiable demand for its bones, a pointer to our failure to contain the other big threat to tigers: Poaching,

Do we really protect our tigers? You be the judge: Insufficient, unequipped, unpaid, underpaid, untrained frontline staff man tiger reserves. There is no accountability, nor is there support to those who work against odds to protect tigers. Barely one per cent get convicted for killing and selling tigers. We do not even pay the frontline staff in time, while we pour millions— $1.4 million—in a fancy tiger do, to grandly declare our intent, many times over, to save the tiger.

Maybe these summits serve some purpose. Awareness? Or perhaps in raising the profile of the tiger. Or is it to convince ourselves that we are doing our bit. Thing is, the party's over, and the tiger's still dying. To borrow a phrase from Steve Galster’s superbly written commentary on the summit, ‘Let’s not turn conservation into conversation.” Lets conserve, not converse.

--

Voices in the Wilderness in The Lonely Planet :-)

2010-11-29T21:38:00.001-08:00

Crocodile tears?

2010-11-22T07:23:00.000-08:00

My response (published in the current Outlook) to the article "No More Trunk Calls" , on the massive 'rescue' effort to revive an elephant hit by a train near Lalkuan..
it was fatally hit, the article is basically on the treatment being given, the money spent to help save the elephant..
but hadn't the state scripted its obit by giving away the Gola river corridor..signing off the elephant's right of passage?

It is all very well for the Uttarakhand government and the state forest department to pour money and shed crocodile tears over the fatally injured elephant (No More Trunk Calls, November 15, 2010) when they have refused--inspite of massive efforts by the central government-- to acknowledge and conserve that particular area as a crucial elephant and tiger corridor. The Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India has identified the region as the Gola river corridor, but the state forest department has failed to conserve it, and willfully given away parcels of forest to myriad agencies. The Gola river corridor now has a railway line, highway, a railway sleeper factory, ITBP campus etc, blocking animal movement. Little wonder the elephant was forced to walk along the railway line..and was doomed.
Here is hoping that this fatal accident will be a wake-up call, to preserve this, and other, ancient migratory paths of our National Heritage Animal.

Regards,

prerna singh bindra

CRY WOLF

2010-11-21T02:05:00.000-08:00

It’s hot. Even though we are well into October the sun beats down on us mercilessly as we trudge through the scrub vegetation, trekking over rocks, through verdant groundnut fields into the valley of Mahuadanr. My guides for the day--forester Ajit Narayan Singh or his deputy Bachendra Chaube lead the way, slashing at thorny scrub and branches, pointing to a lonely hare that skips across our path. It is well into noon when we reach our destination , a huge boulder bearing the inscription ‘maand 1’ or ‘Cave 1’, for tucked at its base is a cave—the lair of the wolf. “Come next month,” they say, when its winter, that’s when they breed, here, and you can see them with their pups..”
I hope.
Much maligned (who doesn’t know the story of Red Riding Hood & the big Bad Wolf), and persecuted, the wolf has been exterminated across many of its ranges, worldwide. In India, too, cubs are smoked out of their dens, and then clubbed to death; or poisoned. Coupled with habitat loss and decreasing prey, wolf populations in India have taken a severe beating and are currently estimated at around 2,500.
This, the Mahuadanr Wolf Sanctuary, is perhaps the only one in India created to protect the critically endangered Indian wolf though I halt, ponder at the word ‘sanctuary’ which implies that the place is a haven, with the protective, benevolent hand of the state over it. But Ranchi is far, Delhi… even further; and Mahuadanr? It’s simply fallen off the map, relegated into nothingness, unlike the glory that surrounded its birth. The sanctuary, a conglomeration of fragmented, old zamindari forests, owes its existence to Bihar’s legendary forest officer S P Shahi. A keen conservationist, he first began visiting the valley in the early 1970s and identified Sarnidhi and Urambi hills as “colonised by a pack of wolves.” He spent many days-and nights there, observing, photographing, studying the wolves. “The valley,” Shahi writes, in his book, Backs to the Wall, “is being notified as a wolf sanctuary and will perhaps be the first of its kind in the country.” He understood the need for a deeper study of the wolves’ habits to arrive at effective strategy to save the critically endangered Indian wolf.
Sadly, the sanctuary has failed its vision. The neglect is appalling—staff shortage is as much as 90 per cent, leaving little scope for monitoring and protection. The few daily wagers employed have not been paid for months, a routine state of affairs. The management sits at Daltonganj, about 50 km away. The distance isn’t just measured in miles; the sanctuary is far from being on anyone’s priority list. Though Mahuadanr isn’t part of the Palamu Tiger Reserve, it comes under the jurisdiction of the field director. Officer visits are rare and there is no protection and management strategy. Why are areas designated sanctuaries when it is not followed up by any conservation effort or action? Even something as basic—and effective—as compensation for livestock killed is not being practiced. The biggest threat to the wolf today-apart from habitat loss—is that it is killed in retaliation. Given that there is hardly any natural prey, and villages in proximity, the dominant item on the wolf’s menu is goats and sheep. Speedy compensation helps ease the angst, and the anger. Yet, the staff is not even aware that there is provision for compensation.

I despair…how can we conserve this creature, as rare as the tiger? My answer lies in the impressions on the bank of the meandering river Burrah. Dog-like. Bigger. Well-established in the wet mud. The Mark of the Wolf—resilient predator, ancestor to the pet canine at home, and dating its linage back to over four lakh years…and yet, we are dooming it to extinction.

Appeared in The Sunday Guardian, Nov 21, 2010

(a bit edited)

Nice to read something nice about me :-)

2010-11-16T23:32:00.000-08:00

from: http://www.wild.org/blog/bright-young-star-in-india/

right Young Star in India
November 16,2010 by Vance Martin

When in India you meet with effective young professionals making a real difference in nature conservation, most of them have a one thing in common…they were inspired by Bittu Sahgal (see my last post) and usually worked and were trained for awhile with Bittu’s Sanctuary Asia.

Just one example is Prerna Bindra, a very remarkable woman. A professional journalist, author, policy expert, and advocate for wild nature, she has packed a tremendous amount in the last 10 years.

She began her career in journalism, born out of a passion for the wilds, with Sanctuary Asia. Later, she moved on to mainstream media, as she believed that the message needed to percolate to the common man, and to reach a larger audience. In a career spanning over a decade, she has worked with various publications including India Today, The Asian Age, The Pioneer, Tehelka and The Indian Express— penning well over a thousand articles on nature and wildlife. She has also written nature articles for children.

Prerna, photo by Vance Martin

She is courageous. Prerna has done many investigative, undercover stories at times at considerable risk to life, ie., exposed the illegal trade in shahtoosh in Jammu & Kashmir, the ivory trade in Gujarat and the elephant massacre in Orissa. She has travelled across forests in naxal (bandit) controlled areas like Palamau and Saranda in Jharkhand, and also recently reported on the naxal attack in Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Orissa.

She has written extensively on the Terai, traversing through Uttarakhand-Uttar Pradesh-Bihar to understand and highlight man-animal conflict, poaching concerns, rehabilitation of villages from critical tiger habitats, tourism impact and other issues in protected areas in the Terai. She has consistently highlighted man-leopard conflict.

Corbett National Park, photo by Vance Martin

She wrote the hugely significant article exposing the negative impact on tourism in the famous Corbett National Park, which eventually resulted in the intervention of the Prime Minister. She has also focussed on many lesser-known endangered species such as hangul, dugongs, bustards, gharial, forest-owlet, lion-tailed macaques, Asiatic wild ass, hoolock gibbons etc. Her canvas also includes writing on deforestation, impact of power plants, mines and other mega-projects on ecology and livelihood.

She currently edits Tigerlink, a journal which collates and analyses information on the tiger from across its range countries. This is THE publication for up-to-date information on the Bengal Tiger, which Prerna produces with the help of Aditya Panda and the support of the Ranthambhore Foundation.

Prerna lobbies with governments, media on conservation issues, to impact change on the ground as well as policies at the state and central level. She is member of the National Board of Wildlife, the apex body on wildlife issues chaired by the Prime Minister, and is also part of the Standing Committee of the National Board that is empowered to take decisions on projects/activities within, and ten km around, protected areas that fall under the Wildlife Protection Act. She is also part of a team of the National Tiger Conservation Authority to assess the Management Effectiveness of tiger reserves in an IUCN framework.

Prerna also authored the report ‘Impact of tourism on tigers and other wildlife of Corbett’ for the Ministry of Tourism, which has raised concern at the highest level, has impacted change at the ground level as well as proved to be an impetus to create a buffer zone for Corbett.

Prerna is world-class…she gives me hope for wild nature in India, and for human beings the world over..

Young! star! Jesus :-) Thanks Vance.

The T3, and the IA fiasco

2010-11-15T20:40:00.000-08:00

3 am. And a delayed Cab.Still reach airport, the showcase airport -T3 well on time. Wait at the counter. System does not work. Wait for 40 minutes. Ask IA about Raipur flights. Ears don't work. Ask again. Response systems and ability to talk also sees collective system failure.
Meanwhile, the boarding for Raipur flight closed.
System failure of response systems continue.
Flight missed, inpsite of reaching well on time.
Not just mine, but of about eight others... There had been no information on flight departure, to passengers waiting on flight.
So we are told to take tickets for the next day.
But at the 'Help' Centre the response systems again fail.
As do the network, and the printer.
Also, there is acute shortage of paper, hence tickets cannot be printed.
Please wait, you are in Q.
Meet many other fellow suffers-missed Jaipur flight, jabalpur flight, those who spent the night at the swanky new terminal, T3 ...as they missed a flight that took off right under their noses. They were waiting at the counter too..they weren't informed,
Finally about three hours later, we are 'free' to go.
But tomorrow is yet another day with yet another flight ...

Trade in Elephants

2010-11-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

Mining in Tigerland

2010-10-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

This is especially relevant given that the coal ministry has circulated a Cabinet note espousing the possibility of mining in 90 per cent of the forest area ( 90 percent of no-go areas) of the country.
The conscience of the coal companies is taken care of with the coal minister generously adding that for every tree cut, “companies have to plant three such trees. Coal India is doing such things voluntarily.” Planting three such trees-if ever done-and with some 95 percent mortiality does not replace a ravaged eco-system, an old growth forest.
The Times of India quotes that the Union government has decided that 3,80,000 hectares of forest land will be open to mining in the future. But the coal lobby thinks this is peanuts—it wants, by some reports, five times that amount,
Mining , and other development projects as India races on the growth path is the biggest threat to the tiger today..

Mining in TigerLand

The tiger’s most unfortunate truth—besides the fact that Man wants to make a meal of its bones—is that the ground beneath his feet is rich with minerals, and greed has
cast its eye on it. Overtime, millions of hectares of ‘tigerland’ have been diverted for mining, and the demand to open up more forest for ‘black gold’ escalates. The latest horror story is from Rajasthan. The states' apathy is evident in the fact that tigers went extinct in Sariska in 2004. A massive effort, and hundreds of crores later the tiger staged a grand return, only to have its guardian, the state imperil its refuge by granting leases to no less than 40 mines around the reserve. Tadoba in Maharashtra fares no better, with 16 proposed mines, coal washeries and thermal power plants coming up in its fringes—in addition to the 25 that are already operating, threatening to reduce the landscape into one big coal quarry and overburden dumping ground. Maharashtra has also thrown open the rich forests of Sindhudurg for iron ore and bauxite, granting 49 leases in what is one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots, and a crucial wildlife corridor connecting Radhanagri, Koyna and Anshi-Dandeli Tiger Reserve. Experts have minced no words in calling this “an ecological disaster.”
The forests of Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka, Goa and Chattisgarh have been ravaged by mines. Let’s focus on just one example: Saranda in Jharkhand, Asia’s largest and finest Sal forests, which has lost over 40 per cent of canopy cover to iron ore mines. Disaster awaits, with the big boys of steel ie Tata, Jindal, Arcelor-Mittal, Essar pushing their proposals. If these were to come through two-thirds of the forest will go under mines, and Saranda will be lost forever.
The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s vow to ‘save tigers’ as recorded on TV reeks of hypocrisy. MP has floated proposals for coal mines near Bandhavgarh, and the forest corridor between the Bori-Satpura and Pench Tiger Reserves. Six of these fall in Chindwara, a politically volatile minefield as it in the constituency of Roads and Highways minister Kamalnath, already at odds with the Ministry of Environment and Forests for refusing the expansion of NH-7. Incidentally, this highway cuts through the Kanha-Pench corridor slashing over 60 km of crucial tiger habitat.
Corridors are vital for the survival of long ranging species like the tiger. Mines in such close proximity will wreak havoc on the fragile ecosystem and isolate tiger populations eventually leading to a genetic dead end. Fragmented habitats also push tigers into human habitation escalating man-tiger conflict.
But efforts by the Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh to rationalise, and restrict the opening up of forests for mining has met with severe criticism, not just from corporate and concerned ministries, but even from the Prime Minister’s office, even as the PM reiterates his commitment to protect India’s national animal. For those who accuse the environment ministry of being ‘activist’ here’s news: About 90 per cent proposals put before the ministry get the green clearances.
The battle will only intensify given that the demand for coal is set to touch about 2,300 mt per annum by 2030 from the current 600 mt. With India’s main energy thrust continuing to be thermal power plants—the worst offender in global warming—development pundits fail to comprehend the import of such projects. When we pillage the earth on which the tiger walks, when we mine its forests,—essentially water catchment areas—we poison our water sources, and the soil, leading to loss of livelihood, huge amounts of displacement and consequent unrest.

prerna singh bindra

In the hindustan Times : http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/618224.aspx

there is a detailed note on this in the October 2010 issue of TigerLink.

on naxals and forests

2010-10-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

At a conference on Forestry Administration in Leftwing Extremist Areas, the Union Home Secretary GK Pillai accused forest guards of “collaborating” with the banned CPI(Maoists). The forest department was encouraging extremism. What the Home Ministry suggested, nay demanded, was that the department should help the police and other para-military forces in fighting the naxal menace.

It appears that the ‘honourable’ secretary has never been in a forest pillaged and ruled by naxals. Certainly not met with the forest guard they accuse of collaborating with the naxals struggle, more often than not, without timely wages, basic facilities and weapons in a lonely outpost, trying to protect our national animal, and the eco-system.

A trip to Similipal, the tiger reserve in Orissa which suffered a naxal attack in March, 2009 is recommended. There were 25 simultaneous attacks by naxals in the reserve over two days—communication towers were blown up, staff threatened and beaten, chowkis burnt, Mahendra, the elephant and an ‘employee’ of the forest department shot at.

One year later, the staff is back on the field, but crippled with shortage, malaria. They fight unarmed, having surrendered their guns to the police since it is a ‘naxal area’. In which case, why does the state not provide the risk-zone allowance it accords to the para-military forces and the police deployed here?

The staff is routinely threatened, morale has dipped, and the park in dire straits. In the absence of proper protection and vigilance, over 15 elephants have been poached.

There have been repeated pleas to deploy the CRPF to support forest staff, but to no avail. Not that it matters—given that the well-equipped and well-armed Special Operation Group deployed hovers on the edge rarely venturing inside the core areas.

The powers to be in Delhi could go farther towards the south—in the proposed Sunabeda tiger reserve, where Maoists gunned down a forest guard in May this year, and chained his body to the checkpost. Or they could appraise Saranda in Jharkhand. The list of attacks on foresters and forest property is long and bleak. One senior officer barely escaped a bid on his life last year when his jeep was blown into bits. A few years back a ranger’s head was cut off by the naxals. Interestingly, while the forest infrastructure—all the rest houses and chowkis and camps have been burnt and ravaged, the iron ore mines that gouge Asia’ finest Sal forest thrive. Is it black gold that is oiling the naxal industry here? This calls for close scrutiny. It is well-documented that trade in timber and wildlife derivatives has fed insurgency in the north-east, and other areas. The issue is a complex one with murky undertones and links. For instance, according to intelligence information, extremists are linked to the ganja mafia at Sunabeda. Ganja is grown inside the forest. Repeated attacks ensure that the region remains unstable, and largely unprotected so that business-as-usual continues.

Another criticism at the meeting was of foresters attending a naxal ‘event’, giving the unlawful group legitimacy. I am unaware of the particular incident referred—but when you are working—defenceless and outnumbered—in a naxal area, the thumb rule is: They call, and you go. Knowing that you may never come back. And knowing with even more certainty that you will not live, if you don’t.

The forest staff operates in places where even the police fear to tread. They are browbeaten, and their life made difficult. In Similipal, the naxals even cut fruit trees—a form of sustenance in far-flung outposts—and poured lead into drinking water wells of anti-poaching camps. Admittedly, forest personnel are not the main target. One reason is the mandate. Their job is to protect the forest and wildlife, not usurp the extremists. This is perhaps the only reason that the forest staff is able to operate-even if under constant threat, and at the mercy of the LWE. If they join forces with the paramilitary, they won’t survive. And our forests will lose any semblance of protection further fueling insurgency. They must be allowed to function, not just for the forest, but also to maintain some administrative functionality in the field.

The roots of unrest is the subject of another story, but it must be said that lack of good governance has ensured that people in such areas subsist without even basic facilities; even after six decades of independence and despite many welfare and development schemes targeting rural and tribal populations. This has played its part, as has the lack of focus on protection and the rot of corruption, which has left our forests open for plunder.

*this is an edited version of something i wrote on the subject. this was published in The Sunday Guardian. on 10/10/10

a million trees in Ladakh?

2010-10-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

here is what Bittu Sahgal has to say...and i second him:
Please rethink the idea of planting one million trees in Ladakh. This is an arid zone and artificially changing the ecology of the landscape, for which massive water diversion and care will be needed, will adversely affect this, one of the most beautiful, austere wildernesses on our planet. To understand the impact of trying to green a desert, you need look no further than the Thar Desert, which has been wounded by one of the worst developmental projects imaginable -- The Rajasthan Canal. This has harmed the fragile lifeforms, which had adapted to dry conditions and it has encouraged new diseases including malaria. Please. Leave Ladakh the way it is. Humans are amongst the least experienced "Gardeners of Eden". And nature is a very unforgiving mother when its wards disobey its instructions.

Editorial, TigerLink, October 2010

2010-10-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

A new study reiterates what we already know: India has the
maximum number of source sites and breeding populations:
The future of the tiger rests with us; India is the tiger’s best
hope.
So are we living upto our responsibility as the guardian
of the tiger? We have much to be proud of: India committed
to the cause nearly four decades back, and has set aside
land and resources—difficult, given the spiraling populationand
the race for growth. Our fund commitment is more than
all range countries put together.
Yet the crisis worsens by the day…and the Tiger
Doomsday Clock ticks on.
Here’s why:
The tiger’s most unfortunate truth—besides the fact that
Man wants to make a meal of its bones—is that the ground
beneath the tiger’s feet is rich with minerals, and greed has
cast its eye on it.
Tiger habitat is just about one per cent of India’s
landscape, and even this tiny domain is not safe. The gravest
threat is the pressure to open up forests for coal and thermal
power plants, in pursuit of a double digit GDP, never mind
that tigers, its forests, and water catchment areas are
destroyed in the process. Mines and coal projects have
ravaged the landscape around Tadoba. And there are still
more in the pipeline, inspite of the fact that coal has made the
region inhospitable for humans with high levels of pollution,
falling water tables, poisoned soil, water, air. There is a slew
of proposals for mines in the central Indian tiger landscape,
some bang on crucial tiger corridors. Equally worrying are
the highways, hydel-power projects, dams, that will fragment
and devastate tiger habitats. The much publicised expansion
of the NH 7 through the Kanha-Pench corridor slashes over
60 km of crucial tiger habitat, isolating and dooming sections
of India’s most viable source populations. The Supreme Court
has been silent on the issue for nearly two years, encouraging
the highways authority to bring the expanded highway right
upto the edge of Pench. The devastation need not be spelt
out.
Why this doublespeak? The government has stressed
its commitment to save the tiger. But the same government
also presses for mines, thermal and hydel-projects,
highways—even if they impinge on the tiger’s forests.
The cause of the tiger is not an isolated one, it must be a
concerted effort-taken up by the Ministry of Environment
and Forests supported by the ministry of roads, mines, coal,
power, agriculture etc. led by no less than the Prime Minister’s
office. Preserving our ecosystem must be a mainstream
issue—a preoccupation as much as a galloping economysimply
because on it rests our future. There can be no
economic security without ecological security.
I have said it before, and I will stress it again—
commitment is the key, from the state, the polity, bureaucracy
and the citizens of the country. .
There are other issues.
Man-tiger conflict: It is a miracle that the tiger survives
in a country of 1.3 billion, with their growing needs and
aspirations. This also means that tigers and people live cheekby
jowl, resulting in constant—and sometimes fatal-faceoffs.
But we still haven’t taken on board the gravity of the issue.
Our action is reactive, in response to a desperate, difficult
situation, usually to trap or tranquilise the animal and release
it elsewhere, or pack it off to the zoo. In rare cases, the mankilling
tiger is ‘disposed off’. But such ad-hoc measures lack
long term perspective. The plague of conflict is spread all
across tiger country and is further aggravated by degraded
fragmented habitats. Conflict takes a terrible toll on both
people, and tiger. Its impact goes beyond the immediate loss
of life and livelihood. It leads to loss of support for the tiger
and fuels poaching.
Why is it that there continues to be a paucity of funds
even after 35 years of conservation efforts, and much ado
over ‘Saving the Tiger’? Why has the situation on the ground
remained static even after three decades? Why is it that
reserves have no fuel for patrolling vehicles, to fight forest
fires or to pay frontline staff? Why is it that we cannot even
meet basic needs of tiger reserves and managers have to beg
and borrow to maintain some semblance of protection? The
point is: is there actually a paucity of funds? Or is it that
huge amounts of money is being poured on dead-end and
lucrative plantation and afforestation schemes rather than
the crucial task of protection? Why is the CAMPA fund—
hundreds of crores, primarily marked for restoring degraded
forests and wildlife protection, being allocated to the old
favourites—afforestation and plantations? And why is there
focus on civil construction works within PAs at the cost of
protection? Tigers do not need defunct check dams or fancy
watch towers within their sanctuary. If park managers fail the
tiger, how can we expect support from outside?
Why is it that we have not created sound management
systems and enabled protectors? Why do we not support
good, committed managers and hold those fail in their duty
(remember Panna?) accountable? Why is our frontline staff
highly inadequate, unequipped, untrained? Can we expect a
forest watcher, unpaid and unarmed, to take on well-armed
gangs of timber smugglers and poachers. They must be
enabled, so that they can be taken to task when they fail in
their duty.
Why is it that we have let fecund tiger habitats wither
away and die? There are plenty of examples: Hazaribagh in
Jharkhand, Shivpuri in MP, Suhelwa in Uttar Pradesh, Kawal
in Andhra Pradesh. Why are there no efforts to conserve
tigers in these protected areas? Why is the main focus largely
concentrated on celebrated tiger reserves, while the lesserknown
ones suffer due to lack of much-needed attention
and support even from the centre? Why are we ‘ignoring’
tigers outside the reserves-good breeding populations that
survive, for instance, in Lansdowne forest division close to
Corbett or the Moyar Valley near Mudumalai? Why is there
no strategy for tigers outside PAs, or efforts to take such
viable areas under Project Tiger? Are they the ‘Tigers of a
lesser God’?
Prerna Singh Bindra

Killing softly, but surely

2010-08-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

Spread before me is a grassland—a seemingly unending sea of golden grasses gently swaying in the wind, looking not unlike waves rising and falling to the rhythm of the wind. Out of this azure landscape, something, a bird, shoots straight up in the air some two metres high, but before I can catch and ‘paint’ the picture in my mind’s eye, it’s gone…then, a few furlong ahead, another one emerges, leaps, a hen-sized bird--shimmering black body, silvery white wings, that open to reveal dazzling colour. It’s the critically endangered lesser florican heroically, tirelessly performing its mating ritual. Every few minutes the birds’ burst into the horizon, not unlike tightly coiled springs, suddenly released, displaying their fine plumage in a flurry of wing beats. It’s hard work, I catch one repeating the exercise no less than seven times over 11 minutes before he slows down a bit, I imagine, to catch its breath, and mutter obscenities at the fickleness of women. He may do this yo-yo routine upto 500 times a day, whatever it takes to win the bride. The mate in question appears indifferent, preoccupied with worms, insects and other such delicacies. I am, however, enchanted at the grand display. So riveted, in fact, that I almost miss another grand drama—a predator stalking its prey. An Indian grey wolf, no, three wolves in swift pursuit of blackbucks, who take wing, ethereal in their flight. Blackbucks are the fastest long distance runners, and the antelope in motion cannot be said to be running, so fluid, so smooth is the movement, as they glide, fly over the grassland. They wolf and the blackbuck—actors in this melodrama of the wild—disappear, far beyond the eye can see, and it is only later that I learn that a fawn did not live to see the day.

Three critically endangered species, endemic to the Indian subcontinent seen in the space of an hour, all contained within 34 sq km of Velavadar National Park, just about three hours drive from Ahmedabad. Velavadar is a gem. It is the Montagu's Harriers' largest roosting ground in the world, and also hosts the grey Pale Harrier and the Marsh Harrier. I spotted, on the same day, no less than 3,000 common cranes, sarus cranes, the houbara bustard, lesser flamingoes, hyena, jungle cat. It must be mentioned too that in 2007, the Great Indian Bustard, which stands at extinction’s door with barely 500 remaining in the wild, was sighted in the park.
There is little doubt that Velavadar has incredible biodiversity value, and merits the strictest protection. Though it’s a national park, the powers that be have shown scant regard with disastrous development projects planned in the immediate vicinity of the park. Poachers kill swiftly, insidious development projects do the job in a more subtle manner and come guised in a benevolent cloak, with the blessings of the government.
The first blow to the park is from the expansion, the fourlaning of the state highway that cuts through the park. A note by the Assistant Conservator of Forests explains that “this grassland ecosystem provides natural historical perspective of the region, and on the other it harbours rare and endangered biota’ He has clearly stated that road will cause further disturbance, more accidents—the toll is already heavy with blackbucks, jungle cats and wolves being killed this year.

A graver threat—a senior forest officer called it a “death knell’ for the park is the mega-development plan in the Bhal-as this region is called locally. A Special Economic Investment region is coming up bordering the park, and the land proposed to be acquired includes villages Bavaryali, Adhelai and Kanatalav are part of the proposed eco-sensitive zone. Though there is a Supreme Court order in 2002 for notification for the Eco-sensitive zone, the government is yet to do so, no doubt to facilitate industries and projects within such zones. The investment region will bring about ancillary development—already on the proposed list is an airport, port and a thermal power plant.

The impact will be disastrous.

According to scientific surveys, most of the lesser floricans nest in the adjoining wastelands, grazing lands and fields, the harriers feed outside the park too-on locusts, insects and other pests, and thus are of huge benefit to the farmers. The Bhal region is one of the few last stronghold of the wolves. This region is also known for organic farming of cotton and an indigenous variety of wheat-chasiya.

Cheetahs once raced over these grasslands. No longer, the fastest animal on earth, is extinct. Now, it appears, the other wild creatures of Bhal may follow suit…

In The Sunday Guardian, Aug 29, 2010

@prerna singh bindra

Replacing ecology?

2010-08-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

DNA, August 11 carries an interview of Dr Asad Rahmani, Director, BNHS

Question 1, which pertains the issue of the Navi Mumbai Airport, which has raised grave environmental concerns:

The answer:

"Mumbai needs a new airport urgently as our old airport’s infrastructure has been stretched to the limit. There are several factors which are to be taken into account while allotting a plot for this purpose, such as closer distance, good road connect and infrastructure, etc. While we are not against development of infrastructure, we are concerned about the damage caused to the environment in the process of development."

And here comes the clincher:

I quote, "The stretches of wetlands which will be destroyed in the process of constructing the airport will have to be replaced elsewhere. BNHS will appeal to the government that ten times the amount of ecology destroyed should be replaced. There are several areas where wetlands could be planted anew."

My questions are:
a)So is Dr Asad Rahmani giving the nod to the airport?
b)Can ecology destroyed be replaced? wetlands replaced?
c)and would this view compromise the outcome of the BNHS report on the impact of the Navi Mumbai airport?
d) Is this the position of the BNHS?

I would like to know how does one replace ecology that is destroyed? Like its some toy or TV that has been tinkered with and destroyed by a child? And never mind if it is, we will simply replace it with ten others!!
This, coming from our premiere scientific institution?
Most of us are aware of the immense battle to help protect the mangroves, and the fragile ecology of the area which the Navi Mumbai airport will destroy.
The MEF, Jairam Ramesh has taken a very strong position on this issue, going against his own colleagues and in the face of much opposition.
It may be pointed out that the CRZ rules were changed --and by the highest office-to accommodate this airport.

The biggest concern is: BNHS has been mandated with the task of preparing a report on the ecological impact of the Navi Mumbai airport, which will be a decisive factor.

Prerna Singh Bindra

So, why can't we save the tiger?

2010-08-14T20:18:00.001-07:00

At a recent ‘tiger talk’ that I gave at a school I was questioned by a little girl of about ten: So why can’t we save the tiger? Don’t we care? Why then, is it our national animal? Out of the mouth of babes… I don’t know what I mumbled in reply, but that night two weeks ago, I couldn’t sleep, and somewhere way past midnight, I jotted down why I think the tiger—and other wildlife—continues to be in this precarious position inspite of all the ado about tiger conservation. Here it is, ad verbatim:

Because—and this I consider is our biggest error--we do neither recognise nor understand how crucial forests are, that saving the tiger is about saving the ecosystem that keeps us alive. Saving tigers is not a luxury, no, not even for a populated country like India. We need to understand that the loss of a tiger is not just the loss of a tiger. It is the unfurling of yet another strand of the ecosystem on which we depend, on which a large majority of our billions depend. It is about water…no less than 600 rivers and streams flow out of the tiger’s forests in India. The ancients understood it—in many cultures tiger is revered as the Water God. The forest protects us from a warming climate—neutralising over 11 percent of our annual greenhouse gas emissions
It is not about us saving the tiger, it is about the tiger saving us.

Because our indifference, and doublespeak, are evident in the fact that we consider it national pride (never mind that it is now our national shame) to hold the Common Wealth games, and allocate over 30,000 crores for it, while the total amount budgeted for Project Tiger since its inception in 1973 is barely 700 crores.

Because we do not hold their habitat sacrosanct. Protected areas cover barely five per cent of India’s land and barely one per cent is tiger reserves. Even this tiny domain we want to pillage and destroy with mines, super-highways, dams. There are many examples-of a dam that threatens to submerge part of Tadoba Tiger Reserve, the mines that eat into the this crucial tiger habitat, of highways that cut through Sariska, railway lines and canals that slice through Dudhwa and Rajaji national parks…and the pressures only increase.

Because even within these reserves, decisions taken are populist or self-serving. Like the recent decision to allow tourists to patrol tiger reserves. Poaching, and wildlife trade is a billion dollar crime second only to arms and narcotics. There is on ongoing battle that governments recognise the gravity of the crime—and have a comprehensive strategy to tackle it. It is not to be trifled with, even by well-meaning tourists. Would the government, for instance, consider taking tourists when patrolling a highly sensitive narcotics area? That apart, what if a tiger or bear, disturbed at the intrusion or defensive when with their cubs, attack?. The tourist knows the risks he takes, but the blame and consequences will be borne by the tiger.

Because we fail to support good, committed officers who do well for the park against all odds; and refuse to hold those who fail in their duty, as in the case of Panna—where all tigers went extinct—accountable.

Because the condition of the frontline staff is abysmal. The average guard is untrained, unfit, unequipped. He mans the forest alone with a lathi-fighting timber mafias, some of which are even known to have links with the underworld, or in naxal areas. All for a pittance, with the payment delayed for months, especially in the case of daily wagers who make up the bulk of the frontline staff.

Because we let crucial tiger habitats wither, and die. Endless examples again, lets take two: Suhelwa a jewel of a sanctuary along the Terai belt in UP is being destroyed—trees hacked, ‘game’ hunted, overrun by cattle, almost to the point of no return. Hazaribagh—the land of a thousand tigers—has been gouged by mines, and neglect. Forget the tiger, you would be lucky to spot a deer here.

Because there is no outrage at the destruction. Because we imagine the issue is far removed from us. Saving our forests and tigers might inspire us to wear batches or blog, but that is not enough. It must be a collective concern. Preserving our ecosystem must be a mainstream issue—a preoccupation as much as a galloping economy-simply because on it rests our future. There can be no economic security without ecological security.

@prerna singh bindra

Frontline of a New War: Environmentalists Under threat

2010-08-01T09:31:00.001-07:00

‘Amit Jethwa shot dead’ read the SMS received at about 9 pm on July 21st.. I did not know him personally, but I knew Amit, activist, and warrior for any ecological cause--be it the case of an elephant being treated cruelly in a circus or illegal mining in Kodinar bordering Gir or protesting against a shipyard that would impact the nesting of olive ridley turtles. It was a sleepless night, and I spent most of it trying to reconnect, build up history by going through old mails. There were many over the years covering a myriad of causes, most marked ‘URGENT’, most signed off with “Please do needful, and highlight at national level.” One of the first issues he drew my attention to was what he termed a ‘fictional’ report by the Gujarat forest department that said ‘wildlife like Great Indian Bustards in Gujarat is thriving (it’s not) and that Gujarat’s ecology is not in danger(I wish).” His detailed note contradicting such superficial statements was well-researched. Nothing fazed him. He rallied against the expansion of a cement factory bordering Barda sanctuary, which also hosts the lion, brought to light smuggling of wood from Gir, protested against encroachment on a wetland in Bhavnagar. He tired hard to get suppressed evidence of Salman Khan and his colleagues’ alleged killing of Chinkara in Banni in Gujarat during the shoot of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

One of his major fights was limestone quarrying in a critical lion corridor and its faulty, fraudulent Environment Impact Assessment. Amit’s campaign against illegal mining in Saurashtra was relentless. And possibly, he paid for this with his life.

Amit was among those rare beings who looked beyond their own narrow world, and put the cause before their own self. He cared. With him, environment and wildlife has lost a fierce protector.

Such incidents are common place in the Amazon, where the struggle to save the tropical forests has claimed many victims. Here in India, Amit’s tragic death highlights a dangerous trend of environmental groups and activists increasingly under threat and victimized for protesting against, and coming in the way of projects with grave ecological consequences. Early July, a friend called with the news that a young couple Kavita and Shiv Prasad from Syalna a village in Pauri Garwal were beaten up and stoned for protesting against illegal timber felling. Kavita almost lost the baby she was carrying. The police was not interested in filing an FIR, the hospital was delaying in issuing a medical report, and the couple needed some police protection—the goons were still threatening them. Could I help, did I know someone ‘higher-up’ to counter the influence of the timber lobby? A few months back, Debi Goenka and his colleagues of Conservation Action Trust were attacked by land sharks at Kandarpada-Dahisar in Mumbai while they were surveying mangroves. Conservationists Bittu Sahgal and Shailendra Yashwant were sued when they opposed the setting up of a pesticide plant by United Phosphorus in Vapi in Gujarat. Conservation scientist Dr Ullas Karanth and his colleagues who fought mining in Kudremukh National Park suffered through a relentless disinformation and slander campaign. The number of forest staff that’s has been threatened and murdered by poachers and timber smugglers is legion. The list is endless, and such targeted persecution is a worldwide phenomenon: I will only quote the brutal killing of two environmental activists who opposed mining projects in the central Cabañas (El Salvador) in December 2009. One of them, Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto, was eight months pregnant when shot dead in front of her two-year-old child, also wounded in the attack.

At equal risk are reporters who cover environment. So much so, that Environment reporting has been called the 'Front Line of a New War' . Reporters Sans Frontieres, the Paris-based media watchdog has published two consequent reports which state that exposing deforestation, pollution and environmental damages may be dangerous in many countries—including India--and has drawn attention to 13 cases of journalists and bloggers who have gone missing (probably killed), savagely assaulted, jailed, threatened or censored because they were trying to turn the spotlight on environment destruction. For instance, Bulgarian reporter Maria Nikolaeva was threatened with having acid thrown in her face.

I know where that comes from. A colleague was nearly run over by illegal miners in Goa, another faced dire consequences for exposing illegal encroachment. I have been threatened, detained and my driver roughed up by miners and ivory traders have vented their ire.

Fact is: the stakes in environment are very high and in an unequal society the fight to control fast depleting natural resources is getting edgier throwing communities and big corporates into bitter battle. For long, the perpetrators got away. Now, when projects with grave ecological consequences are questioned, those who uncover and expose the inconvenient truth put their lives at risk.

@prerna singh bindra
in The Sunday Guardian, Aug 1, 2010

On 'A Naturalist and Other Beasts • by George B Schaller

2010-07-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

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

nothing but pugmarks....

2010-07-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

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

Wildlife sans borders

2010-07-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

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

Interview with Dr Rajesh Gopal

2010-06-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

'This is not an office for clearances, our mandate is to conserve'

As member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Dr Rajesh Gopal has been at the forefront of the battle to save the tiger for nearly a decade. As the precarious fate of the feline grips the nation’s imagination, he shares the failures, threats and the road map India must take, if we are to save the tiger.

Only 1411 tigers after over 35 years of Project Tiger—the lowest number ever, has led to the belief that Project Tiger a failure?
The common perception is numbers have plummeted to 1411 (from 3700 or so in the 2002 count), that tigers are dying, everything is doomed. And that Project Tiger has failed. I beg to differ--Project Tiger is not a failure. For one, the census numbers are not comparable. The old pugmark method cannot be compared with the
new double sampling method which has assessed the spatial occupancy of tigers and other animals for all the 17 tiger States, and mapped in the GIS domain. The refined estimation method has given a realistic picture of tiger status. It also clearly showed that whatever tigers we have today are inside tiger reserves—the protection rendered by the Project has saved the tiger. What we have not succeeded in is saving tigers outside reserves --there are hardly any tigers outside protected areas. So, we are increasing the area under the Project Tiger umbrella, from nine when it begin in 1973, currently we have 39 reserves and four more in the offing.

But aren’t we losing tigers at unprecedented rates?
Yes, I am not denying the crisis—but the answer is complex. I would look at it like this—we have promising source–or breeding population in reserves ie Rajaji Corbett, Dudhwa-Katarnaighat in Terai or Kanha-Pench-Tadoba in the Satpudas in Central India, Nagarhole-Bandipur-Mudumalai-Wayanaad-Periyar in the Western Ghats, besides Kaziranga, Sundarbans and a few others. While these populations are vulnerable, what we are mainly losing is the ‘sink’ or tigers outside reserves. Tiger landscapes are amidst a matrix of land use patterns, which do not have tiger concerns factored into them. The quality of forests outside reserves cannot sustain tigers. There is immense human dependence on forest resources, grazing, development infrastructure, no protection, no prey base—which also leads to bitter, and fatal, man-animal conflict. Poachers capitalise on resentment fostered by conflict, and help the villagers ‘rid’ themselves of the tiger. Unsustainable land use outside reserves that doesn’t factor in tiger concerns is killing tigers.
Project Tiger is not just about tiger reserves, any conservation strategy must take into account the behavior and the ecology of the animal—how tigers breed, multiply, move out–which is a must for the genetic vitality and long term survival of the species . Tigers outside reserves are unprotected, they are sitting targets.
What I am trying to stress here is that we cannot save tigers by just managing tiger reserves, we have to think beyond that, at the landscape level, and manage the land use around tiger reserves.
The answer raises other questions: but first, poaching. Demand from China for tiger derivatives is killing tigers, but doesn’t our protection leave a lot to be desired?
China must work internally to contain its demand (of tiger skin and bones) and halt tiger farming which is putting pressure on wild tigers in India. We have an ongoing dialogue with them, and the response is encouraging.
I agree. Slack protection and poor leadership has cost us dear, we have lost tigers --and even led to local extinction. One initiative to address this is the Special Tiger Protection Force –that is being set up by the states with assistance from the centre. However, this will take time, so we must make whatever interim forces are required to ensure protection.
I think good leadership is the key factor which makes or break a park. Wherever there have been lapses on this front there have been sharp declines in population and local extinction. I would go as far as to say that in the Indian Forest Service weightage should be given at the recruitment stage itself to people who have a passion for the job. Merely passing an exam does not ensure that you have what it takes to save the tiger.

Conflict is an issue of serious concern
Managing tigers in man dominated landscapes is the biggest challenge we face. Man-animal interface—not just conflict with the tiger but elephants, leopards--is of very serious concern, a 24x7 worry. It is happening everyday—across habitats, Sundarbans, Kaziranga, Terai—people are suffering. There is crop depredation, cattle kills, and in extreme cases—human fatality. As discussed before, we need to understand tiger ecology, manage the tiger landscape, conserve corridors, have buffers, evolve crop patters unsuitable to wildlife close to reserve—as long term strategies. An immediate need is to provide for sufficient and prompt compensation. Conflict, delays in compensation nurtures animosity against the tiger—and retaliatory killings.We saw this in Ranthmabhore recently , when two cubs were poisoned, or gives opportunity to poahcers, as witnessed in the landscape around Tadoba. The need of the hour is to turn this around—that they feel benefited because of the tiger—not just in tangibles like water security etc but livelihood options like regeneration of forests around the reserve, or low-impact tourism initiatives which benefit the locals like in Periyar.

How can we secure tiger landscapes? Project Tiger has emphasised on creating buffer zones around tiger reserves but I understand state governments are reluctant to notify these?
Buffer zones around core areas are the filter between human and tiger habitats, and are imperative to tiger survival especially as man-tiger conflict escalates. Even so, about 25 reserves out of the current 39 do not have buffers. It is a difficult task. In our federal system the central government makes laws, the enabling guidelines, and also proves financial and technical support but ultimately the land belongs to the states , and the onus of protection and day-to-day management rests with them. Unless the centre and the state are on the same wavelength and the importance that we give to tiger conservation is on par with the states, it doesn’t work. For states to come on board, we need the involvement of Chief Ministers.
So, are the CMs involved?
Well, let’s just say there is scope. However, our minister (Jairam Ramesh) has made a lot of effort—he has visited different reserves interacted with ministers and writes to Chief ministers on every issue-be it an untoward tiger death or projects with a deleterious impact on tiger habitat. This has made a difference. The states have been responsive. The active pursuance of the minister had Maharashtra declare a buffer zone for Tadoba which had been delayed for years. Similarly, we had a problem of money not going to Kaziranga, Manas and Nameri Tiger Reserves in Assam. This was brought up when the minister (Jairam Ramesh) visited Assam, and the state has responded by not only immediately setting up the Tiger Conservation Foundation, as required, but it has also been given the due authorization to receive central assistance.
There are exceptions, though. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are still to declare the core critical tiger habitat—which is essentially denying the reserve legal sanctity. Or Simlipal in Orissa which suffers from so many protection issues—of late about eight elephants have been poached, there is akhand-shikar—ritual hunting and the problem of left-wing extremism but the state hasn’t responded to repeated requests to move para-military forces there. This reflects an insensitivity to tiger concerns.
There is constant pressure to open up tiger habitat to mining, highways.
To my mind, heavy infrastructural and development projects in tiger habitat is the most serious threat. Tiger areas are rich in minerals—coal, uranium, bauxite--so there is demand for mining in buffers and corridors. The Tadoba landscape is totally tattered because of coal mining—and still there are some 40 more power and coal projects proposed. NH-7 threatens to cut the connectivity of Pench tiger reserve with Kanha, and. In Nagarjuna-Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh), there is pressure for quarrying and mining for uranium. It’s endless…We can’t give these areas. This is not an office for clearance—our mandate is to conserve. We have mapped crucial tiger habitats and their connectivity in the 17 tiger states—these are no-go areas and are already very fragile. We cannot afford to stress these habitats further by mines, roads or any such damaging development activities, if we want a future for the tiger. There cannot be any clearances in these areas.
Tiger concerns must be factored in any development project in tiger habitats.

Isn’t the Project Tiger budget, lower than last year’s at 196 crores? And is that sufficient for your mandate of relocating villages from core areas?
Voluntary relocation of villages to create inviolate habitats is a priority –given that tiger needs inviolate areas to survive--and the central government has enhanced the package to Rs ten lakh per family. It has been witnessed that communities are also eager to move out of the forest into the mainstream. There are 762 villages with about 48,000 families inside core areas. The current budget is insufficient to meet this massive task, it is just about enough to give to tiger reserves for management and ongoing activities. The minister has taken this up with the Planning Commission and we hope to have sufficient funds to give relocation a fresh impetus.

But you won’t take money from the World Bank.
No. Because of their past deleterious record and because our priorities are not in sync with the Banks’ policies.
The bank’s Global Tiger Initiative is brought new focus to tiger conservation in the global community, and has involved many players i.e different governments, NGOs, India will not involve with the
India will be involved in the initiative only to the extent of building our knowledge institutions or using their influence to control the illegal trade in tiger parts. We have refused (will not take) World Bank assistance in any conservation project in a tiger habitat, essentially because the bank’s operational policies especially are in conflict with the current conservation policy of Government of India especially on the issue of relocation of villages and protection. Another reason is that the World Bank supported projects have had a deleterious impact on tiger habitats over the years.

Tourism in reserves has created a huge controversy with even the PM cautioning against intrusive tourism.
We are not against tourism but it must be regulated especially in heavily visited parks like Corbett, Kanha, Ranthambhore, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Kaziranga, Mudumalai, Bandipur. Number of vehicles far exceed the carrying capacity, they speed, chase and surround tigers, and it’s usually mayhem. Tourism must be fostered in buffer areas and phased out from core areas where disturbance must be minimal and the area inviolate for tigers to breed.
In Bandhavgarh, ‘tiger tourism’ was seen at its extreme, when a tigress was recently killed by a vehicle. Shamefully, forest and local administration is involved. NTCA has advised an unbiased enquiry and the strictest action possible against the offenders. They have killed a tiger in its den—worse, a tigress with cubs-so we have lost four tigers. It’s unthinkable, unpardonable in this time and age when we are struggling to save each one.
To get back, there are lodges (and other construction) on vital corridors, choking tigers. We don’t allow them to live in, we don’t allow them to live out. It’s unjust, and unacceptable. Also, the community must benefit from tourism, and the lodges need to ‘give back’ , a part of its revenue for the development of the local community. The Ministry of Tourism has taken the lead to tackle this problem, and we are working with them on an eco-tourism policy.
What do you have to say for the ongoing campaign to save tigers?
The campaign—such as the one done by Aircel, or the one taken up the electronic media currently is an excellent initiative. It has drawn tremendous public support. The communication strategy that we do not have, has been addressed by this.

What can the common person do to save tigers?
That’s a tough one—I am always foxed for a moment –you know people imagine they can go in jungles and grab poachers! And they are disappointed that they can’t! Seriously, though there is a lot civil society can do—they must keep the issue alive, be watch dogs, alert authorities to any intelligence information or untoward happening, each tourist who goes into the park should take on the role of a naturalist. Even consume less, be ecologically conscious so that impact on natural resources and tiger habitat is less.

The job is not without its pressures..what motivates you and keeps you going..?
I have been associated with the tiger for over 30 years, first in the field-Bandhavgarh, Kanha and now here since 2001. This—working for the tiger, walking its forest is something very close to my heart. Tigers are a resilient species—and respond very well to protection. So, when the interventions we make and our efforts have a impact in a tiger reserve..it is a tremendous feeling. The satisfaction is difficult to explain, or quantify… its humbling…

The threats and pressures on the tiger are increasing, by the day. So here is a question on everyone’s mind: Will the tiger survive?
Yes. I am optimistic. It will-and must survive. We will give it all that it takes to save the tiger, but our ministry(Environment and Forests) cannot do it alone; it is a collective responsibility between different arms of the government, the civil society and unless we walk in unison it’s going to be very, very difficult.

What is your wish list?
I would like on board, both at the national and at the field level, a sub-cadre of committed professionals in wildlife management and related fields, whether from inside or outside the government. The ecological wishlist is protecting the identified connectivity between the tiger reserves, good leadership, a crack protection team drawn from local communities and intensively trained to effectively counter poaching. India has a projected growth rate, which must be balanced with tiger conservation. The tiger must not be viewed as a negative, or as an impediment to growth. The tiger is India’s life support system—hundreds of rivers flow from tiger reserves, and its forests are a shield against climate change impacts.
-----------------------
An edited version of the interview appeared in Mint, June 29, 2010
http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/28195501/Reserves-alone-cannot-save-tig.html?atype=tp

@prerna singh bindra, 2010

An artist's impression

2010-06-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

Rohan uses his wonderful skills--a deft hand, and good humour-cartoons and art to spread the green message. A good example of how each one of us can contribute by using our skills for the cause. This is his impression of me:-) Thanks, Rohan.

All creatures great and small....

2010-06-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

Large animal extinctions—the fall of the cheetah, the slow fading of the tiger, the plight of the elephant make it to the headlines, perhaps even enter our conscience, but how many are aware of the devastation closer home…the loss of nature in our immediate surroundings?

Spring just passed us by. It was a silent spring, colourless—largely devoid of bird song, the brilliance of butterflies, the buzz of bees--‘smaller beings’, no less important in the ecological scheme of things than the tiger.

I remember a time not too long ago when there were peacocks in my backyard— racous males and broody hens whose eggs I keep a protective eye over, bunking school in the hope of catching the eggs hatch. I witnessed the momentous birth, and so felt personally responsible for their well-being. Peacocks were just part of the animals in my sanctuary- there was the rare partridge, parakeets were aplenty and in symphony with the babblers and lapwings were so noisy we couldn’t hear ourselves think. Sparrows were a nuisance; their irksome—but charming-presence ensured that fans with their murderous intent couldn’t be switched on. Langurs dropped by for water–and any handouts we cared to give, sun birds flittered over the hibiscus flowers, the baya weaver industriously wove one nest after another, hoping to win over a wife with his skills. Squirrels stole fur that fell of the dog’s back, and food from his bowl as well, chameleons sunbathed, occasionally flicking their tongue to swallow a spider.

There were frogs that turned a brilliant blue in the monsoon —colours that they don to attract a mate; occasional snakes, largely harmless rat snakes that were left alone, much to the alarm of the household help-one of whom abandoned ship when he found one curled under his bed. One fine day a battle ensued between the resident mongoose family and a snake. We nervously gathered to watch the deadly battle, but after a lot of hissing, spitting and posturing both parties tamely parted ways. I do not know why and I do not know if we were disappointed, or relieved at this tame anti-climax. At night, we would hear the soft hoot of the owl but only if the jackals stilled their insistent howls.

We took all this activity for granted, the creatures were part of our lives. Any casualty—like a chick fallen of the nest was given tender medical care—usually a futile effort, and the departed soul accorded a tearful burial.

While ours might have been an exceptionally animal-friendly household, it wasn’t a big deal. There was room for all God’s creatures—on land, air, water—and in hearts.

It’s a changed world now. Fast-developing and hostile to nature.

The peacocks don’t nest in my old house anymore, there is nowhere to lay eggs, and grow new families. Peacocks are ground nesters and are losing ground as construction and manicured lawns close in. Last heard a new block has been paved over the backyard, and the wilderness. The creatures of my garden are now extinct.

Construction is swallowing up, and cementing any open space and pond and grassland. One particular ‘development’ that hurts is a wetland I frequented in the winters in east Delhi. There is no trace of the wetland now, two glitzy malls have taken over. I feel sick to my heart at the thought of migrants birds flying thousands of miles from chilly climes to seek refuge, only to find that ‘their’ destination does not exist anymore. Imagine arriving after a particularly weary journey to find that your home has simply ceased to be.

Another thing, do not be fooled that all manner of greens is good. The fancy gated colony in Gurgoan where I now reside sold itself on ‘landscaped spaces’, but it is a sterile green, lacking the fecundity of a grubby garden. The designer garden and exotic trees use huge amounts of water, and support little life. But, it is the overdose of poisonous pesticides that is killing the bees, the birds, and us.

The loss of green cover and biodiversity in our immediate environment is a microism of what is happening to our planet. Bees, birds, frogs, snakes are pollinators and pest controllers and have a crucial role in the ecosystem…the strands are which rapidly unfolding.

The Sunday Guardian, June 6, 2010

It is about the environment...

2010-05-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

I have been following with increasing concern the Minister of Environment and Forests(MoEF), Jairam Ramesh’s China gaffe, its near-fatal consequences and the myriad range of editorial comment it generated. There have been serious aspersions on him being a dragon lover and lobbying for China (disagree) to having grossly overstepped the line (agree). Rajdeep Sardesai rightly argues that the irrepressible minister's indiscretion pales in significance when compared to “monumental corruption in the political class” where Thiru A Raja gets away with a murky scam of no less than Rs 60,000 crores a fact also stressed by Shobha Narayan in Mint. Narayan makes a case for “men who speak their mind” (agree), while the ebullient Shobhaa De wants him around for the sex-appeal quotient he adds to the parliament (no comment!).

The gravity of Jairam’s gaffe has been debated enough.
I would put things in a different perspective. There is little doubting that the minister seriously spoke out of turn, but is that the real issue, or is there is a bigger game at play? I have been watching the clamour against the minister grow louder as his ministry withheld environment clearances for projects which would have had grave ecological impacts. He stood firm that development projects had to face green scrutiny, a comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment as required by law—and if they did not come up trumps, they had to face the consequences. Jairam stressed repeatedly that economic growth is an imperative but must be in tandem with, not at the cost of, ecological security. Incidentally, that's his job as the Minister for Environment and Forests. One wonders if the Minister of Industry would be crucified for promoting industries, or the mines minister taken to task for increasing production of minerals.
The battle is over clearances, with many ministries—road, power, coal, mines, water resources etc upset at their projects facing the green hurdle. Much has been made in the press about this, some media going to the extent of calling this ‘green terror’, leading one to conclude, naturally, that most projects are being held ransom to the whims of the MoEF. On the contrary. Currently, over 85 per cent of projects sail through environment ‘hurdles’, and over 95 per cent get forest clearances. As a writer focusing on conservation, my question is: Why such a high proportion of clearances?
Of course the MoEF in the past year has given a resounding refusal to some projects—one being the National Highway 7 which caused much ire. The expansion of this highway will cut through the crucial Kanha-Pench tiger corridor. Scientists warn that if fragmented, the future of the tiger in this landscape—one among four most vital tiger habitats in the country—is doomed. The expansion of the NH 37 has been refused because it circumvents Kaziranga National Park, which hosts the only viable population of the greater one-horned rhinoceros and has the highest tiger density in the world. The ministry also said no to powerful groups like Adani for a mine bordering Tadoba. In this, the MoEF was only following its mandate of saving the national animal-to which the Prime Minister has asserted his commitment, besides having the support across political parties and being an issue of increasing public concern. At the same time, the MoEF gave the go ahead for 35 roads, most in Arunachal, cutting through extremely rich ecosystems-the eastern Himalayas, identified as one of the top 25 biodiversity hotspots of the world.
Some projects—i.e mining in Goa or even the contentious Athirapally dam in Kerala have been stalled due to fraudulent environment assessment reports and more importantly in the face of severe opposition from local people who feared the impacts on their health and livelihood. The ministry has trod on many a political toe and upset big businesses—a recent example being the (failed) attempt to stall construction on the Maheshwar dam because of unsatisfactory rehabilitation of the oustees. Out of 22 submergence villages relief and rehabilitation has taken place in only one causing a political uproar—it’s a BJP state—and some sections of the press to label him a ‘green terrorist’.
So how green is the minister? Gaurav Sharma in d-sector.org says not really. In the first six months of Ramesh's tenure (May 22-December 31) 13,642.99 hectares of forest land was cleared. Considerably less than his predecessor who cleared 597.52 hectares between January and May 2009. Interestingly, the lion’s share of the forest, 2202.382 hectares has gone to the road ministry which protests the loudest.
The point is, Jairam Ramesh is not a ‘green messiah’. He has simply brought some rationality, transparency and clear thinking into a corrupt, dysfunctional ministry. It will do well to remember that the task of the ministry is to protect the environment, not be a rubber stamp for clearances endangering the livelihood and health Indian citizens. India has the very difficult task of achieving economic growth without irretrievably damaging natural resources on which depends our existence--water, clean air, soil fertility. It’s a task that concerns us all, and demands our collective support.

Editorial for TigerLink, May 2010

2010-05-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to skin a cat.
There’s the obvious one—the gun and the trap. A fairly
common method, witnessed repeatedly, but the image that
flashes in the mind is of Arunachal. The cat—the tiger—
shot, tied to the stake, skinned ,eaten, sold.
The other way is lacing the food with poison, like in
Ranthambhore, where two young unsuspecting tigers did
not survive their supper—goats from a village inside their
‘sanctuary’.
The last is slow poison, pulling the rug under the tiger’s
feet, or simply slashing and cutting it at will, so the ‘forest
rug’ is rendered useless. It’s an insidious method usually
orchestrated in the corridors of power. The execution—the
destruction of the tiger’s home may be intentional spurred
by the lure of money, or it may simply be ignorance, or
indifference.
All across its range countries, tigers face these threats. As
does India, home to, and responsible for, the maximum number
of tigers. All threats are a worry: Poaching, conflict, habitat
degradation and devastation, and all are interlinked, feeding
off, and fueling each other. Habitat degradation will lead to
more conflict, which will instigate poaching.
At the risk of being politically incorrect, and given all our
failures, I would say we are better than most tiger range
countries. The legal framework for conservation is strictly
protectionist, even if execution poor. We have not allowed
for tiger farming unlike a Thailand or China, or come out with
inane policies which advocate keeping tigers as pets in
backyards to save them like Indonesia (details inside). We
fight like a tiger for our tigers in international fora, and have
dug our heels and not allowed the World Bank with its
destructive footprint on tiger habitat to seduce us to partner
them in their ‘save tiger’ initiative.
Yet, we have allowed for a Sariska and a Panna to happen.
We continue to sign away tiger habitats for highways, power
projects, mines. The battle for forest clearances hit the
headlines this season. It was not unlike war: Ministry of
Roads vs Ministry of Environment & Forest, Ministry of
Coal vs Ministry of Environment & forest, Power vs
Environment & Forest... and so on. In an earlier interview
Jairam told me "At times I feel I am fighting a lonely battle.
Ecological security should be the overriding concern of
everyone not just my ministry, but unfortunately, it’s not.
The odds are tremendous against anyone trying to do
anything right and rational when it comes to the environment
and forests."
The bitter debate was not for some obscure forest, but
objections are being raised to a firm refusal to allow a highway
expansion on a critical tiger corridor (Kanha-Pench), or a
mine that ate into Tadoba, a crucial source population of
tigers.
Why are we still fighting for every inch of the tiger’s habitat?
In April this year, the Prime Minister of India wrote to
Chief Ministers of three key tiger states, Madhya Pradesh,
Uttarakhand and Maharashtra urging them to protect tigers,
regulate commercial and tourism interests impinging on tiger
habitat and to notify buffers. Yet on the other hand his
government is on this relentless path of growth, which has
little room for green or tiger concerns. There is simply no
sync between the different arms of the government—while
one vows to save the tiger, the other uses fair means or foul
to open up vital wild habitats for mines, highways, hydroprojects
etc.
At a press conference, the Minister for Environment and
Forest Jairam Ramesh said that currently more than 95 per
cent of projects get environment clearances and 85 per cent
sail through forest clearance. Then, what is all the fuss
about? I was intrigued to note that Gaurav Sharma writes in
d-sector.org that in the first six months of the current
minister’s tenure (May 22-December 31) 13,642.99 hectares
of forest were cleared—the maximum share going to roads
ministry, which protests the loudest. In comparison, between
January and June 2009 clearances amounted to about 7,500
hectares. I wonder what that tells us.
To his credit, even in the face of such massive opposition,
Jairam maintained that his job was to reduce the rejection
rate and be more stringent to protect critical wildlife and
tiger habitats.
We hope. For the sake of the tiger…
Another raging debate of the moment: Is tourism killing
tigers? As author of the story and report on impact of tourism
in Corbett that triggered the debate, I would like to point out
that a mad mushrooming of resorts is destroying vital tiger
corridors not just in Corbett but also in Mudumalai, Kanha,
Kaziranga, Bandhavgarh. Tourism infrastructure has taken
up crucial meadows inside core areas ie Kanha, Corbett.
Another issue: It has been scientifically established that tigers
need inviolate habitats to survive. To facilitate this, there is
a major effort to rehabilitate villagers living inside core critical
tiger habitats. It isn't an easy task, made all the more difficult
when locals perceive that they are being moved out, but the
'rich' aka tourists move in. As for tourism saving tigers, in an
ideal world yes, it can play a tremendous role in garnering
support for the tiger, but in its current form it is intrusive and
counter-productive, and must be regulated. Tourism has to
have a broader base, not madly centred on the tiger. Is
converging of 30-40 noisy cars & their hysterical occupants
on a tiger indicate respect for the animal? Where is the
wilderness tourists have come to seek or have I missed the
point here? Is paying Rs 10,000 & above for a ‘guaranteed’
tiger sighting a way to show your love for the tiger?
Yes, tourists do keep a vigilant third eye, but that has a
limited, if important role. There must be a balance somewhere.
The huge influx of tourists in Sariska could not save the
tiger...and yes, surprise, surprise, tigers have survived--
against the worst odds—in Similipal’s core where no tourist
will venture, or non-tourism areas of Corbett.
It hurts me to say this, but sadly, for most (there are
always exceptions-thank God) the tiger has become a cash
cow. Are we milking it dry?
Think about it.

My latest tiger story...

2010-05-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

M| INVESTIGATES

Dr George Schaller comment on the story!

Many thanks for the tiger article. It is really superb and should be distributed widely in whatever form possible. Congratulations.

What ails our ‘star’ tiger reserves?
Are our politicians serious about saving our big cats?
What needs to be done, and what can you do?
The answers you need, by Prerna Singh Bindra

You couldn’t have missed it on TV – the lost, bewildered look on
Stripey the cub’s fuzzy face as he waits for his mother to return to
their forest home. “Maybe she won’t”, the advertisement warns.
She didn’t.

At least, that’s the way it happened in the real world, last
September, when two tiger cubs were found cowering in a
field bordering the Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. There
was nothing ‘cute’ about them when they were discovered:
Bulging, listless eyes staring out of gaunt, emaciated bodies...
They looked like death.

But they live, if you can call it that, in a cage in Nagpur zoo. Their
mother? Officials believe she was the 40 kilograms of bone and
skin recovered from Nagpur railway station in November. She was
the fifth tigress to have gone ‘missing’ from the region in a twelve
month span; each left behind orphaned cubs, who either died or
are living in captivity. An entire generation of Tadoba’s tigers lost
to the wild.

* * *

Northwards, in Rajasthan’s Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, two
sub-adult tigers recently lost the battle for survival. Looking to carve
out their own territory, as young adults do, they had moved to the
Keladevi area of the reserve. (Only a third of Ranthambhore – the
national park area of about 260 sq km – is effective tiger habitat;
the rest, including Keladevi, is ‘highly disturbed’, containing no less
than 300 villages.) Natural prey is scarce in the area, so they killed
two goats. It was to be their last supper – the goat carcasses were
poisoned by villagers in retaliation; the tigers’ bodies were found
on March 7.

* * *

Most nights, in a remote corner of the tiger’s northwesterly limit in
India, you can hear the ‘Dholkhand’ tigress calling for a mate. Her
chances of finding one are bleak – there are no other tigers here, on
the western side of Rajaji National Park, which had eight recorded
tigers between 2000 and 2003.

There are tigers on the eastern side, including two males in their
prime who would do very nicely for our lonely tigress. Except the
eastern and western sectors of Rajaji are bisected by a railway line,
a canal, a highway, ashrams, and villages, rendering it virtually
impossible for tigers, and other wildlife, to move freely between the
two sides. In western Rajaji this has dire connotations: When the
Dholkhand tigress dies, it will be the end of Panthera tigris in this
part of the world.

* * *

Kanha in Madhya Pradesh is another example. On holiday in the
park in December 2008, I saw deer, a leopard, wild dogs, pugmarks,
tiger cubs. But heartbreak awaited on my way back from the last
safari. There was commotion at the gate; a cheetal skin had been
seized. I remember stroking the soft spotted pelt, running my
fingers over the bullet hole. Somehow it seemed a bad omen.
News coming in from the park was rarely good after that.
Protection hit rock bottom last year; the tiger mortality rate
increased significantly and in one range, Mukki, tigers seemed to
have vanished altogether – there were no sightings, virtually no
signs. The director at the time was even alleged to have killed a cub
in a hit-and-run accident while ‘under the influence’, though this
was vehemently denied.

I visited the park again last month and found that matters have,
mercifully, improved under new leadership. Increased vigilance
has resulted in a slew of seizures – two leopard skins in December,
a gang of hunters arrested with sambar meat in February. Yet by
no stretch of the imagination is Kanha safe. No less than four tigers
with leg injuries, possibly from failed leg traps, were seen between
November 2009 and January 2010. The presence of ‘suspicious
persons’ has also been reported in the park: Wildlife trade experts
believe that Kanha is just too close for comfort to Katni, the base
for the Baheliyas, a notorious hunting tribe; with the highest tiger
numbers in Madhya Pradesh, it makes for a very tempting target.

“One of the reasons why tiger losses in places like Kanha or Corbett
might not be so apparent is that they are among the larger
tiger reserves, where fortunately the ‘recruitment rate’ is still
good – there are presently a number of tigresses with cubs in
both these parks ”, says Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection
Society of India. The worry is that these critical source or breeding
populations within the core zones of our ‘best’ tiger reserves
are under threat, yet no effective monitoring or protection
mechanisms have been put in place. If poachers feel they can
target these areas with impunity, the tiger is doomed.

What Price Commitment?
If the situation on the ground is this bleak, a large proportion of
the blame must rest with state governments, which have not
prioritised conservation. The central government has set strict
guidelines regarding tiger protection, but the most it can really do
is act as a funding agency or a mentor – it is the states themselves
that must act. And they— well, most are simply not interested.

“Most states have failed to notify buffer areas of tiger reserves, a
legal imperative and crucial for the future of the species, since
they serve as a filter between human habitation and tigers,” says
Dr Rajesh Gopal, Member Secretary, National Tiger Conservation
Authority. Also, tigers are territorial animals commanding large
home ranges, and buffers serve as transient homes for young
tigers on the lookout for their own territories. As of now, 28 of our
39 tiger reserves do not have notified buffer areas. And delays in
notification are not, Jairam Ramesh says bluntly, “due to laziness
on the part of the state governments, nor are they accidental.
They are deliberate – to allow easier approval of projects with
grave environmental consequences, which threaten biodiversity
in these areas.”

Bittu Sahgal, editor, Sanctuary Asia, agrees: “The forest rug
is literally being pulled from under the tiger’s paws by state
governments, most of which indulge in tokenism. More than half
of all tiger habitats that enjoyed good health on the day Project
Tiger was launched in 1973 have vanished. Mines, dams, roads,
power projects and nuclear reactors are all planned inside or
within impact range of tiger habitats.”

Scientists say that a population of 20 breeding tigresses (and
about 75 adult tigers) in a secure habitat of approximately 800
sq km is essential to ensure a safe future for tigers in a reserve
forest – any fewer and the scales tilt towards rapid extinction.

That’s science fiction, given the ground realities: Barely two or three
of our 39 reserves can support such numbers. Nature’s answer
lies in tiger corridors – green ribbons that connect tiger habitats,
so that genetic vigour is maintained and source populations can feed other forests. Yet this vital connectivity is being threatened
by a slew of ill-planned development projects – for example, the
Human Dam project in Vidarbha, which got a green signal from
the Supreme Court in November 2008. The project will submerge
Tadoba’s connectivity with the crucial central Indian landscape,
which includes the Nagzira and Pench national parks; camera
traps have proved this corridor to be a well-worn tiger trail.
Such habitat fragmentation can have significant implications.

Already, the combination of a poor prey base and tiger corridors
devastated by mining have accelerated the human-tiger conflict in
Tadoba, with around 50 people having been killed by tigers in the
past four years. In the Sundarbans, the press of human population
and lack of prey base have locked tiger and man in a battle for
resources. In Corbett and Kaziranga, it is the unchecked growth
of tourism resorts that has blocked tiger routes. Conflict takes its
toll on tigers too – they are killed in retaliation by villagers, and by
poachers who capitalise on the grievances of villagers.

Mercifully, Jairam Ramesh has taken a tough stance on some
obvious disasters, such as the proposed expansion of NH7 that
would cut into the Kanha-Pench tiger corridor. His ministry also
turned down a proposal to allow Adani Mining Private Limited to
mine for coal at Lohara, on the outskirts of Tadoba. But these are
rare victories, as the minister himself points out: “There are no less
than 40 power and coal projects coming up near Tadoba – [just]
one has been refused permission.”

‘Rival’ ministries have also not taken kindly to environmental
hurdles being placed before some of their key projects, and a battle
has erupted within the government. At least three ministers in
the UPA cabinet are gunning for Ramesh: Kamal Nath (Minister
for Surface Transport – and ironically, former Minister for
Environment and Forests) is rooting for highways through national
parks; Praful Patel (Minister, Aviation) allegedly advocated an
Adani Group powerplant in his home constituency, which is near
Nagzira, another important tiger habitat; Union Power Minister
Sushilkumar Shinde is reportedly upset because the clearance for
the Athirapally hydro-electric project was retracted as it would
have drowned acres of prime rainforest. In an interview to M
published earlier this year [M: January 2010, ‘Climate Consciousness
and the Wild Agenda’], Ramesh admitted that he was not
everyone’s favourite man of the moment, adding: “Ecological
security should be an overriding concern for everyone, not just
the Minister of Environment and Forests. It should be as much
the concern of the power ministry, the coal ministry – and that,
unfortunately, is not the case right now.”

“Ecological security should be an overriding concern for everyone...”
The Prime Minister has said as much several times. Why then has
there been no real change on the ground? Why is the special Tiger
Protection Force, announced over a year ago with such fanfare, still
dysfunctional? Why is the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau neither
equipped nor staffed adequately? And crucially, why has Project
Tiger been allocated less funds than it was the year before? Its outlay
in the Union Budget has shrunk to Rs 196 crore in 2010-2011 from
Rs 204 crore in the previous financial year! Compare this with the
Commonwealth Games budget (ironically, the Games mascot is
Sheru the tiger) of Rs 1620 crore, or even the (failed) Ganga Action
Plan which bagged Rs 500 crore!

A reduced budget will mean, among other things, that the crucial
task of relocating villages from within core tiger habitats will
be further delayed. The central government had announced an
enhanced package of Rs 10 lakh per family for people to move
out of ‘sensitive’ areas, to create the inviolate space tigers need to
survive. No less than 702 villages await the move, but where will
the money come from now?

Endgame
Despite all of that, there is hope. India still does a better job of
protecting its tigers than any other home range country. It’s just
that in this case, ‘better’ is not quite good enough. It is in India that
the maximum number of wild tigers live; it is on us, therefore, that
the onus of saving the tiger rests. “The good news is that we finally have a new department for forests and wildlife, which will lead to
more focus and better governance of wildlife related issues. This
has the potential to trigger the change necessary all across India,”
says Valmik Thapar, India’s best known tiger expert. There is some
positive news as well from parks that had been written off – Buxa,
Palamu, Nagarjunasagar and even Indravati, which has been
under siege by Naxals for a decade.

What the tiger requires is simple to articulate – areas free of
human interference, plentiful natural prey – yet immensely
difficult to execute. In India, with its booming population (of both
people and cattle) and current nine percent GDP growth fixation,
ecological concerns are usually the first to be sacrificed at the altar
of development. People, ultimately, believe people must come first.

What needs to be understood, therefore, is that saving the tiger is
not a ‘luxury’, and the loss of a tiger is not just the loss of a tiger. It
is the snapping of yet another strand of the ecosystem on which
we all depend. No less than six hundred rivers and streams flow
out of the tiger’s forests in India. (The ancients understood this
connection, which is why the tiger is revered as the Water God in
many cultures.) Our forest cover also neutralises over 11 percent of
our annual greenhouse gas emissions [see envfor.nic.in/divisions/
ccd/GHG _report.pdf for more details] – it is our insurance against
a warming world. Saving the tiger, therefore, is not about having a
‘pet cause’, it is not even a ‘moral’ imperative; it is an ecological and
an existential imperative.

It is not about us saving the tiger, it is about the tiger saving us.

OTHER BIG CATS ON DEATH ROW

To those who believe that talk of big cats going extinct in India
is just a doomsday prophecy, I have three words: ‘Acinonyx
jubatus venaticus’ – the Asiatic cheetah, extinct in India since
1947, when the last three were shot in Madhya Pradesh. All India’s
big cats – leopards, lions, snow leopards, clouded leopards and, of
course, the tiger – are endangered.

The Asiatic lion is arguably the most endangered big cat in the
country today. There are only about 411 lions, all confined to the Gir
National Park in Gujarat. Despite the 13 percent population growth
(since 2005) recorded in the 2010 census, fears persist that an
outbreak of disease could wipe out the entire population. Panthera
leo persica is especially vulnerable to disease since it descends
from a gene pool of the same two dozen left at the end of the 18th
century. Experts assert that some lions must be translocated to Kuno
National Park, Madhya Pradesh, an alternate habitat that has already
been prepared. Unfortunately, Gujarat refuses to part with ‘its’ lions.

Even the leopard may beat the tiger in the race to extinction. For
every tiger skin recovered, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau
reckons that some twenty leopard skins are seized. India lost no
less than 115 leopards in the first three months of 2010 – that’s more
than a leopard a day. But it is conflict rather than poaching that will
probably prove to be the leopard’s nemesis. Not a top predator, it
lives on the fringes of the forest, preying on small game like barking
deer, cheetal and langur. With its habitat degraded and natural prey
poached, the leopard has been forced to set up camp near human
habitations, living off dogs, goats and small cattle – and occasionally,
man. This results in retaliatory killings.

Sadly, the leopard has no champions for its cause, no public
campaigns for its survival.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

1. States and the central government need to prioritise tiger
conservation. No compromising on tiger habitats and corridors in the
name of development.
2. Relocation of people from critical tiger habitats is a must.
3. Communities located near reserve forests should be made partners in
conservation. Their dependence on forest produce needs to be
reduced. Compensation for cattle kills must be paid promptly.
4. Forest guards require state-of-the-art training and better equipment.
People heading our national parks must be appointed on the basis of
ability and passion.
5. Increased vigilance and protection to prevent poaching of both tigers
and prey. Also, improving conviction rates for wildlife crimes –
currently at less than one percent.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Be informed: Know the issues so you can articulate your position
effectively. Use the RTI Act to find out more about how funds for
conservation projects are being allocated and utilised, or on what
basis development projects in sensitive areas are being cleared. As a
concerned citizen, you can even file a PIL against the many assaults on
tiger habitats.

Speak up , get organised: Be the tiger’s ambassador among your
family, friends, colleagues. Write to editors urging them to highlight the tiger’s plight. Get like-minded people together and form a watchdog
group for a forest near your city. Be a pressure group to push governments,
forest departments etc in the right direction. Write to the MP/MLA from
your constituency; let them know the ‘green vote’ is a factor.
Use your profess ion: If you’re a teacher, help your students imbibe
the lessons of conservation. If you’re a lawyer, lend your time to fight
conservation cases. If you’re a journalist, write on conservation issues.
If you’re a graphic designer, help an NGO design a poster or pamphlet.
The avenues are endless, you need to find how your core skills can be
leveraged.

Donate your time and money:
NGOs who are doing good work on tiger conservation include:
World Wide Fund for Nature (www.wwfindia.org)
Wildlife Protection Society of India (www.wpsi-india.org)
Wildlife Trust of India (www.wildlifetrustofindia.org)
Wildlife First (www.wildlifefirst.info)
Satpuda Foundation (www.ncsaindia.org/satpuda)

Minimise your ecological footprint: Everything that you
use impacts the tiger’s habitat – the water that overflows from your taps,
the paper you use, the electricity you waste (which may be generated
from thermal plants that encroach on tiger habitats). Conserve.

Read :
The Last Tiger by Valmik Thapar
Prerna’s book The King and I: Travels in Tigerland

See: The Truth about Tigers: by Shekar Dattatri (www.shekardattatri.com)

Tiger Tourism ?

2010-05-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

This is a quick response to the ire of those who say i am 'anti-tourism' and the 'hate mails' i get as author of the report on 'Impact of tourism on tigers & other wildlife in Corbett', I would like to point out that tourism infrastructure ie.a mad mushrooming of resorts is destroying vital tiger corridors which are critical to their survival, not just in Corbett but also in Mudumalai, Kanha, Kaziranga, Bandhavgarh. Another issue: It has been scientifically established that tigers need inviolate habitats to survive, so there is a major effort to rehabilitate villagers living inside core critical tiger habitats. It isn't an easy task, made all the more difficult when locals perceive that they are being moved out, but the 'rich' aka tourists move in.
As for tourism saving tigers, in an ideal world yes, it can play a tremendous role in garnering support for the tiger, but in its current form it is intrusive and counter-productive, and must be regulated. Tourism has to have a broader base, not madly centred on the tiger. Is converging of 30/40 noisy, hysterical cars & their occupants on a tiger indicate a respect for the tiger? Where is the wilderness you have come to seek, or really, or have i missed the point somewhere? Is paying Rs 10,000 & above for a guaranteed tiger sighting a way to show your love for the tiger?
How many of you have questioned resorts (and yes, i know there are a few good people out there-thanks)..where does the firewood come from? why is the trash dumped in the river? Why such huge generators belching away diesel and noise by the tiger's forest?
Yes, tourists do keep a vigilant third eye, but that has a limited, if important role. And there must be a balance somewhere,
The huge number of tourists could not save the tiger in Sariska...and yes, surprise, surprise, tigers have survived non-tourism areas too. In the non-tourism areas of Corbett, or the core of Simlipal where no tourist will venture.
Not that the forest department is doing its utmost, there are many flaws, which i, and many others, have highlighted again and again.
It hurts me to say this, but sadly, for most (there are always exceptions--and thanks God for them) the tiger has become a cash cow--are we milking it dry?
Think about it..

Death of a Wetland

2010-05-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

This is particularly painful..last year with some good rains, i had written on the hope of revival of Bharatpur...

regards,

prerna

Prerna Singh Bindra

A confession…this is not being reported from the field. I have not personally visited Bharatpur National Park, not recently anyway. You could say I have abandoned it in its dire days—I simply do not have the heart to witness the slow death of the wetland, once fecund and so alive with the call and colour of myriad birds. My memories of Bharatpur are affectionate, dappled with bird song. The wetland was alive, wherever you looked, there were waders, geese, darters, ducks, pintails, cormorants, teals, babblers, kingfishers, egrets, storks, eagles, owls, vultures... Here was not the silence of the jungle: Dawn was announced with the trumpet of the sarus cranes and the cackle of the peafowl. That set the tone for the day—parakeets shrieked, geese gaggled…you get the drift. Nights, you could hear the soft hoot of the owl, but only if it managed to rise above the howl of the jackals. Rare fishing cats prowled the waters, jungle cats surprised you by their sudden appearance, you could spot rock pythons curled up, soaking in the sun, nilgai and deer pranced in knee-deep waters.

This was Keoladeo Ghana National Park, a world-renowned waterfowl site, topping over 350 species of birds.

It’s all quiet now, and it is the silence of the dead.
The first sign of unhappy days ahead came in the early winter of 2002, when Keoladeo’s star visitor, the Siberian crane, dwindling over the years, failed to show up. Some took it as an omen, a sign of grim times. True enough, drought plagued the region from 2003 onwards.
Bharatpur shriveled up. Once, the Ghana canal was the park’s lifeline. It supplied water from the Ajan Dam, built on the confluence of the rivers Ghambhir and Banganga in the 18th century. Dams built along both the rivers staunched the flow of water to Ajan’s reservoir. Continual deficient rainfall in the catchment areas made matters worse, and water from the dam was denied to the sanctuary, due to agitating farmers and water politics. Local villagers demanded water for their fields, and the then Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, went far enough to say, in 2005, “people, not parks, were her priority”.
She missed the point completely; not understanding that denying the wetlands would mean groundwater for nearby farmers would not be replenished. The powers-that-be succumbed to political pressure and diverted water meant for the swamps to farmlands, repeatedly, over the years. The result was complete and total devastation. Matters improved marginally in 2008 with good rains, but the situation now is worse than ever before.
The wetland, accorded the status of a Ramsar Site is arid--no water, no grasses, no fish. The monsoon breeding birds and the migrants gave the dry, desolate park a miss. The Siberian cranes are already history. Painted Storks, so emblematic to the park have ceased to breed, the ‘heronries’ are a painful memory. Sarus cranes, who once danced in the hundreds, can now be counted on your fingers. Most don’t breed, for instinct dictates that their young will not survive. A few Common Cranes came by but took wing soon thereafter.
Lacking prey, the raptors have fled too. From the 350-odd species the park once boasted, the numbers have crashed to less than a 100. The park that saw hundred of thousands of birds in a normal season now hosts less than 5,000. Other species have suffered, too. The fishing cat has vanished. Otters are nowhere to be seen, and turtles,perhaps a handful, can be seen desperately thrashing in tiny, putrid pools of water.
The once prolific Bharatpur has become a graveyard.
With the wetland on its deathbed, the villages and town are feeling the pinch. Farmers, in bordering villages, lament the loss of groundwater, their borewells are drying up. And Bharatpur, which thrived on bird tourism, is a bit of a ghost town now, the buzz has died, and people are worried with their main source of income drying up, along with the park.

The only facile attempt to save Bharatpur, are a few tubewells nosily churning out dead, sterile water, which has no nutrients for the birds.
The government has changed in Rajasthan now, but the indifference to the park continues. A project to build a 17-km underground tunnel to divert water to the park from a storm drain of the Yamuna, part of an earlier Govardhan project, has been dormant for over a year now. The centre has actually sanctioned 40 crores of the required 56.2 crores. But the state is simply sitting on the money. Bharatpur is a World Heritage Site, but in all likelihood it will lose this valued status by the next year, unless things improve, or the Rain Gods give us a repreive..if only for this year.

Many wetlands around the country suffer a similar fate. Yet, one hoped that the famous ‘Ghana’ would somehow be spared. Not so.. inspite of its many aficionados, noone is rallying for Bharatpur’s cause.

Bharatpur, it appears, will die unmourned….

In The Sunday Guardian, May 5, 2010

Tigers?But what about the elephants....

2010-04-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

Stranded. On the terrace of a Pollution Control Research Centre building on the edge of Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand. It’s nearing midnight, and we have been here for hours. I am hungry, exhausted and the bones are stiff with the effort of sitting still, silent, as if we weren’t here at all. To fool, well, to try fool, the elephant barely ten feet away from us. He appears preoccupied at the moment—chomping on luscious bamboo, an ele-delicacy. At the same time he is alert, wary. A cough explodes into the silence--and the animal freezes, tense, then snaps his mighty head toward the source of sound, trumpeting loudly, his trunk probing the air…inches away from us. It’s scary, he’s angry and insecure at the disturbance. It exhilarating, to be so close to a wild tusker. But most of all, it’s worrying.

For he is a ‘problem’ animal, having strayed into human habitation—never mind that the elephant remembers it as a forest, and Homo sapiens are the original encroachers—having bulldozed the greens over with concrete. The elephant has been frequenting this complex that stands between Rajaji and Hardwar. I accompanied the forest staff who have been keeping vigil here every night to preempt any untoward incident, and to try arrive at a solution, to somehow drive him back to the jungle.

They are uprooting the bamboo, had the broken wall rebuilt, applied a mix of waste-mobil oil and red chilli powder—considered a deterrent—at all entry points, anything to lure him away from human habitation.

For, here he is doomed.

He may be slaughtered for his tusks--‘white gold’ that fetches millions in the international illegal market. Like the magnificent tusker shot just a few days back(Feb-end), one bullet each in the pelvic and pectoral girdle. Death wasn’t instant, it took the animal four agonising days to waste away.

He may be punished for crossing boundaries into ‘people country’, like the elephant killed in the same week in a paddy field, or the one in May last year who had no less than a hundred bullets pumped into him.

I look at ‘our’ elephant..a gray, ghostly shape, ivory glinting silver in the moonlight, and agonise over his future.

The issue is much beyond him, though. Measures to drive away this elephant were well-meant, but ad-hoc—nowhere a solution to the elephantine problems that loom over this beleaguered animal. His home, Rajaji National Park, identified as a critical tiger and elephant habitat, is heavily fragmented—criss-crossed by highways, railway lines, canals, and surrounded by three booming cities-Dehradun, Hardwar, Rishikesh, an industrial complex, villages, ashram, destroying ancient elephant migratory paths. The holy city of Hardwar is also an unholy hub of illegal wildlife trade in ivory, tiger and leopard skins etc.

The elephants of Rajaji have a Damascus Sword hovering over their heads. Indeed, as do the elephants of India.

Only about five percent of its original habitat remains, comprising fragmented pockets of forests. Elephants are nomadic creatures dictated by ancient instincts leading them to sources of food and water, especially in times of scarcity. But their forests and migratory paths are swallowed by dams, devastated by mines or taken over by agriculture. Homeless and starved, elephants maraud crops, destroy structures and occasionally kills helpless people protecting their homes. In retaliation, people poison, electrocute or ‘blow up’ elephants, by placing crude bombs in jackfruits or bananas, that unsuspecting pachyderms eat.

Poaching is a threat too. For example, in Orissa, the number of tuskers plunged to 271 in 2005 against the previous count of 363 of 2002. Currently, their numbers are estimated to be just about 200.

Yet the Ministry of Environment and Forests are in denial, yes, of course, conflict is an issue but maybe that’s because theelephant population is increasing. Officially, there are about 27,700 wild elephants, an increase of over 1,000 from five-years-ago. Sounds like action replay of the tiger saga. When we vehemently denied the tiger crisis, and indeed insisted that their numbers were increasing by the year. Anyone who countered the claim was crucified. Till a reality check revealed that only about 1,400 tigers wild survive—if that.

27,700 elephants may seem like a good number, but we need to raise questions. Habitats of both elephants and tigers overlap in most parts of the country. Tiger numbers have declined mainly due to poaching, conflict and habitat loss and fragmentation, the same threats that are faced by elephants. So, how is it that elephant numbers are rising? If anything, elephants are more ‘difficult’ animals, in the sense that they are require larger ranges.

It is worthwhile to consider the situation in Africa, where more than 4,00,000 African elephants survive, yet it is feared they could be extinct by 2025 so severe is the poaching pressure.

It’s time we did a reality check. Like the tiger, India has the largest Asiatic elephant population in the world. But it seems India has turned its back on Lord Ganesha, the harbinger of good fortune, in his hour of crisis.

The Sunday Guardian, April 11, 2010

Jairam Ramesh at the presscon on National Board for Wildlife (March 20th)

2010-03-21T00:56:00.000-07:00

On creation of Separate Department for forests and wildlife

It is not new wine in old bottles, or old wine in old bottles or whatever. We need the specialization to manage and conserve our forests and wildlife. The idea is not to have a top heavy bureaucracy with power concentrated in the centre. It is hoped
The idea of creating a separate department for forests and wildlife so that the critical wildlife habitats can be effectively protected and monitored:

But where, Sir, are the Critical Wildlife Habitats? They haven't been notified?

Jairam agreed. He said that, "even though the settlement of rights under the Forest Rights Act has been expedited the the notification of Critical Wildlife Habitats has lagged behind, indeed has not happened at all,. We have only gone on one track. States are defying the Forest Conservation Act.

On buffer zones:
States are delaying in declaring buffer zones for tiger reserves, and this is not laziness on their part,. Delay in notification of buffers is not accidental, but a deliberate design, so that projects which will irrevocably damage biodiversity and habitats, can be cleared more easily, to allow for proliferation of harmful projects. If buffers are declared, clearance will be more stringent and difficult.
Take the example of Tadoba—there are no less than 40 to 50 power and mining projects around it. (Of which only one has been refused). Obviously the state is dragging it s feet in declaring buffer for the reserve.
We need cooperation from the states.

Will decoration of buffer zones be with retrospective effect?
M B Lal said no.
JR: We don’t know—but I for one will not shy away from declaring buffer from retrospective effect, if clearances for projects proven to have a devastating, deleterious impact on the habitat and biodiversity, we are prepared to cancel the clearance. A classic example is the Athirapally project which had got clearance. We have issued a show cause notice to the Kerala Electricity Board, because of the opposition from local panchayats, the Kerala Biodiversity board, scieitsts, NGOs and the Kerala’s Principle chief Conservator of Forests—who has incidentally been with the Kerala Electricity board for ten years. There is enough evidence to show that it will do grave harm to the ecology and the biodiversity of the region.
On tiger deaths
That the number of deaths last year was unnaturally high, that we must expect more Sariska’s. We drew the attention of the PM that many reserves were in a precarious state of 16 other tiger reserves—and that we can expect other Sariska’s in the future. We also appraised him of the problems in certain states—like Madhya Pradesh, and the unnatural mortality in Corbett. And he has promise to lend the weight of his office and take up the matter with the CMs of these states.
Rehabilitation and relocation of people
Out of the 80,000 families to be relocated from tiger reserves, only 3,000 have been relocated so far. 77,000 need to be relocated, and will require a financial package of 8,000 crores. We have a current budget of 2,000 crores and the PM was appraised of this gap—and (on being questioned) No, we won’t be taking money from the World Bank for this.
The important thing is we are also looking at voluntary relocation of villages within Protected Areas, other than tiger reserves—this is equally important . the GOI will support any voluntary relocation from all protected areas, and will offer the same relocation package as it does to TRs.

On wetlands
Our wetlands are disappearing at an alarming, unprecedented rate---and they are crucial eco-systems. A classic example is Kolkata where a number of wetlands have been lost to real estate. We are putting in place a set of regulations, under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 to protect wetlands and hope to place it before the Parliament before May.

On marine areas
Most of our PAs and conservation has been land-based, and it has been decided to give greater attention to our coastline and islands, and the marine ecosystem.

Illegal mining
The issue of illegal mines also came up at the meeting. Illegal mining for iron ore and bauxite is rampant in various states like Orissa, Jharkhand, Karnataka..These have a grave impact on critical wildlife habitats, corridors—and also impacting livelihoods of local people.
On incentivising states
No, there cannot be penalty for states. I do not believe in penalties. we have to persuade, cajole, give financial incentives for them to preserve ecology and biodiversity. to protect the tiger.
We have seen that there has been no recruitment for field staff for years and the existing staff is over 50. so can the centre think of providing a special financial package for new frontline staff, for say a five year period. This translates to 500 crores over a five year period. , and yes, we are working towards how we can go about this.

Save the house sparrow

2010-03-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

Prerna Singh Bindra

Boisterous, perky, pesky house sparrows, once a common sight, are now rapidly disappearing, not only in India but worldwide. Rapid urbanisation has contributed to the decline in the house sparrow’s population. But the trend can be reversed if we are more caring

Most of us would remember a time when sparrows were part of our everyday life — there were so many of them that their presence bordered on being irksome. They chattered incessantly; they made our homes theirs — hunting for nooks and corners where they could set up house. Determined little creatures they were too, for once they made up their mind to take up residence nothing could dissuade them.

An upside-down lamp shade in our dining room was a particular favourite, as was the crevice behind a painting. They were up before dawn and no sooner had we thrown the door open, they would rush in,indignant at being denied right of passage and in a major hurry to begin the day’s work.

Their energy was tiresome to behold. As the day wore on, the busy little pair did not let up, flying to and fro carrying straw, grass and such other necessities that go into making the prefect sparrow home. Their beaks would be overloaded — one could have fed a horse and kept him happy on the amount they carried — and most of it would tumble out and mess the floor.

We made half-hearted attempts to get rid of the nests, but we could never quite do it. Their distress calls, when they saw their home had been swept clean, would melt our hearts, as did their fierce determination. For no sooner had we removed the nest, they would be back at it again with renewed energy.

The problem was the heat. If the birds were in, the ceiling fan was out. Ceiling fans are murderous predators and can cruelly cut the flight of these diminutive birds. It happened once when a noisy creature, flying exuberantly across the room to meet another equally voluble mate, was brutally chopped in two. It was a grisly sight with blood spattered on the floor and the wall. Worse, the bewildered mate circled over the still body, chirping plaintively.

That was it.

After this tragedy, a new law prevailed at our home: Fans were not to be switched on under any circumstances, whatever the provocation, no matter how high the mercury shot up. Defeated, we suffered the heat and the sparrows were given the right of way, albeit amid much grumbling.

I do not know when they disappeared, but suddenly the fans ran from spring through summer, the floor sparkled unlittered with bits of grass and other more messy, icky stuff, and the air was devoid of cheery bird calls.

We missed them.

Later, much later, I was to realise that the ‘common’ house sparrow hadn’t done the vanishing act just at our home, it was a worldwide phenomenon. Studies in the UK have shown that the house sparrow population has declined by more than 65 per cent, and the same trend has been observed in India. In fact, an ornithological survey conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has confirmed that the sparrow population in Andhra Pradesh has dropped by 80 per cent; in Gujarat and Rajasthan, it has declined by 20 per cent. The loss in many coastal areas is also estimated to be about 70 per cent.

Who would have ever thought that the tribe of the boisterous, perky, pesky house sparrow, once a common sight, is now on the decline? How come we never noticed? Or cared? How could we let this bird, so much a part of our lives, vanish forever?

There are many reasons attributed to the decline: Sprawling bungalows with their nooks and crannies have given way to high rises and malls; instead of hedges-- a good dining spot and ideal for roosting--we now have wrought iron or barbed wire fences; there are no messy shrubs and bushes in gardens, just manicured lawns with exotic plants sprayed and covered with poisonous pesticide that does the bird or anyone else little good. Once, women would gather together for a good gossip as they cleaned grains in the courtyard--dropping some inevitably for a hungry bird. Now, grains come clean and plastic-wrapped from the nearest Big Bazaar. Other theories indicate that electromagnetic contamination from cellphone towers can be lethal for sparrows while unleaded petrol and pesticide kill insects on which baby sparrows are raised.

Help to the once ubiquitous bird now comes from one Nasik-based Mohammed Dilawar, who has taken up the sparrow’s cause rather than wait for the Government to wake up from its slumber. “The sparrow,” says Dilawar, “is to urban ecosystems what the canary was to mines.That it is dying out means our cities are in trouble”. He has decided to help this hardy little creature, besides studying the sparrow, increasing awareness, working with builders to provide for more bird-friendly colonies. He has been making and selling wooden nest boxes on a nonprofit basis.

As for my home, the birds are back again. With a little help of course. We have provided for a good dining table with birdseed, broken rice, etc, and water for a bird bath. There are provisions for a sauna too; a mud bath where an entire flock wallows in the dust and generally brings the house down with the din.

The best part is the fans run too. Thanks to the nest boxes, lined with some straw, the birds have changed address. That awful cranny behind the painting was pokey; they prefer their swanky new living quarters where board and lodging are free.

On Saturday, March 20, World House Sparrow Day, take the plunge and help save the sparrow from vanishing from our world.

In The Pioneer on March 19, 2010

Ads on TV achieve little....

2010-03-15T03:58:00.000-07:00

Ads on TV achieve little, equip those in front of the battle
1,411 tigers..really?

----------------------------------------------------------------

Only 1,411 left…goes the now famous Aircel ad. But is this shocking, shameful number also an exaggeration? The ad quotes the 2008 All India Tiger Census—it’s two years, and many tiger deaths later now. In 2009, we lost 86 tigers, up from 32 poached in 2008. These represent only the recorded cases, the real mortality would be much higher. Tiger skins and bones seized are just the tip of the iceberg—enforcement agencies say that for every one seized, about ten slip away…unnoticed. Of course, new cubs or ‘recruits’ have been added, but not enough to compensate the loss. Why am I reasoning, anyway? Even the highest office, the Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh has confessed in a moment of characteristic candour, “ that this number is an exaggeration.”

In 2010, the International Year of The Tiger, ten deaths have been recorded. One, if you please, was felled by poisoned arrows and country guns, tied to a bamboo stake, the meat cooked and eaten, and the skin sold for a neat profit.

Why?

Why with all this buzz about the tiger have we failed to protect it? Ad blitzkrieg apart, India has a special conservation initiative, Project Tiger, strict protectionist laws, a Tiger Task Force constituted by the Prime Minister—yet their numbers have dipped to the lowest ever, in two reserves the Panthera tigris is extinct and in 14 others extinction beckons.

I find the answer, atleast in part, in Muhammad Umar, ‘Tiger Reporter’, Palamu Tiger Reserve, Jharkhand. As the designation implies, it was Muhammad’s job to doggedly follow and monitor, the tiger. His day began at 4 am, scouting for pugmarks, spoor, scat, following the lone tigress in his beat well into the night, armed with just a lathi, and a conviction to protect his ward. He rarely took leave to visit his family in a village some miles away; ‘Rani’ would miss him’, he reasoned. Plus the staff strength was too less—if he left, his beat, and the tigress would go unprotected. In my next visit to the reserve, Muhammad was no more. He died on duty, in the forest. Killed—by an elephant? By naxals? We don’t know. He was one among our vast green army protecting the tiger, the forests—and our source of water. There are many such unsung soldiers—I must mention a forest guard I met in Kaziranga. His name escapes me currently, but I remember him well. His hand was twisted, mutilated by a tigress he had helped rescue when she strayed into a village. Most in his position would bear a grudge, shirk their task. But our man went about his job, walking the reserve, a rusty .315 slung over his shoulder. “The tigress was frightened by the mob, she was a mother protecting her cubs, who could blame her?” he explained. Incidentally, he has been on the job nearly two decades, hasn’t yet made it to the permanent rolls, and gets a mere 1,700 per month for his trouble. Usually, six months past the due date.

Yet this underpaid, unequipped foot soldier is the man on the front to save the tiger. Little wonder that our tigers continue to be slaughtered. Though well-documented, the plight of the forest guard rarely find a voice in the corridors of power—his condition has remained unchanged in the 35 years of Project Tiger. Unless we equip the man on the front, can we save the tiger?

Of course, this is just one problem that plagues the tiger. For all the stringent punishment that the Wildlife Protection Act dictates, barely one per cent of poachers are convicted. We are still fighting for every inch of tiger habitat, as business houses backed by politicians push for mines, highways, power projects, dams. Worse, the states on whom rests the final onus of protection, are simply not bothered. Funds to tiger reserves are delayed, apathetic officers continue to man reserves, there is resistance to create and protect buffer zones and corridors critical for survival of tigers and there continues to be 50 per cent vacancy at the field level in most reserves. And while Project Tiger (or the National Tiger Conservation Authority, as it is now called) might try and prevail, it has but an advisory role and is usually conveniently ignored.

For all its good intent, Project Tiger, forgive the pun, remains a Paper Tiger.

the power of the pen...

2010-03-02T08:41:00.001-08:00

This one is for all those who ask me: Why are all your stories depressing (aside: they are coz, frankly thats' the conservation scene in India--and elsewhere--today; and worse)..and when they question the impact of the stories. Is their any impact? Does it make a difference? In fact forget them....i wonder all the time, question my writing that i have been doing for over a decade doggedly. All these years..struggling, fighting..to what effect..does it really matter? Does it make a difference? Or am i merely rambling on...

Oh..i know, somewhere, somehow your writings leave a mark..inspire..or even result in change...it is really beyond anyone to quantify that. Still, as i sat in doldrums yesterday, despairing at my foolishness -and wanting so desperately to walk away, i decided to take stock. And so i looked at at some of the stories i have done say, in the last year...

I must say i was pleased by the results. Here it is:

a) Simlipal....i was the first journalist..if not amongst the first people (i was with Adiya Panda, a keen, dedicated wildlifer), forest guys included, to go into simlipal tiger reserve in orissa after it was the attacked by naxals--i wrote about it, and the terrible tragedy of simlipal ..and today--it has been taken up us a special initiative by centre --a new team of officers was put in pace, rehabilitation of villages inside core is getting priority (after being comatose for over three decades), there is talk of Special Tiger Protection force, funds were released--the Minister (thank you, sir) took special personal interest in the reserve...

b) the Gola corridor story-on a critical tiger and elephant corridor in the Terai Arc which has been all but eroded by a sleeper factory, an IOC depot and an ITBP camp (besides the other blocks which already existed like highway etc). Noone wanted this story done, some even tried to prevent my doing it.
Glad to record here has been a flurry of activity--the National Tiger Conservation authority member secretary went there, as did a committee from the MoEF, high level meetings were called by the MoEF--and talk is on with all three --IOC, ITBP and the railways...and here is hoping that atleast some will have the grace to move away, FAST. The talks with ITBP have been positive. here is hoping that we will be able to salvage some of this and give back this critical passage to the wilds.

c) a series i did on the Terai..a few had an impact--Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary was noticed, and brought up in Parliament, as was Valmiki , which finally got a director..
but i m happiest (sorry, not possible being happy,doing a story like that--on the contrary) about a story i did on Corbett Tiger Reserve..about how wayward tourism was hitting at the heart of CTR (you can read this story on my blog). How a young wild tiger was packed off to the zoo thanks to the misdeeds of tourists and resorts. How resorts had screwed up corridors etc etc.
This led to a committee being set up by the Ministry of Tourism --and a study conducted by them. the report can be read on the incredible india website. The Uttarakhand government has been warned. There have also been questions in parliament on the same...(on feb 24th--read it on tigernet)

the leopard crisis...

2010-02-27T19:37:00.000-08:00

Leopards might beat tigers in extinction race

We are losing more than one a day

Prerna Singh Bindra
India has lost no less than 62 leopards in the first 50 days of 2010—more than a leopard a day, according to records available with the Wildlife Protection Society of India. Given that within the same period we have lost eight tigers, the Panthera pardus may well beat the tiger in the extinction race. The killings are mainly concentrated in Uttarakhand: from the dawn of the new year to February 20, 26 of these big cats met their end, a threefold increase from 2008 when the state lost nine leopards in the same duration. The killings are brutal, incessant —in just one day, February 12 a leopard was found ensnared with its limbs chopped off – the claws apparently fetch good money as good luck charms --near Dehradun. Another was found hanging from a tree entangled in a metal wire noose in Jhajhra forest range, also near the state capital. The slaughter is across the country, in Uttar Pradesh, a leopard was beaten to death by villagers near Bahraich on February 21, in Yusmarg, in J & K, the animal was found dead in a trap on January 21, the handiwork of poachers.
“It’s a war out there,” declares Belinda Wright, WPSI. And the leopard is the loser. From 235 leopard deaths in the country in 2008, the mortality has escalated to 291 in the consequent year to over 60 in just seven weeks in 2010. Ironically, such large mortality seems to indicate a fairly substantial population of leopards, but points out a senior forest official in Uttarakhand, “it cannot survive this large offtake.” Also, it may well remembered that the leopard’s habitat has declined drastically, forcing it out in the open, where it is more noticeable—and vulnerable. The leopard is condemned in every which way—poached for its skin and bones, the former to cater to demands of fashion, and the latter a substitute for tiger bones; it is mowed down by trains and vehicles like the young male who was crushed under a speeding vehicle on January 21 at Lal Kuan near Haldwani in Uttarakhand. The leopard’s nemesis, though, is conflict. Not a top predator, it lives on the fringes of the forest, preying on small game like barking deer, cheetal, langur. With its habitat degraded, and natural prey poached–the leopard has been forced to set up camp near human habitation, and to survive on dogs, goats, cattle—and occasionally man. When cats kill, there is outrage and people beat, burn, bludgeon the leopard to death—sometimes in revenge, or simply for wandering into human habitation. As the table shows, leopards killed by villagers is also on the increase.
Unfortunately, the leopard enjoys no political patronage and public opinion has not rallied in its favour –they are perceived as inconvenient, and a threat-and are simply gotten rid off. Experts opine that the problem animal must be removed to gain support for the others—however, there is no policy to deal with ‘problem’ leopards. Permits to hunt ‘maneaters’ are given on an ad-hoc basis by the forest department, and there is a rush to grab these. Says a senior official, “Usually, the first animal that crosses their path is slayed to appease the public. Hunters themselves reckon that they may kill upto four wrong leopards till the targeted ‘maneater’ is finally shot.
There are solutions: in national parks with good prey base say in Bandipur(Karnataka), or Gir (Gujarat) where leopards thrive, conflict is negligible.
Stresses Wright, “We have not addressed the conflict issue at all—much like we buried our head in the sand as tigers were being lost to trade. There is a desperate need for a mechanism to deal with leopard conflict. A Conflict Strike Force comprising of trained personnel is essential. This must work in tandem with NGOs, initiate dialogue with local people for simple measures to avoid conflict.”
And we have failed to deal with poaching too. Even as far back as 2005, the Regional Deputy Director (Northern Region) responsible for enforcing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) had written to the Ministry of Environment and Forests highlighting that poaching of leopards was reaching alarming levels , warning that, “such a heavy off-take of animals from the existing leopard population is a matter of serious concern and merits immediate review’ but to no avail. In early 2009, the same office in its new avatar as the Wildlife CrimeCcontrol Bureau sent alerts to Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh to be vigilant –but this as can be seen, has largely been ignored. The leopard continues to be decimated—and continues on the grim path to extinction.

In The Pioneer dated February 28, 2010

1,411 tigers?

2010-02-26T10:06:00.000-08:00

The Aircel ad says 1,411 tigers...
is it?
that's quoting the 2008 census. we lost 86 tigers in 2009. nine till now in 2010, about 35 in 2008 and about the same number in 2007.
these of course are the recorded cases--ones that we know of..at a very conservative estimate..the real figures would be double that. we know that skin and bones seizures are a tip of the iceberg..for every skin seized so many others slip away..unnoticed.

surely..in the same number of years--the recruitment--or the number of cubs survived has not matched the tigers lost?

1,411 tiger? nah...

it would be lesser than a 1,000..

what you can do to save tigers...

2010-02-14T06:50:00.000-08:00

and this does not apply only to tigers..to wildlife. for all our endangered wild animals. shall expand this list...

Speak up for tigers: They can’t. Be their ambassador, amongst your family, friends, social circle, colleagues. Let them know that tigers are on the brink of extinction, why, and how they can help. Write to editors urging them to highlight the urgency to save tigers. Let them know readers care. Write to MPs, ministers.

Your profession as a weapon: What do you do? Are you a teacher? Then you can influence your students in the cause. One teacher in Sriram School in Delhi has made all the difference, and students in her school help raise funds for rehabilitating traditional hunting communities around Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. If you are a lawyer, you could use your legal skills in fighting cases ie. say a specific wildlife crime case, or against a road that is going to cut through tiger habitat. As a concerned citizen, you could file a PIL. Use the RTI Act to find out more. A web designer could generate websites for local NGOs who may lack the skills to communicate to the world. The avenues are endless, you need to find them.

Donate your time, and money: Volunteer with NGOs—find out NGOs and see how you can volunteer with them towards the cause. And you could donate money—identify what you would like your money to be best used for.

Save resources: Everything that you use could impact the tiger’s habitat. The water that overflows from taps left on or leaking pipes depletes ground water. Paper is from trees, so is the wood in your house. Plastics clog and degrade habitat. Electricity may be generated from thermal plants that encroach on tiger habitat, and the steel on your table, and diamonds originate in mines that devastate tiger habitat. Minimise your use. Conserve resources.

Be a responsible tourist: Remember, you are guest in the tiger’s home, behave like one. Don’t chase the tiger. Enjoy the wilderness—don’t leave litter. Be quite, obey rules. Leave not even your footprint...

the tiger...

2010-01-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

The plight of the tiger is well-documented: Its slipping fortune from a healthy 40,000-odd at the turn of the century to an alarming 1,400 currently; the loss of over 80 per cent of its habitat since then, and the relentless slaughter first for pleasure and trophy; now for rugs and robes and an apparent cure for impotency.

But, haven’t we worked to save the tiger? Made it the national animal, created a special conservation initiative, the biggest of its kind i.e Project Tiger in 1973 with no less than 38 tiger reserves , don’t we have the most stringent protectionist laws, didn’t our Prime Minister set up a Tiger Task Force to tackle the Tiger Crisis in 2005?

Yes, but we have fewer tigers than what we started with in 1973; two reserves, Sariska and Panna have been emptied, all their tigers killed for the market. In 15 others extinction beckons. The laws are ineffective, unless implemented. For all the stringent punishment that the Wildlife Protection Act dictates, we have barely managed to convict one per cent of poachers.

And, the Task Force notwithstanding, the Tiger Crisis is far from over—it just got worse.

Welcome to 2010. Twenty days into the year, and we lost six tigers—four of which are probably poaching cases. One of these was killed-by posinned arrows and country guns, tied to a bamboo stake-the meat cooked and eaten-and the skin sold for a neat profit.

Welcome to 2010, the International Year of the Tiger.

It wasn’t any better last year. In 2009, we lost a tiger almost every fourth day—85 tigers in 365 days. These are only the recorded instances—minus all those skins that sneaked out across the border, and beyond—largely to China which writes its own laws on consumption of tiger derivatives even as it signs on international treaties dictating otherwise. We have not taken into account generations lost when tigresses are killed, leaving behind cubs—who either starve to death or are condemned to captivity. In and around Tadoba in Maharashtra we lost five breeding tigresses in an year.

It’s an emergency, says the honourable Minister of State (Environment and Forests,) Jairam Ramesh. Good, that we are finally acknowledging that tiger numbers are falling, but what have we done? Reserves continue to be manned by a skeletal staff-who are overaged, underequipped, underpaid—if paid at all. The centre has sent strict guidelines to the states regarding protection. But the states are simply not interested, funds are delayed, apathetic officers still man reserves. For all its good intent, Project Tiger, forgive the pun, remains a Paper Tiger.

Little wonder then that the last bastions of the tiger are falling—in Kanha, the ‘crown jewel’, tiger numbers have crashed alarmingly, Kaziranga-a success story, lost 15 per cent of its tigers in the space of an year (Novemebr 2008-Dec-2009), and Corbett-where Project Tiger was born- four tigers have died have died in a month days in the cusp of this year.

To be fair, the minister said a firm no to mines bordering Tadoba and an observatory near Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu, but these are few victories in many such battles. Unless the government takes a firm stand that protected areas are simply no-go areas for highways,mines, dams, power projects—we are going to lose the tiger.

Unless we have a force, on the lines of our army, protecting the tiger, now—each reserve will soon be a Sariska, or a Panna.

And our national animal, extinct.

a tribute to Billy...

2010-01-13T01:33:00.000-08:00

this is an edited version of the Article that appeared in Tehelka this week...(will post the detailed one later)... it is so difficult to convey what Billy was, what he meant to wildlife--i knew him very briefly, but like to think--knew him well-i do not really need to say he was one of a kind...so passionate, and obsinate about his cause-he lived his cause..
i feel his loss personally--and deeply regret--that i could not go meet him in his last days--

PRERNA SINGH BINDRA looks back on the life of a committed conservationist whose legacy in wildlife preservation continues to inspire

BILLY ARJAN SINGH
1917 - 2010

‘HONORARY TIGER’ Padma Bhushan Billy Arjan Singh breathed his last on the first day of the Year of the Tiger’ – January 1, 2010. He will be remembered as a pioneer conservationist, and for his long and courageous battle for India’s wildlife. My abiding memory of Billy dates back to five winters ago. I was at Tiger Haven, his home at the edge of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, chatting over supper when he asked me “to please fulfil his one wish”. Of course. He carefully inserted a cassette into his battered music system. Soon, the speakers cackled with a sound alien to the drawing room but from the heart of the jungle – Hon-hon, Hon, haawwn, the barasingha’s bugle resounded within the confines of the room. He looked at me then, his eyes beseeching. “Can you please make me a horn with this sound? Do you know the barasingha is Uttar Pradesh’s state animal? Isn’t it befitting then that my jeep should echo with its rutting call?” I picture Billy, then, and now, bumping along country roads, scaring the daylights of unsuspecting commuters with the jeep’s rutting call... Billy, Billy, Billy.

Billy hailed from the royal family of Kapurthala and was a bit of a misfit in the early years of his life (“I had no ‘prospects’, maybe that’s why when I proposed to Chandralekha, daughter of Vijayalakshmi Pandit, she didn’t agree”). Just out of the army, and jobless at 28, Billy landed at Palia in eastern UP and bought Tiger Haven, “since there was land available for farming and game for shooting”. That was Billy then, ruthless hunter, who put down his gun later in a moment of epiphany when he downed a young leopard “and watched the fire fading from the eyes of the dying animal. I was overcome with remorse, I had no right to destroy what I could not create, to kill for personal pleasure.”

From hunter and farmer to the doyen of tiger conservation. How does one encapsulate in limited wordage the remarkable life of Billy? He campaigned incessantly for putting a ban on game hunting in India, ensuring the closure of many shikar outfits; used shikar elephants to drive the barasingha, a critically endangered species into the forest from fields where they were gunned down. He swooped down, and spared no poacher or wood smuggler unlucky enough to cross his path. He raised three leopards and released them into the wild: ‘Prince’, so named since the leopard is “the Prince of Cats”, as well as Juliette and Harriet – presented to him by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Billy was best known for bringing up the zoo-bred Tara and releasing her in the wild. Tara was accused of being a man-eater, and reportedly killed as one – a claim that Billy always denied. “Not Tara,” he roared, “It was a foolish claim not backed by evidence, but by the prejudice of a hostile administration.” Tigers, he stressed, took to man-eating not by choice but when compelled by injuries or loss of territory and prey.

Billy observed, studied, wrote, struggled, battled, fought, lobbied, petitioned for the one cause around which he built his life. His passion and love for the wilds was a unique phenomenon, evident not just in his bigger, bitter battles, but in just about everything he did. If he was the man who created Dudhwa, he was also the man who left his mother calmly knitting in her enclosure, appropriately called ‘Gran’s Cage’, so that his leopard could roam free! In Billy’s world wild animals always took precedence over Homo sapiens.

In his later years, Billy felt despondent. “The tiger,” he despaired, “has no future. There is just no will to save it. The government will not make what it perceives as ‘unpopular decisions’ because of vote politics and instead propounds nonsensical theories of co-existence (of tigers and people).” He doggedly campaigned for a separate wildlife service — specialisation was needed in wildlife management much like one “requires experts for different branches for medicine. It’s as critical.” He lobbied for buffer zones around reserves to avoid conflict.It's a crusade Billy had been fighting almost forever — from fiery letters to Indira Gandhi “who understood and responded” to current petitions, painstakingly pecked out, with one finger, on his ancient, trusty typewriter. There was so much to be done to save Dudhwa — desilt the Soheli- Neora rivers, deal with the issue of the railway line that cuts through the reserve, regularly killing elephants and tigers. There was so much to be done for India’s wilds — halt the fragmentation of forests, the destruction, have a dedicated wildlife service. “We must save the tiger,” he urged. “It is to the tiger that we owe the air we breathe, the water we drink... if it goes, we go.”

Billy fought till the end. I remember the last time I met Billy... just over a year ago. At 93, his health was failing, a recent operation had rendered him weak, and he was not a little grumpy. “Let’s go the jungle, Billy, I pleaded, my heart sinking at his ‘no’. “I am too ill,” he said, and fussily presided over the arrangements, a prefect, gracious host.

But Billy was seated in the vehicle far before his entourage, hurrying us on, muttering about “young people’s unpunctuality”. And we were off, wandering in the wilds of Dudhwa, a park that owed its very existence to Billy. He pointed out a raptor, strained to hear the call of the barking deer, rejoiced at elephant tracks. And when a truck hurtled down the road, horn blaring rudely, it was Billy’s roar that rose above it, “You b*&#%, stop... this is the tiger’s forest...”

Billy shall not die. I shall not mourn him, for he must live on, wildlife must not be orphaned at his passing away. His cause must be our cause, his unfinished battles our task... only in that will we pay a befitting tribute to this great man who lived for the wilds.

editorial for the current Tiger Link

2010-01-07T05:01:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Good to be back again, albeit a bit late. In this issue, you will notice that Jairam Ramesh, the Minister of State for Environment and Forests (Independent Charge) finds repeated mention. Mainly because under the new minister (he took charge on May 29th), the MoEF has seen a flurry of action—after a rather sedentary, if not counter-productive decade. So how has the change been, and has it been good for wildlife, especially tigers? Cynical as I am—with reason of course!—we have had cause to celebrate. One big victory is that the 900 crore INO project—a Neutrino laboratory, that was to come just about three km from the core critical habitat of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, and bang on an elephant and tiger corridor has not been given the go-ahead. The other has been a resounding ‘No’ to the extremely destructive coal mines coming up in the buffer of Tadoba Tiger Reserve. It wasn’t easy-there was extreme pressure to give both of these the green signal—especially in the case of the former. Another major achievement was the unlocking of the CAMPA funds—you will read the details in this issue. There have been many good ‘tiger’ initiatives—which the director has detailed in his note. Even so, I would put a voice of caution. For one, it’s a bit too early to judge—and while the intentions are in the right direction it will take time for these to translate into real change on the ground.
What remains a worry is that most states have not come upto par. Bluntly put, they have been dragging their feet—resisting some initiatives, refusing to cooperate with others-to the point of being confrontational. We need them on board, we simply cannot save tigers unless states cooperate. Political will at the state level is an imperative, for they ‘own’ the habitats, and by default the tigers! We have to find ways to work together…the tiger is our collective heritage.
There are some concerns that nag my mind. I may be opening a hornet’s nest—but here goes: It is this whole issue of relocation of tigers. Relocation has become a necessity given that we have allowed by our indifference, and gloss negligence, for tigers to go extinct in certain reserves. I feel euphoric too, seeing the tiger back in its sterile forest. Feeling hope where none remained—extinguished by the last tiger. But have we really thought it through? Considered it with vision, weighed its cost-effectiveness? Or have we rushed into it willy-nilly propelled by political pressures, and maybe even a sense of guilt. It is not an easy exercise, requiring much effort, money-and is fraught with risk. Is it done in a proper manner, in accordance with existing rules and giudelines? I wonder too, if we are taking attention—and considerable funds—away from viable habitats with viable populations? Will Sariska or a Panna ever have the ‘minimum breeding populations’ that are essential to make the population viable? Of course, its counter is: do we close the chapter in a reserve where a tiger has gone extinct? Not a happy thought that...are there any clear answers?
At the risk of repetition, I would like to raise another point. It is high time we got our basics in order. Every time I enter a tiger reserve I am shocked by the condition of the field staff. With all the focus—and the hype—about tiger protection, their condition has remained unchanged since the inception of Project Tiger. Their plight has been well-documented—yet that unpaid, underpaid, and unsung foot soldier is the man on the front to save the tiger.
One more reason we are losing the battle. Well, almost. It’s an emergency, urges the minister. Then why does the situation continue to be so grim? Check out the numbers of tigers killed this year—76 at last count. That’s about seven per cent of our wild tiger population.
And these are not the ‘real’ figure, those would be higher. The deaths that go unnoticed, unrecorded. Generations lost when the mother dies. Like in the forests around Tadoba, where five breeding tigresses went missing in the past year. They all had cubs. Some died, others are condemned to captivity.
A generation of tigers lost to the forest forever.
“Sixteen of our reserves are in a very, very, very (the minister’s words) precarious position.”
Possibly the Sariska’s and Panna’s of tomorrow. And the pressures, and the threats—they only increase...
From a booming population –of both people, and cattle. From development projects. From the fact that India is growing, and wants to grow faster. Target GDP: 9 per cent per annum. And let’s not forget the ‘blood trade’—the booming skin and bone bazaar.
We (India) have a supply-precarious as it is.
And there is a demand-an ever increasing hunger for skins, bones, whiskers, penises. As the subsequent pages will tell you, the first ever attempt to talk with China on the subject at a ministerial level fell through. The latest word is that China is on the verge of reopening internal trade, which as we know, will be disastrous for our wild populations.
This journal will reach you at the dawn of the New Year. 2010. The Year of the Tiger.
Wait, don’t celebrate. The year won’t be so special for the tiger, being the ‘Tiger Year’ may only serve to fuel the demand further in China, it is feared.
Yet, we still have a fighting chance—our only chance to save the tiger. It’s a monumental task but there is a window of hope.
For, whatever be the odds, India wants to save her wild tigers…

Climate change is not about environment! Well, not for india, anyway..

2009-12-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

"I went to Copenhagen not to save the world, but our national interest. My mandate was not to save humanity but to protect our national interest of faster economic growth. "
In India climate change is about development, not environment unlike in the developed countries"
Jairam Ramesh, December 22, 2009

Contrast this to his saying that India is the most vulnerable country as far as climate change is concerned. (actually read the text of the impact that he details in the parliament before he went to Copenhagen)
Am sure he had his compulsions..but yeah it was disappointing, --especially when he said that For India climate change is not about environment, it is about development..i think that's basically wrong. climate change is about us-our survival--name it what you will--

Another tiger..

2009-12-16T07:21:00.000-08:00

We have lost another tiger..in Sarapduli, Corbett-waiting to hear about the how..

Death toll, this week

2009-12-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

One tiger in Corbett--mostly 'in-fighting. One tiger in Nagzira. Poisoned-revenge killing. could be poaching. Two rhinos in Kaziranga--poached. One young tusker in Orissa.Two leopards--skins in Valmiki (bihar). ten snakes in Puri-- thats the toll-that i know of in the past week.

Incidentally, those snakes--they were reportedly killed to make the Raj bhavan where Madam president was goign to halt for a few hours 'safe'. i remember the cut trees in the Andamans so she would have a clear view of the sea..

Have been informed that there have been two more elephant deaths--one in Orissa, another in West Bengal, though havent ascertained. Another person asks how can i ignore the olive ridley carcassess littering the beaches of Orissa. Apparently, its about a hundred till now..

Tadoba Troubled

2009-12-07T06:28:00.000-08:00

This story not carried by any publication. the usual habit of sitting on a story to lay eggs, while more important stuff like the Shilpa's marriage and things like that hog space

The sambar, a male stag sporting impressive antlers, stood submerged in the water, pondering over his—extremely limited—choices. His leg, bleeding, broken was giving way—he could see the beady eye of the crocodile come close, closer. He knew there was a tiger, somewhere, not far from the bank, well-camouflaged in the tall grasses. He sniffed the air, peered. Maybe not? Then heaved himself out, and oh-so-cautiously stepped out of the water, lifting one wary foot after the other...when they swiftly arose: Two tigers, on either side of him. And the hunt began...the sambar taking flight as death closed in...

This dramatic natural history moment, played in Tadoba Tiger Reserve, in mid-November made headlines. But along with the euphoria—tigers are well, and thriving, came the rider—for how long? The future of these tigers is questionable as no less than 20 new opencast mines are coming up in the fringes—threatening to choke Tadoba, and reduce its buffer into one big coal quarry and overburden dumping ground. Four of these would cut crucial tiger corridors that link the north and south Chandrapur forest divisions. Three mining leases are in the buffer zone of Tadoba. Of these, Adani Enterprises with a lease of 1750 hectares—90 per cent of which is forest land) may well be the biggest opencast coalmine in the country; while the Maharashtra State Mining Corporation Limited is a mere 3.2 km from Tadoba, and has asked for nine forest compartments to be deleted from the buffer zone to accommodate its mines. The already operating Western Coalfields Limited has sought an additional 550 hectares of forest land in Chandrapur Forest Division. The presence of breeding tigress’s in these areas is well-established. It gets worse, the Adani mine will feed the groups’ 1,980 MW power plant coming up on the edge of Nagzira Sanctuary--which is proposed to added under Project Tiger area.

The state’s blatant disregard for law, and tactical support of mines in tigerland has earned the ire of the centre—with even the PMO stepping in to question Maharashtra’s proposal to open up 5,000 hectares of forestland for coal—it may be pertinent to add here that more than 25 per cent of the states’ mining leases are on forest land. The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has written to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan categorically stating that “no mining would be permitted within the tiger reserve. The leases which have been granted are required to be cancelled,” in a letter dated September 8, 2009.

The writing is on the wall—were the mines to come up, Tadoba—and its tigers—will soon be history. No less than 15 mines currently exist on the southern fringes, which is almost obliterated by the fast growing town of Chandrapur, while the eastern part is surrounded by villages. Towards the north the only link to the Central Indian landscape—which includes critical habitats of Brahmapuri, Navegaon NP, Nagzira, Pench, Kanha tiger reserve—will be drowned by the upcoming Human river irrigation project severing a crucial tiger landscape. Herein lies Tadoba’s other tragedy. “Tigers regularly use the narrow forest corridor from Palasgaon (Sirkada) to Shivni which will be submerged by the project,” points out Kishor Rithe of Satpuda Foundation. Supporting this is a study conducted by Tiger Research and Conservation Trust which has photographic evidence to show presence of tigers, leopards, sloth bears, wild dogs, rusty-spotted cats—all accorded the strictest protection under Indian law. The project is just three km from Tadoba’s core zone. Yet, the Supreme Court cleared the dam in November 2008. However, Ramesh has asked the CM to “dispassionately review the project.” It is pointed out that the significance of the project has diminished, since a large number of small dams and irrigation projects have come up in the region since the Human dam was first conceived in 1983.

Tadoba hosts a crucial source population—43 at last count in 2007—of tigers that feed other forests in the region. But mines and other development projects will obstruct critical corridors, isolating the reserve leading to inbreeding and genetic anomalies, and eventual local extinction. Worryingly, further fragmentation of corridors will only serve to accentuate the man-animal conflict that has besieged the landscape. With a good breeding population, tigers spill over to the buffer areas or use corridors to establish themselves in connecting forests. However, with fragmented corridors and habitat, tigers and leopards have nowhere to go—currently the buffer zone is believed to house about 20 tigers, including breeding tigresses. With negligible natural prey, and over a lakh cattle dependent on forest, tigers largely live on livestock—and are killed in retaliation. Frequent encounters with villagers who forage in the forest for wood and fodder have proved fatal—about 45 people have lost their lives between 2006-2008. This year human deaths have been minimal, and while that’s a reprieve, ironically it’s also an ominous sign. Rithe warns that “this sudden end to the conflict should be taken seriously.” The only explanation for a sudden crash is that tigers in the conflict zone of the buffer areas have been wiped out (see box). The tigers are especially vulnerable outside the reserve, as poachers capitalise on the grievances of the villagers to kill tigers.

If we allow mines and dams to devastate tiger habitat, this situation will only get worse. If we sign away its forests, we might as well give up the pretence of saving our rapidly diminishing tiger population.

BOX

As was his usual routine, Balaji Chafle of Ganeshpimpri village near Tadoba went to the cowshed early morning of September 19. What confronted him was a tiger. A very young, very frail and almost starving tiger—one of three such cubs found over five days in the vicinity. There was no sign of the mother and without her, the future of the cubs—now in the custody of the forest department—is precarious. Their mother, by all accounts, has been reduced to skin and bones. Investigations revealed that one among the two tiger skins (and 50 kg tiger bones) seized on November 5 at the Nagpur Railway station could well belong to the mother, as the poachers confessed to killing a tigress around the same time in that area. She was among the five tigresses who went ‘missing’ in the past 11 months. They left behind orphaned cubs –who either died or are in captivity— an entire generation of tigers lost to the wild. Sources say that more than 60 tigers, leopards and sloth bears have died, and captured in the past one year. In February, a tiger skin was seized in the Dewda forest beat of the reserve, prompting the former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, B Majumdar to write to the centre that inter-state poachers’ gangs being active in Chandrapur forests. And though forest officials say most deaths have largely occurred outside the reserve-there is evidence that poachers have penetrated even the core zone—on September 16, tourists photographed a wild dog with a snare around its neck.

An amazing encounter....

2009-11-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

One lone sambar, a huge male sporting impressive antlers, stands amidst the still waters...dawn’s just breaking and the golden rays spread a luminous glow over his coat, the lake and the fecund forests of Tadoba that merge with lush green hills. Not a sound...except for the faint whisper of wings as the butterfly flutters past my nose, the murmur of leaves as they drift, then fall, softly on the earth..
Exquisite, this tranquillity. Almost too tranquil, for some Homo sapiens, gathered in Tadoba in pursuit of tigers. One jungle aficionado squirms demanding some ‘action’. A few leave. There is only so much of a sambar in a lake that one can watch; and there are tigers, elsewhere.
But I wonder. Why the deer chooses to remain in the cold waters of the lake when succulent grasses and warm sunlight await just yonder? There is more to it than meets the eye...
The minutes move—the sun glows brighter, stronger. Our attention wanders, but the jungle-and the sambar remain still.
Suddenly he stirs, the sambar—as if coming to a weighty decision after careful thought--moving steadily out of the water.
It happened so fast—like lightening, terrifying in its intensity.
In the next second—is it even that?—one huge orange blur thunders out of the green, sprints, and hurtles itself at the deer. Tiger. But the deer’s fast, faster. He makes it...almost, when he tumbles, confronted with another tiger, facing him.
But the tiger is far and the deer, is free. The climax collapses. After that one powerful moment—that seized your heart and left you breathless—the drama moves back to Act I: The serene forest, the silence, the sambar back in the water. The added dimension being the ominous presence (or is it the absence) of two tigers. They are backstage not visible. Out of sight. But clearly not out of mind—mine or the deer’s. Meanwhile, other malevolent characters have entered the fray. Crocodiles. Two of them. Not very far from the deer. One swims closer. It is clear to us, from the safety of the jeep, that the crocs have no evil designs on the sambar. The stag is just too large for them to overcome—it will be too much energy consumed without any gain. But the deer, getting more nervous by the minute, is in no state of mind to comprehend logic. He trudges out. And its action replay again...tiger dashing out, sambar dashing in...
So the sambar’s back—where he doesn’t belong. He waits, fidgets. Clearly restive—but equally unwilling to move. I could see him pondering over his—extremely limited—choices. Death lurked in water, death awaited outside. His leg, bleeding and broken was giving way—he could see the beady eye of the crocodile come close, closer. He knew there were tigers somewhere, not far from the bank, well-camouflaged in the tall grasses. He sniffed the air, peered. Maybe not? Then heaved himself out, and oh-so-cautiously stepped out of the water, lifting one wary foot after the other...when they burst forth. Two tigers on either side of him. And the hunt began...the sambar taking flight as death closed in...
It didn’t actually. Not yet, anyway. Incredibly, the sambar—lame leg and all, managed to make his escape. Again.
Clearly, it is not easy being a wild tiger. Success in hunting is difficult even for the world’s most powerful predator—by some accounts tigers succeed about one in ten attempts.
I watched them—the hunter and the hunted, and a tear slid down my eye. Was it for the stag? For his unfailing courage? For confronting death (surely he know it was inevitable) with a calm dignity. Or was it the tigers? Young, perhaps just out of their mother’s shadow...inept yet in the art of hunting.
No. Maybe it was me. Devoted to the cause of tiger,..yet dejected by the enormity of the battle. How precious was this sight-routine in the forest, but rare to the human eye. This was what made the struggle worthwhile..each wild tiger...
Maybe it was the fear that lurked. The devastation of coal mines I had seen bordering the reserve, Tadoba is locate in heart of the ‘coal district of India’, Chandrapur’ and has many mines surrounding it, and the threat of more. There are other horrors. Fragmented corridors, broken forests, too many people, too few prey—the perfect recipe for fatal conflict. The picture of a the caged emaciated tiger cub, whose mother is lost to poaching just outside this haven, refuses to go away..
So happy to see these wild tigers, so worried for their future.
I leave –very reluctantly-but this drama in the arena of the wild continued for another 24 hours. For those who want to know—the tiger won the day.

Pop conservation

2009-10-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

Pop conservation is here (hopefully not to stay)...Don't believe me? Read on:

We are gonna have Gangetic dolphins in the Delhi zoo. Come again? Freshwater dolphins in the zoo. The MEF believes that a romp in the dolphinarium will do the creature good. Awareness, spreading the message regarding conservation and such other lofty motives will be met. My question is: Where are you going to get the dolphin(s) from? The only way is to capture them from the wild, and that is really not a good idea (nor is getting a 'rescued' individual--there will be a rush to 'rescue' dolphins to impress the honourable minister. For another, they are gonna die. No, i am not the Voice of Doom, but keeping fresh water dolphins in captivity is not an easy preposition. Experience has shown that they don't survive long. Just as an aside, don't most of our zoos house the tiger? And the lion? May I know how that has helped their cause? Isn't their fortune in the doldrums?

The other great showbiz idea is to get the cheetah to India. You know the fastest animal on earth that once thrived in India, till we finished it off. The last three were shot (in one go) in 1947. The cheetah is now extinct in India. But hey, chill. Not for long. We are gonna fly 'em in (we been shopping in Namibia) and give ‘em some grassland (where, where?) to live in. For details on this one, read my earlier post. Suffice to say, its a no brainer, a grand money-making, headline-hogging idea. It's a conservation dud, but is surely gonna attract dollar tourists in the safari that we create for the cheetah.
Tigers and lions? Never mind ‘em, once they go the cheetah way, we will just bah ‘em from Texas, plenty of ‘em there—more than all over the world in fact. So don’t worry, be happy.

Oh yes, there was this other fantastic plan of getting microlights to protect tiger reserves. An idea straight out of Africa, not a bad one, but not for Corbett and Namdapha—the chosen ones for the grand experiment. Minister, minister, these are moist deciduous forests and rainforests, not savannas that can be surveyed aerialy. The canopy is not transparent. And wouldn’t it be wiser (though certainly not sexier) to first equip our foot soldier. Invest in them—ensure they are in adequate numbers, and well-equipped and trained to guard our tigers?

Oh yes, there is this other brilliant idea--though not so much conservation as a gimmick. Did you know that India is going to kick of International Tiger Year on February 14. Valentine's Day. Gettit? Cho chweet. The launch is at Corbett National Park (don't roll in your grave, Jim, it's ok). Keep the date. and don't forget to bring the red roses.

A tiger's plea--on 'Tiger' Day

2009-09-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

It is International Tiger Day on September 27...and on this day you dedicate to me..here is my plea..
Before I begin, I do not quite understand: Why this day? A Tiger Day? Undoubtedly, it serves you well—you will hold many of those conferences-where you sit around tables in plush, cooled rooms in cement monstrosities (built after mining my forests, polluting the air, and over the graves of trees—but let’s not dwell on that for now), debating over my fate, and the 'best' course of action to save the tiger over five course meals—while unknownst to you—my brethren lie trapped, paw clasped in a steal jaw, spear thrust into the mouth..to silence his roar.
Somebody forgot to tell the poachers about Tiger Day.
And even you, who sit there sipping champagne and scrolling over Power Point, did you not sign away my forest to make way for a road for your speeding metal death traps? The man in white, who cut the ribbon to a round of applause, if I remember correctly sold the jungle to get votes. And the one who exalted on the virtues and duty of saving the national animal, he, I am told, got a cut for letting a multinational rape my home for uranium.
So my cubs when they grew up, had nowhere to go. No territory that they could mark. I warned my son, as he grew up, showed him his boundaries, pointing to the rolling fields, where Man played with his children, and manufactured his food. “Don’t venture there, child, not into human territory—it is No Tiger’s Land.” He didn’t listen. Not his fault, he is—no was—a good lad, if a bit naughty. The resident male—his father actually, whacked him, and drove him away—and the village he went into, I remember my mom telling me stories about it. It was ours, once..till Man took over. He is dead now, that child of my heart—yes, don’t be surprised. We have emotions too. We bring up our young for two years-feed them milk, kill for them, acquaint them the lay of the land, teach them to hunt, imbibe in them the skills needed for survival...where we fail is to tutor them in the ways of man.
But I digress, as I was saying, he was poisoned. My poor child, he killed a buffalo. How was he to know? There was no deer, and hunger drove him to man’s lair. He smelt food, he killed it. For food, for survival, not for 'love' or land or for not being allowed to watch TV. He paid for it. He came back to his meal after a small stroll, had his fill..and then died a slow, agonising death..
I will not bore you with details of my family’s woes—suffice to point out that my daughter’s son (yes, I am grandmother now, though few of my kin have survived) lost his life in a train accident. I chanced upon a newspaper that some men working on the path left and I saw him, stretched on the tracks--bloated, bloodied, mutilated. But i knew him by his tail, he had a strange one, almost totally black.
And so Dear All-Powerful Man (yes, you are, even though they call ME the King or the Queen of the jungle), please leave my home alone. You have taken most of it away. I know of times when forests were spread far and wide in India, in just 100 years, 95 per cent of it is gone. Now, all I am left with is a tiny part of your (our?) country.
If you want me to live, leave it for me. And you, please stay away.
Of course, that would solve all our problems—a land without nasty two-legged creatures. But even I know, life is not all black and white. I know that if we were unprotected, we would be killed overnight. Each one of us. For we carry a huge price on our heads. You sell our skin and bones and whiskers and penis. I know that at my own cost. I have lost four of my children. In one place (not so far way), ‘Tiger Reserve’ they called it, for it was our sanctuary—all my kin are gone..slaughtered to be sold. There are no tigers there, anymore.
So, we need you to protect us, that is my second plea on this ‘Tiger Day.’
It is almost like asking the devil himself. And it is shameful, seeking your protection: To save us, the most powerful predators on earth. But even we with our stealth and skill and power, cannot match your weapons and evil intent.
We live under the shadow of the gun, our trails are laid with death traps. And while you make all the right noises about saving the tiger (it gets good money and good press, I am told)—why is it that you guard artificial borders with a sophisticated army and weapons, but for us you make not a tenth of the effort?
You do not empower our protectors--few that there are.
Why, I have seen one of our protectors, poor man, shot by the bad men--poachers. He was a bit like us-courageous, and fought with them. He died.
My plea is: if you are to save us, help him, help us.
I have a final prayer: Do not take away our dignity. We are tigers, as much creations of God, as you. We are meant to live in the jungle, free and wild. Not in zoos, in cages so that you can spend a fine Sunday, poking at us, so that we roar and squirm. It amuses you, apparently. But it makes us very sad.
We would prefer death.
Sometimes, as I told you before, we enter your domain. But it is not your domain, it was ours—till you stole it, and pronounced us encroachers. Our jungles keep shrinking, we don’t have food to eat (you like deer meat too, even though God in his wisdom has given you so much more variety) ..so we venture into your land. We hate it. Your territory stinks, it is dirty, filthy, noisy—not like our beautiful, peaceful forest. And it holds many terrors. We know we put our lives at stake in your territory. Its hunger that drives us. And if we get caught, trust me, it is our worst nightmare.
You turn to us with a vengeance. Surround us, beat us, set us afire. A tigress I know of was strangled, hung on a tree and then beaten and whipped, till life gave up on her.
We are browbeaten and squeezed into a cage. Then, the circus begins—hundreds of Homo sapiens pour in from everywhere, everyone tries to get close (we are barred, so they feel heroic) to witness the agony of the caged beast. Big men flash lights at us—its called photography, even bigger men pose with us.
Party over, and we are packed off to the zoo. When they took my neighbour, her children starved to death.
You know, if you just let us be, we will slink away, run. We are terrified of you.
And did you ever stop to think, when you come to our jungles—and thousands of you come in everyday-we see you, so often, all the time, but we go away quietly, quickly, most of the times not even showing ourselves.
We fear for ourselves, and we don’t want to scare you.
We leave you alone.
Can you not accord us the same dignity?

Elephants must forget-Action

2009-09-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

I am glad to tell you guys that there has been some action on the Gola corridor story. Here goes:

The member secretary , National Tiger Conservation Authority visited personally to assess the situation.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests had a meeting on September 16, with concerned officials, scientists, researchers. A committee has been formed--which will visit Gola next week. The DG (Forests &wildlife ) has promised that he will take up the issue with ITBP immediately. also, a joint meeting with the forest department, WII, NGOs, ITBP, IOC, Railways will be held in Haldwani.
WWF-India is also holiding a meeting on September 18th.

this is a very difficult one..and one wishes that action had happenned earlier..we could have saved the day. Yet, we must try now--for that corridor is crucial for tigers and elephants.

ELEPHANTS MUST FORGET

2009-09-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

There is one editing error:Its ITBP, which has been published as ITBT..

Some other pertinent points are:
a) The Haldwani-Bairelly road which also bisects the corridor has seen two tigers in about 18 months.

b) the Nandour valley is where Jim corbett killed four man eaters-and has the potential to harbour more than 30 tigers

c) the construction work/preparations for the factory/IOC has been going on for the past two years. How come this issue was not raised by NGOs working in the TERAI Arc landscape in the region, or concerned forest officials.

Elephants Must Forget
The steady erosion of the Gola river forest corridor threatens the very survival of tigers and elephants in the Terai region.

AS TRADITION demands, the foundation stone of the railway sleeper factory was laid in January 2007 by invoking Ganesha. At the auspicious hour, hymns were chanted, chandan smeared, ghee poured and flowers showered over the benign elephant god. Ironic, and certainly inauspicious for the elephant. For the factory stands right in the middle of the critical Gola river elephant corridor (GRC). An elephant corridor is a long-term natural migratory route that elephants use to travel between two forests. The GRC links 7,000 sq km of contiguous wildlife habitat in Uttarakhand, which has over 180 tigers and 1,000 elephants, concentrated in the Corbett Tiger Reserve and the Rajaji National Park. This is the most significant part of the approximately 20,000 sq km Terai Arc Landscape (TAL), identified by the All India Tiger Estimate as one of three “viable habitats for the tiger’s long-term survival”.
But is there a future now? It’s questionable. The blocking of the GRC marks the end of a grand dream, of conserving the unique eco-diversity of the Terai — a green ribbon stretching from the Kalesar Sanctuary in Haryana to the Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, within which lie a string of protected areas linked by forest corridors. “Bottlenecks like Gola fragment the habitat — rendering the free movement of wildlife impossible. In the long run, this will lead to the extinction of wide-ranging species like tigers and elephants,” says Dr AJT Johnsingh, former dean of Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India and scientific advisor to WWF (India). The Gola river corridor, which ensured animal movement from Corbett all the way to the Nepal border adjoining Tanakpur, was one among 10 corridors identified as crucial to conservation efforts, by the Wildlife Institute of India in 2004 and again by the state forest department in 2005. It was already fractured – disrupted by boulder mining along the Gola river, the fast-developing town of Lalkuan and the heavily trafficked Haldwani-Bareilly road. Still, a green sliver, no more than a kilometre or two wide, remained to offer passage to endangered wild creatures.
As part of the Shivalik Elephant Reserve, the corridor is a key area for elephas maximus, the Indian elephant. In contrast to most areas where poachers have decimated tuskers, it has one tusker for three to four females. Equally significant, as part of the Rajaji-Corbett Tiger Conservation Unit, it has been identified as one of the Level-1 areas for the long-term persistence of tigers.
Choked forest corridors and fragmented habitats have put elephant and man on a collision course
However, an onslaught of destruction has all but obliterated the passage. The sleeper factory was only the beginning. The real killer is likely to be the Indian Oil depot next to it, with a massive 15- feet wall encircling a bustling storage complex — an impermeable physical barrier for animals. The IOC avers that they have leased the land from the railways and have all the required clearances. And in 2008, the forest department gave away the last 34 acres of reserve forest to the Indian Tibetan Border Police (ITBT). The net result of all this is that the corridor has ceased to exist. It’s hard to even imagine that tigers and elephants once walked this path. Employees from the paper mill spill onto the narrow, busy streets of Lalkuan; the sleeper factory works 24x7 to fill its quota of 60,000 sleepers a month and tankers line the gate at IOC. The ITBT complex looks deceptively innocent since it is currently housed in tents, but I am assured that walls, wires and concrete structures will soon replace these. The Bareilly road is to be made into a four-lane highway. Adding insult to injury, the forest department is now undertaking an “afforestation drive” in the ITBT camp. The tigers and elephants of Corbett simply have no place to go.
Though the state Forest Conservation Act affirms that a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Chief Wildlife Warden is imperative in matters of clearance or land transfer concerning the Shivalik Elephant Reserve, the Chief Wildlife Warden, SK Chandola, maintains that “since it wasn’t a protected area, [his] words do not carry weight”. Also, while the state of Uttarakhand has endorsed the documentation of elephant corridors (including the GRC) by the Wildlife Trust of India, Vivek Pandey, the current District Forest Officer (Terai East), denies knowledge of the corridor’s importance. “Critical areas are occasionally signed away in ignorance as officers are not kept informed,” says Pandey, who says the NOC for land transfer to the ITBT was issued by his predecessors.
The real killer is likely to be the Indian Oil depot, an impermeable physical barrier for animals
But the corridor is gone, and with it, we have lost a golden opportunity to connect the Corbett region (4,000 sq km) with the Nandour Valley (1,800 sq km) and the chance to manage the tigerelephant habitat in Uttaranchal (7,000 sq km) as a single landscape. The consequences, in the long run, will be fatal. Tigers need to disperse from the forests they are born in, if they are to breed successfully and be genetically robust. Despite all our hue and cry over ‘saving’ tigers, we have failed to grasp the basic principle of conserving them: creating inviolate spaces and maintaining connectivity between these spaces.
SADLY, THE GRC is not the only casualty in the mad flurry of unplanned, ill-considered development. Most corridors identified in the Terai are being choked with impunity, and fragmented habitats have put man and elephant on a collision course. Along the Gola, a small population of pachyderms, locked into an isolated forest patch in Kishanpur range, are creating havoc in the nearby fields. The conflict has lethal consequences elsewhere in the state, too. In the nine years since the formation of Uttarakhand, over 150 elephants have died, nearly half of them in accidents on heavily trafficked roads. They are also poisoned and electrocuted to avenge damage caused to human property and life. The toll is heavy on both sides. Forty people have lost their lives to elephants between 2000-2007. Tigers straying into human habitation are also being poisoned, as in a recent case near Corbett. The tragedy will only escalate as we continue to erode corridors and island habitats.
It will require monumental effort and political will to give the Gola river corridor back to the forest. But if we fail, we will have signed away the future of the tigers and elephants we say we cherish.

My thoughts on the cheetah reintroduction

2009-07-21T21:07:00.001-07:00

Let sleeping cats lie

……..-

The obituary of the cheetah—that lithe, beautiful cat known for its remarkable burst of speed—was written in 1947. Though its demise was authored by a host of causes, the last damning bullets were fired by the Maharaja of the erstwhile state of Korea in Madhya Pradesh. When motoring through the forest at night he came across, and killed, three males, “in perfect condition”. This was the last record of the animal in India, the cheetah would now only be found in the annals of history.

History, it appears, will be rewritten.

And the cheetah will be brought back to India. The first, instinctive reaction is sheer joy. The idea is heady—The Return of the Cheetah. Back from Neverland. Extinction is not forever. I could picture it in my mind’s eye—the beautiful ash-gold cat bounding in powerful rapidity over golden grasslands…closing in on its prey…

Which is about the moment the dream sours…where are the verdant grasslands where the cheetah will live, hunt, mate, breed—the wilds where we plan to reintroduce the cheetahs?

But before we get back to this issue a quick overview: “In the next few months,” according to the Minister of Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, “India hopes to be in a position to re-introduce the cheetah in captivity and, sooner rather than later, into the wild as well.”

This is not the first time that India has considered bringing the cheetah back-the idea has been bandied about for years, since around the time we lost the cat. Initially, the plan was to get them from Iran where the last of the Asiatic cheetahs survive. But Iran dashed India’s hopes of importing a breeding pair—with their cheetahs numbering barely 25, they were simply not willing to take the risk of shipping out two of them to what was a highly ambitious—and admittedly iffy venture. They even declined a sample of tissue to use in a cloning experiment that was proposed to be done by the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology. That plan had its share of problems—cloning is far from a perfect science, often involving several trials before there is a successful birth. And we have simply not done even basic scientific research on the cat.

All along the question that has plagued the prodigal’s return is the where? Does India, with its booming population, expanding agriculture and race for development have space for another big cat?

Way back in 1960, pioneer conservationist, member of Indian Board for Wildlife and author M Krishnan had asked, “But where are the suitable areas?” and went on to add that, “I do not think the trouble and expense of getting a few cheetahs for liberation into an Indian sanctuary is justified –such an experiment, without such a established territory can only fail. This sentiment was echoed by H S Panwar and Dr Alan Rodgers when preparing India’s Wildlife Protected Area Network, who wrote that there “are no suitable areas to reintroduce cheetah into a "wild" situation in this (semi-arid) zone or elsewhere in India.” A source in the Ministry of Environment and Forests points out that we simply do not have grasslands bigger than 40 sq km.

However, proponents of the project maintain that there are enough potential grassland and scrub forests—and that the cheetah will adjust to its habitat, and that getting the predatpor back will serve to protect crucial grassland habitat. It may well be remembered here that the other feline occupant of the scrub forest, the critically endangered Asiatic Lion is barely clinging on to some 1,400 sq km of habitat. All our big cat areas are man-animal conflict zones. Lack of habitat, and fragmented habitat pushes tigers, leopards and lions into human inhabited areas—leading to bitter, and fatal conflict. Tiger kills livestock-or man, and is killed in retaliation.

Who says the fate of the cheetah will be any different, when it eventually—and hopefully—roams free?

In Namibia, from where we propose to buy our cheetah, conflict, due to livestock loss, is a major issue—and farmers frequently shoot the offending predator.

There is the question of prey base. Though some areas have a fair population of blackbucks, its preferred diet, these are now mainly in agricultural fields (with their habitats encroached), and crop depredation is already a major issue of contention.

It is prudent to remember too that the conditions that made the cheetah extinct in the country have only accentuated. The pressures on its habitat have increased manifold. During the time of independence, the zero hour for cheetah, India’s population was barely 30 crore, today it is over 1.20 billion. Livestock has increased fourfold to nearly 500 hundred million, since independence. Of course, we won’t capture the ‘hunting leopard’, for royal sport—as done in the past; but there is nothing to stop poaching for the lucrative skin trade.

There are other issues. Should we be importing African cheetahs—a different subspecies (Acinonyx jubatus) than the one that lived, and died, in India—the Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus)?

Frankly, our track record is nothing to be proud of. Our national animal, the tiger is in dire straits today, with an all time low population of about 1,100. Sixteen tiger reserves—our most sacrosanct protected areas are in deep trouble, with none or negligible numbers of cats.

How then do we justify a fancy multi-million dollar project to bring another big cat into a fraught, tattered kingdom? Is the very fact that there is big money involved encouraging organisations and the government to jump on the bandwagon? Good, long term planning is essential, andcritical questions of habitat, prey-base, potential conflicts must be considered lest we make a mess, as currently with tigers. When we sit in September, 2009 to study the feasibility of the reintroduction, one hopes that the voice of caution will be heard. Let’s first ensure the protection and survival, of our existing big cats, before we attempt to bring the dead to life. Let’s first ensure that we can give the cheetah a safe home so that it flourishes in the wild, and not a second extinction.

2009-07-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

this is not my story...but i was thrilled to know--and touched that Chandan Mitra told me this--that much of the arguements and the points put forth were based on reports i had done..so glad...
this is what Dr Mitra wrote to me:

Just to tell you we had an excellent debate in the Rajya Sabha today
on the tiger. Although unprepared, I spoke extensively basing myself
mainly on your recent reports in The Pioneer. Minister replied very
well and promised to address the issues. Details of the debate should
be up on the RS website in a day or two. You may like to go through.

------------------------------

Tiger’s anguished roar finally heard in Parliament

Pioneer News Service | New Delhi

The crying need for tiger conservation echoed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, with the Government saying a proposal was under consideration to set up special courts to fast-track trials against poachers. It also laid emphasis on involving forest dwellers in protecting the big cats.

During discussion on a calling attention motion, the suggestion to create a special tribunal was mooted by nominated member Chandan Mitra, who said the courts were sluggish to resolve cases against poachers. “Many major poachers have been arrested but it did not deter others. Sansar Chand was one of the biggest poachers and responsible for the decimation of Sariska. He was arrested only when Sariska lost all its tigers. Cases are still going on against him,” Mitra said.

He said the Government should consider setting up separate fast-track courts for hearing cases on poaching and provide effective communication equipments to forest guards.

In response, Minister of State (independent charge) for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said a proposal for creating a green tribunal was before the Union Cabinet. “The Environment Ministry has moved the Cabinet for setting up a green tribunal for speedy disposal of wildlife-related cases. The Government will amend the existing law, if required, for stricter punishment against poaching,” he said responding to the motion moved by BJP member Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

Admitting that there was no reliable data on the number of tigers in the country, the Minister said there was rampant killing of the “national animal” due to which the big cats have become extinct in Sariska and Panna reserves. “All previous methods of counting tigers were faulty, but we have now found a new method which can be counted upon,” Ramesh said.

He agreed with Rudy’s observation that tiger killing was rampant in India and smuggling of tiger skin was a flourishing trade, next only to narcotics traffic. The Minister especially asked Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where Sariska and Panna reserves are located, to take stern action against poachers.

“Poachers have been arrested in Panna, but no action has been taken against them. I request the Madhya Pradesh Government to prosecute them so that Panna can be a test case for other reserves where tiger population is dwindling,” he said.

He also asked the Bihar Government to at least depute a director in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve to protect the national animal. However, he added that State Governments could not be left alone to conserve the tiger population. Important personalities representing various sectors should be given this responsibility, he said.

The Centre has initiated a programme to involve local communities in protecting tiger population and the first project, which started in Corbett Park in Uttarakhand, will be replicated in other reserves if successful, he said.

Ramesh was hopeful that the project will be completed in the next 5-6 months, in which the local ‘Van Gujjar’ tribes will be recruited as para-police force. Of the 37 tiger reserves, 16 are in danger zone and if steps are not taken now, the tiger population would be extinct there, Ramesh warned. He also said that a Tiger Protection Force would be created and a buffer zone would be made outside the reserve areas and Rs 10 lakh would be given to all those who would be replaced from their original home in that zone.

Mitra asked the Minister for progress on the proposal to create a co-reserve in forests for tigers. “There was a plan for the critical tiger habitat. What is the progress on that?” he asked. He also emphasised the need to formulate a strategy on how to tackle tigers if they left their natural habitat. He cautioned that when they stray out of their reserves, they are most of the time killed by people.

“We had this big incident in Uttar Pradesh where the tiger strolled out of Dudhwa, moved around in Faizabad and Barabanki and, unfortunately, was finally eliminated because it was threatening the population,” he cited.

Mitra also asked for the Government opinion on in situ breeding as it contained problems and also pointed to increasing tourist traffic and VIP movements in tiger reserves. “In Kanha, during a VIP visit, the park director took out his jeep for a night safari and knocked down and killed a tiger cub,” he said, asking whether the director was punished for his act. “If those entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the tiger indulge in this kind of activity, how can you expect the tiger to survive?” he asked.

Responding to a member’s suggestion, the Minister ruled out emulating the US or Chinese models in conservation of tigers. The Centre has set up a wildlife crime control bureau in the Environment Ministry to check poaching, he added.

Rudy had in the beginning requested the Minister to involve interested people from all walks of life in wildlife protection. “There is the need to create a motivational force … to start a mass campaign for creating awareness among the people to save tigers to save civilisation,” he said. Stressing that the tigers are killed in India and sent to China via Nepal, the BJP member apprehended that if the situation continued, there would be no tigers even in the zoo to show the children.

Karan Singh (Congress), who was associated with the inception of Project Tiger in 1973, said that though the project was a success initially and the tiger population reached 4,000 in the 1980s, it gradually started failing due to the lack of political will. “Even though more than 3,000 tigers have been killed in the country, not a single poacher has been convicted. There is massive connivance between poachers and forest officials. Unless there is no political will, no tiger can be saved,” he said.

Singh also narrated how the National Animal was changed from lion to tiger.

“When I joined Mrs Gandhi’s Cabinet in 1967, she asked me to become the chairman of the Indian Board for Wildlife. During our first meeting, I discovered to my surprise that our National Animal was the lion. Now, the lion is found only in one part of Western India, whereas the tiger is found all the way from Uttarakhand to Kerala and from the Sunderbans to Rajasthan,” he said.

“So, in that Board for Wildlife, we passed a resolution requesting the Government to change the National Animal from lion to tiger and the decision was taken by the Cabinet in 1977. That is how the tiger became the National Animal,” he added.

He said that after the change, ‘Project Tiger’ was launched by him in Corbett National Park in 1973 with HS Shankla, “an excellent officer from Rajasthan”, as its first director.

Congress member Kapila Vatsyayan, CPI(M) member Moinul Hassan, RC Khuntia (Cong), Sharad Joshi (SBP), Kanjibhai Patel (BJP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and Najma Heptulla (BJP) also participated in the discussion

Witness to extinction

2009-07-01T22:08:00.001-07:00

i hope i never get the occasion to write such a book, but i wish that i have the courage and the senstivity to do so...

Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin
Oxford University Press
By Samuel Turvey

‘So long and thanks for all the fish’ is the cryptic message by the dolphins as they depart planet earth in a book of the same name by Douglas Adams, who, incidentally, also wrote about the doomed fate of the Yangtze river dolphin in his book Last Chance to See.
What, I wondered, would the last Yangtze river dolphin have said as he bid farewell to the earth: So long…and thanks for nothing.
After all, what would the dolphin have to be thankful for?
That we allowed the tragedy, nay, the travesty of letting it, and the whole mammalian family, the Lipotidae—on this planet for over two million years to go extinct?
That we stood by silently, indifferent to its plight and imminent extinction?
That we reduced its habitat to a toxic, cacophonous superhighway? That, even in its last years, we thrust on it continual indignity, and a horrifying end--hit by boats, trapped in nets, mangled in fishermen’s murderous hooks, blown by dynamite?
Till none remained.
This to a dolphin, the most beloved among all wild creatures, an animal we claim to love, and hold sacred. The baiji is, sorry was, after all the reincarnation of a beautiful princess, a symbol of peace and prosperity, and was known as the Goddess of the Yangtze.
Did I say indifferent? My apologies, that’s way too kind. It would perhaps be more apt to say that we exploited the doomed fate of the Yangtze river dolphin. We allowed it to die. We knew it’s precarious situation for years. As the author says it was “atleast the subject of ineffectual debate and hot air for thirty years.” There were enough conferences and meetings, over and again, enough fund for safe support in surveys and workshops, but so little determination and commitment to make the changes, to take the steps so vital to save the dolphin.
We failed.
And the author minces no words to point at our collective failures.
Who is to blame? The Chinese government, which simply “had no determination to make things happen.” To rise up to the challenge that involves sacrifices, compromises and tough decisions.
But we cannot rest easy by simply pointing the accusatory finger at China. The international community failed to meet this conservation challange. All the big-fancy organisations—even those which professed to save the dolphin as part of its programmes. Funders who did not want to donate to “a lost cause.” Imminent experts and organizations who refused to ascribe to reality but stuck to impractical ideologies. So, we waited till it was too late. Then, the baiji became too high risk a preposition, it would simply reflect too badly on the organsation when the battle was lost. The politics of extinction won the day—the dolphin lost, and went the way of the dodo.
The book that chronicles this sad saga of extinction and our shameful failures stays with you much after the last chapter is over. Sample this: All that’s left on stage are the commemorative baiji statues. As for the baiji itself…it looks like it is the only thing not made in China anymore. (a caustic commentary on the unfortunate side-effects of China’s Great Leap forward, and the race to economic supremacy). Poor old Baiji. You deserved better.”
Yes it certainly did.
As for the culprits—us, Homo sapiens—the horror and the shame and the guilt…how does one live with it?
We not only paved the way for the speedy, undignified extinction of the dolphin—we actually made a circus of it, played out in glitzy press meets, meaningless conferences.
The clock cannot be turned back, the baiji is lost forever, but says Turvey, let its epitaph be that it may help other species to be saved from the manifold mistakes that were made time and again in this pathetic tale.
And therein lies the value of the book. Undoubtedly, Witness to Extinction is a beautifully crafted poignant tale of the doomed dolphin; that makes no apologies and minces no words, spares no feelings. It is tale that needed to be said, a catastrophe that had to be recorded and hats off to the author to have done the job. It certainly wouldn’t have been easy, and hardly self-serving—unlike the attempts-or otherwise-to ‘save’ the baiji.
This isn’t first time we have lost a species to our apathy, and self-serving games. And I fear, it isn’t the last time, either. It all sounds horribly familiar—huge funds in defunct, apathetic hands, games played for the benefit of the gallery. We continue the macabre dance of death, only the central player, the species that occupies centre stage may be different.
There is a lesson in the book for all of us, citizens of Planet Earth, whether we connected to conservation or not.
Read the book—so that such a tragedy is never repeated again.

An interview with Jairam Ramesh

2009-06-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Coming after Baalu and Raja, frankly, any minister is a Godsend. There are simply no standards to meet. I do not imagine things can get any worse.
After an initial statement of making the env ministry more industry-friendly and not a hurdle to 'industry' and other development projects.
That, apparently, is the directive of the Prime Minister, who does not want licensing to be replaced by environmental hurdles.
Jesus! Help
As for the minister, if he delivers 10 per cent of what he promises..i will be a happy woman.

'The Forest Conservation Act Is Sacrosanct’

It’s an unexpected encounter. The Minister of State for Environment and Forests (MoEFF), Jairam Ramesh, seated atop an elephant, is galumphing through Corbett Tiger Reserve hoping to glimpse a tiger. The sight is vaguely reassuring, given the grim state of the country’s wildlife, and the government’s indifference to critical environment issues.
It’s too early to tell if this enthusiasm will translate into real change within the MoEFF. But the ministry has been infused with new energy since the swearing in of the minister on May 28. Jairam Ramesh is on the job tackling issues like the lack of monitoring of environment obligations of industries and development projects.

When I corner the minister in Corbett, he is wearing shorts… and a satisfied smile. He has just seen a tigress “and-a-half” (her cub) who charged the approaching elephant, unconcerned about the VIP status of those seated atop it. It’s the minister’s first tiger, and he is thrilled. And clearly happy to be here—“so much nicer,” he quips waving at the fecund forest, to be looking at this, then at some power plant.” He doesn’t bother that he may have been politically incorrect, Jairam Ramesh is busy listening to sambar make alarm calls, assessing solar lamps in forest chowkis, talking with gujjars about relocation issues, addressing the need for a comprehensive plan to ensure the security of Corbett. In a conversation with Prerna Singh Bindra, Jairam Ramesh outlines his ministry’s strategy for the future.

You have come to the environment ministry from the ‘other side’, i.e., you were the minister of state for commerce and industry and power. Are you a stranger to the subject? And does this explain your first statement, which said, “The environment ministry must be industry-friendly”?
My acquaintance with the natural world began when I was nine and was gifted EP Gee’s The Wildlife of India. The book is a classic with a beautiful foreword by Jawaharlal Nehru that has stayed with me all these years.
I have long had an interest in the subject. I have been tracking the climate change issue ever since it first broke on the international scene and long before it became a buzzword in India. In my capacity as the power minister, I pushed for clean coal. When I called on the prime minister, he told me that the environment ministry should not become an unnecessary, nontransparent and dilatory regulatory hurdle to growth. I was simply referring to that. The PM is concerned about economic growth. That does not imply overlooking environmental concerns, but integrating them with economic development.
However, we have seen environmental concerns eroding on the fast track to development. TEHELKA exposed how the rejection rate of environmental clearances has been less than one percent in the two years since the new Environment Policy came into force.
Yes, I am aware. In my view, the 2006 legislation was detrimental to our ecological security. Let’s face it: our environmental regulations (including Environment Impact Assessment) today, whether they relate to the environment or forestry, meet industrial and not environmental objectives. Mainly because we lack an effective monitoring body and a culture of compliance. Also, successive governments have seen the environment as a cost to be incurred, not as an obligation to be fulfilled. Yes, there is a need to reform regulations. But we need to make them environment-friendly and not industry-friendly.
So you wouldn’t sacrifice the environment for shortterm economical gains.
I concede that sometimes there must be trade-offs. But fundamentally, economic development and ecological security are linked. You cannot have one without the other. To me, the Gross Domestic Product also reads as Green Domestic Product. Ecological security is really the engine that drives the other compartments — power, health, education. If that engine breaks down, then everything collapses.
The problem in our country is that environmental concern is removed from economic development. The two must be integrated at every stage. For example, when you build a power plant, systems and safeguards to minimise environmental impact must be in place. The other problem is that the environment is perceived to be an elitist obsession. It’s not. If you go back to Mrs Indira Gandhi’s 1972 Stockholm speech, she said that the problems of environment are linked to issues of poverty, land degradation, livelihoods, food and water security. Which is why environmental governance must be integral to our growth.
And what’s your government’s commitment to saving the tiger?
We are totally committed to saving the tiger and India’s bio-diversity. I would stop using the label ‘Project Tiger’ and call it ‘Project Eco- System’. We need to communicate effectively that saving the tiger is not some middleclass obsession. It is an ecological imperative — by saving the tiger, you are saving the forests. The tiger is merely the symbol. By saving it, we ensure our water security. Similarily, by saving the snow leopard, we save our mountains; when we protect the river dolphin, we save our river systems.
Another concern is the Protected Areas, which are being fragmented by dams and highways despite The Forest Conservation Act, which, essentially, disallows non-forest activities.
The only thing that Mrs Sonia Gandhi told me when I took over the job is that the Forest Conservation Act is sacrosanct. That’s the Bible for me. Fact is, it is this law that has saved our forests. Before the Act, 1.40 lakh hectares of forest used to be diverted every year. Post the Act, it’s down to 31,000. Naturally, there is a big lobby for liberalising this Act under any pretext. I cannot be party to any decision that allows for significant diversion of forest land. I look upon any proposal for diversion of forest area of over 50 acres with a great deal of scrutiny. I have been turning down proposals for water supply projects and highways cutting through forests. For example, the widening of NH-7, which will cut across the tiger corridor between Pench and Kanha, is definitely not going to pass me.
You took up the issue of stopping illegal mining in Bellary in Karnataka. The mining group that’s involved supports the BJP government in the state. Is this politically motivated?
Not at all. I was informed of illegal mining in Bellary forests, which are of high ecological value. I have asked for more information. If it is illegal, it will be stopped, and this applies to anywhere in India, whether it is a BJP or Congress state. I am aware that illegal mining is also an issue in Goa, and a few other states, and these will be looked into.
‘Our environmental regulations meet industrial and not environmental objectives,’ says Ramesh
The Copenhagen conference is upon us. What is India’s stance on the Climate Change debate? Is India doing enough?
I think the MoEF in successive governments has been far too preoccupied with the international dimension of climate change. There is a strong local and national dimension. One side of the issue is international negotiations, but equally important is the domestic agenda. We are seeing the impact — dry cycles are getting longer in India, glaciers are receding, rivers are drying up, agricultural yields are stagnating. We have to do something. We have eight missions outlined in our National Action Plan for Climate Change. I would say these are eight aspirations, which need to be translated into performance- oriented missions, which will, over a period of time, begin to have an impact - else they are meaningless.
The energy sector is going to be crucial to the domestic debate. We need to show the significant difference between the business-as-usual scenario and a climate changesensitive scenario. If you are going to have a GDP growth of eight percent per year, the energy consumption has to grow by seven percent. How you have that seven percent in a climate change-sensitive manner is the challenge. I am a great believer in technology. It is technology that will help us achieve clean coal, more renewables and more energy efficiency in every sphere.
The Green India plan has met with opposition. It is argued that deforestation is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, and the 11,000 crore CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Agency) fund must be spent in protecting existing forests rather than dead-end plantations.
I believe forest cover is better than monoculture plantations, for the former are multi-layered eco-systems. Our first challenge is to preserve the existing forest cover, roughly 24 percent, and to improve its quality. Nearly 60 percent is degraded forests, which we must improve to high-density forests. That will have a tremendous impact on carbon sequestration. But India’s targetted 33 percentgreen cover can only come from afforestation.

THE AGENDA
Empowered, science-driven Environment Protection Authorities
Specialisation stream in the forest service for improved wildlife management. Debureaucratise the MOEF, and make it a more scientific, professional body, as was envisaged at the time of inception
A tripartite agreement between
National Tiger Conservation Authority, states and Tiger Reserve authorities for shared responsibility
and accountability
Comprehensive security plan including censors and microlight aircraft
Fast tracking a redefined Special Tiger Protection Force.
Plugging back tourism money into tiger reserves and rationalising tourism infrastructure around Protected Areas

There's a tiger in my soup......

2009-05-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Something I wrote on tiger farms...long back

How do you want your Royal Bengal Tiger? Wild and free, as befitting the true king of beasts? Or chopped and brewed into a soup? Crushed and ground into a pill, perhaps? Skinned and fashioned into a rug that drapes the wall? Behind bars, maybe, posing with pigs for tourists?

Don’t let your conscience dictate. You can delude yourself into believing that the slaughtered tiger made the supreme sacrifice -- that he was butchered, skinned, decimated and sold, and the profits used to keep the flame of his dying wild brethren alive.

Introducing the world of tiger farming as a tool of conservation. Breed tigers in captivity, kill them, sell them. The supply of tiger derivatives from the farms will take the heat off, and conserve, wild tigers who are being killed for their skins and bones. Part of the profits can be used to finance to the rehabilitation of a few select ones into the wild. Use the principle of a free market to conserve the animal. After all, say the economists, battery hens have not gone extinct.

If it weren’t so tragic, I would laugh, the logic is so self-defeating. Simply put, this free market medicine for reversing the tiger’s decline is worse than the disease it hopes to cure. The economies of poaching overrule the logic of free market. It costs upwards of $ 3,000 to raise a farmed tiger, but you could get a wild tiger killed for just about $ 10. It makes more business sense to kill tigers for the market than go through the expensive exercise of breeding them in farms. The wild product will always be cheaper. Besides, the consumption of tiger derivatives is motivated by the desire to imbibe the properties of a wild animal – it is the penis of a wild tiger that is believed to boost impotent souls, not one of a tame cat, it is the ‘champagne" of medicines found in the bones of wild tigers that is sought after, not battery-bred pussies.

Even more ridiculous is the notion that tigers born and bred like rabbits in cages have conservation value. They don’t. None at all. It is a well-established fact that captive bred tigers in zoo-like conditions cannot be released and rehabilitated in the wild. A wild tiger cub is ‘trained’ in the art of survival for over two years from its mother. She teaches the cubs to hunt- strength alone will not down prey, young tigers must learn to conceal, attack, hold on to and safeguard their prey from other scavengers. Rough play between siblings is an important step towards learning to defend territories, and so on. Besides, they are too used to humans, therefore vulnerable to poaching, more prone to get into fatal conflict with man, and are also suspect carriers of diseases that will threaten wild populations.

None of this has made any impact on China, a major proponent of the ‘Sell the tiger to save it’ theory. Legalising tiger farming – obviously cloaked under the benevolent motive of conservation -- is being aggressively pushed by China which today has more than 5,000 tigers, owned by private entrepreneurs, and supported by the government, in its farms. Select restaurants in China now openly sell tiger ‘Stir Fried tiger with ginger’ and other such tiger meat delicacies, and you could buy tiger wine, in three different ages, off the shelf, ostensibly from tigers that ‘died’ naturally – if you can believe that. Trade in tiger derivatives is internationally banned, and under international pressure, the Chinese government banned the internal trade in tiger parts in 1993. But, today, the government is lobbying hard to lift this ban. China’s proposal to legalise internal trade in tiger parts was shot down at the CITES (Convention of International Trade on endangered Species) conference held in June 2007. Not that the ban seems to have made any difference. Farms continue with their gory trade, and China has made its intent very clear -- that it would continue to promote tiger farming with the intention of trading in tiger parts,

There is little doubt that giving the trade a legal stamp will be catastrophic. Bones from farmed tigers do not take the heat off wild populations, just the opposite. For one, there is no way, no test to distinguish the bones of farmed tigers from those poached from the wild, giving an opportunity for traffickers to ‘launder’ bones from wild tigers under the guise of legality.

The demand for tiger bones has its lethal impact on India. Looking back in history, in 1990s, the population of tigers again dipped, after a brief reprieve due to the protection accorded by law and conservation of habitat accorded under Project Tiger. It was the first time that tiger poaching was linked to the demand for bones in China. Today, India’s tiger population is at an all time low-there are fewer than 1,300 wild tigers in India –and one of most serious threat remains the demand for skins and bones. The tigers of Sariska were slaughtered for the trade till none remained. As were tigers in Ranthambhore, Panna, Buxa and other reserves across the country –and were the farms to get a legal stamp, it will only provide further impetus.

Farming tigers does not stop the killing, only strict protection does. It is in India and Nepal, countries that have strict protectionist laws that the tiger has survived, not in China, Korea and Thailand that propagate the free market theory, and in fact have been running tiger farms for years. If tiger farming was the answer, why does China have fewer than 25 wild tigers? Remember too, that before law banned hunting in the 1970s, free market ruled the tiger across its range countries – by then tigers had been wiped off 90 per cent of its historical range. A few thousand remained.

Tigers are primarily killed for their bones and other body parts for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine – but the leading experts of TCM now say that they do not want tiger bone-it is giving the medicines a bad name, and there are substitutes.

It would also be worthwhile to look at other species like bears that are milked for bile in the cruelest manner possible in farms, yet they continue to be poached for their bile and gall bladder across South-east Asia, and are today critically endangered. Not only that, there is also trade in live bear cubs to stock the bile farms.

With wild tiger numbers so critically low, the need of the hour is to provide strict protection, save their habitats, not invest hairbrained schemes of eating tigers to save them. The driving force behind the theory of tiger farming is Chinese entrepreneurs who have invested in these farms. The upkeep of tigers is expensive hence the lobby for reopening trade. Farming tigers may serve the Gods of Profit, but only over the grave of wild tigers.

Extinction

2009-05-13T18:55:00.001-07:00

“So what if the tiger goes extinct,” argued the economist, “And, err, what was that you mentioned, the bustard. Who knows it exists? Who will know if it goes?” this with a dry laugh. I wouldn’t even try to calculate in fiscal terms, the benefits of the presence of a top predator, or a bird that denotes a healthy desert grassland—of the value of the timber, the oxygen produced, the water and soil retained, and enriched with minerals, water catchments protected, the carbon stored and sequestered, of the delicate web of life that shall get fatally disrupted as the vital cogs slip, and fall into the netherworld.
So many species lost, forever, existing now only in the annals of history. The cheetah, the mountain quail, the pink-headed duck, the passenger pigeon, the Bali tiger, the Tasmanian tiger, the golden toad-and the latest dear departed—a mammal we claim to love, the Yengtze river dolphin. They died unsung, almost unknown—unlike the Dodo, who, being the most famous of them all, has acquired a status among extinct creatures. And also a certain whimsy, possibly owing to the fact that the little-known dodo was first introduced to the literary world by Lewis Caroll as a character in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, perhaps inspiring the now well-worn phrase, ‘as dead as a dodo’. But do we equate it with the gravity of extinction, or is it merely used to announce the death of a fad, or maybe a career gone wrong? Do we pause to mourn the passing of a large, ungainly, flightless bird eaten, and beaten, out of existence from the island of Mauritius?
Somehow, I think not.
So, you argue, so what? Isn’t extinction a natural phenomenon? Haven’t there been huge die-offs before? After all, an estimated 99.9 per cent of the species that have ever appeared on this planet are now gone forever.
But the high extinction rate at the moment is unique, the ‘sixth extinction’ is the fastest in the earth's 4.5-billion-year history—by some estimates we lose three to four species an hour. The mass extinctions suffered before were the result of a natural phenomenon. Like the giant meteorite that hit earth some 65 million years ago, destroying much of life, including the dinosaurs. But life reshaped itself, and a new evolution begun again, and there are those who say that once we are done with ravaging the planet, and all that’s in it, nature will simply renew itself. It might unnerve us to know that the extinctions of yore took with them the culprits—the species that dominated, and destroyed the earth. Which should be indicative of what lies in store for us.
If nature does manage to start from scratch again, new life on earth might not include us. For we must remember, that this sixth extinction is not being caused by any demon meteor, but by we, the people. And unlike the meteor, we know what we are doing. About what we destroy, and what we do to Planet Earth, and its creatures.
So many have gone, so many waiting to go, their numbers down to mere hundreds and declining by the day: The bustard, the dugong, the red panda, the pointy-nosed frog, the Ramaswaran parachute spider, the dancing deer, and...the royal Bengal tiger?
The future of the country’s wildlife is questionable as it struggles against multifold threats-poaching, habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, and sheer lack of political will to back conservation. The leopard is massacred in great numbers for skin and bones, the rare Asiatic lion-just about 350 of them--faces a litany of threats in its last refuge, Gir National Park. Tuskers are killed for their tusks, and slaughtered as conflicts between man and elephant intensify. The Lion-tailed macaque faces habitat fragmentation in its only home in the Western Ghats, barely 150 hanguls struggle for survival in land ravaged by the gun.
It’s not only the charismatic and the cuddly that are on the list of the doomed-they merely command more attention, inspire more sympathy. They are not the only ones that need to be protected. Snakes and frogs and insects and bacteria—life on earth needs all of them. Impossible as it may seem if the planet lost its beneficial bacteria, it would devastate us—and the death of something as innocuous as bees would mean we would soon be gone. It’s a keystone species. And to repeat Albert Einstein's apocalyptic view, “ 'If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.' And for the record, there has been a catastrophic decline in bee populations, across the world.
Biodiversity is vital for the survival of life on earth. Everything is related, linked, nothing exists in isolation, but in a symbiotic relationship. The loss of crucial links in the chain, and life as we know it would collapse like the proverbial house of cards.
For the moment, I would rather not worry over what will beget us if we continue on this merry path of destruction. Or calculate the losses in economic terms. I would just like you to think: Would I, would you, want to live in a world devoid of diversity; the environment, only a homogenous structure of gray and concrete? Where the only architecture is that of Homo sapiens, built over the graveyard of God’s creations. Where the forests-if any exist at all-are silenced of the roar of the tiger-where the only bird that streaks across the sky is the crow-scavenging of the rubbish of man. Where no whales swim the seas, no elephants tread the land, no peacocks dance to woo their mates, no butterflies flitter from flower to flower, no new leaves unfurl, no tree takes root....
Does this carry a price, can its value be measured?
Or would you say, it’s priceless?

On the tiger hunt....

2009-05-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

Enjoy this poem--authored by a Bengali teacher--or so the story goes..

Through the jongole I am went
On shooting Tiger I am bent
Boshtaard Tiger has eaten wife
No doubt I will avenge poor darling's life
Too much quiet, snakes and leeches
But I not fear these sons of beeches
Hearing loud noise I am jumping with start
But noise is coming from damn fool's heart
Taking care not to be fright
I am clutching rifle tight with eye to sight
Should Tiger come I will shoot and fall him down
Then like hero return to native town
Then through trees I am espying one cave
I am telling self - "Bannerjee be brave"
I am now proceeding with too much care
From far I smell this Tiger's lair
My leg shaking, sweat coming, I start pray
I think I will shoot Tiger some other day
Turning round I am going to flee
But Tiger giving bloody roar spotting Bengalee
He bounding from cave like footballer Pele
I run shouting "Kali Ma tumi kothay gele"
Through the jongole I am running
With Tiger on my tail closer looming
I am a telling that never in life
I will risk again for my damn wife!!!!*

UPA on the environment scale

2009-05-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

‘F’ for failed-is how Bittu Sahgal, Editor, Sanctuary Asia, rates the current government performance on the environment scale, and I couldn’t agree with him more.

In its steady (or should one say unsteady) march to development, environment concerns have been but a blip, casually disregarded and steamrolled over. The most ‘visible’ failure is the tiger—I wouldn’t even fault the government by pointing an accusatory finger on the number-1,411 tigers (and falling)-the lowest numbers ever in the history of the big cat. My problem is with political doublespeak: We shall save the tiger, vows the Prime Minister, even as the other hand signs away vital tigerland to highways, dams, mines, power thermal plants, neutron laboratories. You don’t need to be a scientist to understand that tigers need space—habitat to survive. Yet, under the current UPA regime the loss of forests-including critical wildlife habitats--has been unprecedented. The government has cut at the very root, weakening and diluting existing protectionist policies and laws, ironically framed by the Congress government under the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The first big blow was the revised National Environment Policy 2006 which carries not an environmental, but an economic agenda. The revised policy has been heavily critiqued as it gives sweeping powers to the states, does not have effective monitoring systems in place, pays lip service to involvement of local people and is mere greenwash, essentially more industry than environment friendly.

According to law all major development, infrastructural and industrial projects require a comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment, but the new EIA notification that came into force on September 14, 2006 has done away with the inconvenience of green concerns. According to investigations by the EIA Response Centre (ERC), since the two years the notification came into force almost all submitted projects have sailed through the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Every industrial project for which approval was sought was cleared: 952 industries approved, none rejected, neither did the 134 thermal power plants face any environmental hiccups. For the record--that’s 2,019 projects cleared, averaging four projects per working day.

Let’s look at the case of the ecologically fragile Konkan region which is set to become the hub of coal and nuclear power plants, besides stripping open pristine forests, and prime agricultural land for mining. This will also destroy the livelihood of the local people who depend on fisheries and horticulture, notably the alphanso mango, which is unique to the region.

Our political leaders may espouse the holy cause of democracy, but the pedestal is a flimsy one, as democratic voices are drowned by pecuniary concerns. For example, the EIA process has simply disregarded the voice of the local people affected by the projects. There is no door that the aggrieved party can knock on. The National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA), to whom aggrieved parties may appeal against EIA clearance) has bowed to profit motive as well. It has dismissed every appeal filed in the last 11 years — since it was formed — save one. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh also holds the post of the Minister of Environment and Forests, but as is evident, under his august tutelage, India simply has no environment governance system to speak of.

An official in the MoEF says there has never been so much “interference from the PMO for granting environmental clearances to projects”. The PMO is either directly or indirectly brokering the clearance of ecologically destructive projects. One prime example of the sheer disregard for ecological concerns is that the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of Dibang Multi-Purpose Project in Arunachal Pradesh, in January 2008, in the face of stiff local opposition, much before the mandatory environmental clearance It is alleged that the ministry is a mere rubber stamp for corporate lobbyists-obviously for financial favours. Writes environmental activist Nityanand Jayaram, “between 2003 and 2007, the Congress party received Rs 52 crores in declared contributions, as per Election Commission of India records. Of this, 75 percent, came from companies and organisations that would benefit from any relaxation of environmental regulation.”

It is the same norm that ruled the land rush for SEZ’s—the formula of buying (usually forcibly or under deceit) land at dirt cheap rates to give it to profit making industries on a platter even in eco-sensitive zones, has met with bitter opposition across the country.

The Coastal Regulation Zone, drafted under the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1991, seeks to protect our fragile coastal areas, from mindless development. This is proposed to be replaced by the CZM notification which is one more example of the government’s doublespeak on environment matters, and in keeping with the trend of recent dilution of policies/laws. The protection and conservation of coastal areas is now subsumed by economic interests, and tends to favour Special Economic Zones and Special Tourism areas over the concerns of fishermen and other coastal communities whose lives-and livelihood are interwoven with a healthy marine biodiversity. True to form, the fishing community was not even consulted in the process, and are up in arms against CZM.

Then came the Schedule Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights ) Act, 2006, which essentially provided the political class legal means to barter land for votes. The UPA government of course, takes all credit for passing, “this historic act,” but has provided a platform for all parties, including the UPA president asking for votes-after they had granted them land, hadn’t they? The Act essentially gives away forest land, into private hands, and unfortunately, has opened the floodgates for destruction of forest land. Whether tribals will benefit is a moot question, but the land mafia has already moved in. The Forest Rights Act, with all its disastrous ramifications has been described as “the single greatest negative anti-forest action ever taken by any government in the history of India, “ by M K Ranjitinsh, who was instrumental in shaping the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, in Sanctuary.

It was Mrs Indira Gandhi’s remarkable vision that saw the shaping of strict legislation that ensured the protection of wildlife and forests, and saw the birth of Project Tiger. But for a family that’s rides on the plank of dynasty when it goes to poll, the Congress, as the mainstay of UPA, has sold the sound legacy of its most charismatic leader to votes.

The Enemy Within

2009-04-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

Simlipal Tiger Reserve has been ravaged by naxals. We (i was accompanied by Adiya Panda) were the first to go in and witness the devastation Here is an account...

A savage attack by profiteering Naxals has almost broken the back of a major tiger
In happier times, this was the best hour of the day to be at Chahala in the heart of Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Orissa. As the fading rays of the sun filtered through the canopy, animals would gather at the salt lick for their daily dose of minerals. Cheetal, sambar, elephants. Predators followed prey, the occasional leopard, and just a few days back—the royal Bengal tiger had made its rare appearance.
There is nothing here now, no sign of life. The silence is eerie, not a reflection of the peace that is a blessing of the forest. I take in the devastation: The range office has been reduced to cinders, the wireless system smashed, files and wildlife monitoring registers burnt to ash, motorcycles burnt, the rest house furniture, toilets have been demolished.
It couldn’t get worse. It does.
The bark of a dog shatters the deathly stillness—and we follow the sound to catch a party of hunters armed with bows and arrows, spears and charra, the local gun. We give them the chase but they are just too fast, and too familiar with the forest.
Our worst fear has been proved true—with Simlipal virtually abandoned, poachers are having a field day at the reserve.
I had gone to Simlipal following the news that naxals had struck the tiger reserve at 8.30 pm on March 28, 2009. The attack continued through the night, and a week thereafter. The first strike was a masterstroke: The main VHF tower at Meghasani, Similipal’s highest peak was destroyed, effectively cutting off communication. Forest chowkis, vehicles, rest houses were ransacked and burnt, rangers and forest guards were tied and beaten, as were the tourists. Posters demanding the “death of Project Tiger” and threats to burn the forest were put up. The attacks were across the 3,000sq km reserve, though concentrated at its most vulnerable points—Chahala, Upper Barhakamuda, Devasthali, Gudgudiya, Patbil, Jenabil, Joranda—all in the critical core area where virtually all wildlife is concentrated.
The forest department fled the field. “We were told not to come back to our posts, else we would be killed,” says Narhari Naik, a forest guard and witness to the carnage. Obviously, none of the forest staff has dared return, and there are just two units of the Special Operation Group that stand guard at two posts inside, most of the park—specifically the core lies unattended. Simlipal, one of our largest and finest tiger reserves, is open for loot.
“At your own risk,” I am warned, when I put forth to the proposal of going inside to the authorities. There may still be some movement of naxals, there could be landmines—they didn’t know. I cover some vital areas—Nawana, skirt Joranda, remove trees that block our way to Gudgudia from Chahala, and though we try to make our way to Upper Barhakamuda, information is the bridge has been blown up.
The scheme of events, the damage, and talking with locals, officials and the police shows a clear pattern. The motive is clear—the carnage was aimed to break the back of forest administration and thereby ‘free’ the forest of any control whatsoever. The timing of the attack is suspicious too, on the eve of the akhand shikar—a month-long annual ritual of the local tribals who go on a mass hunting spree armed with indigenous weaponry, killing everything in sight. And on the eve of elections when the concentration of the police is solely on election duty. Forces for other any other purpose—however vital—are simply unavailable. The field is clear now. Not just for akhand shikar—but for poachers who have been targeting Simlipal constantly over the years. Forest officials admit there has been “serious loss” in tiger numbers, and no less than eight to 10 tuskers are killed every year.
The attack had local support, say police officials. And it served a dual purpose—by clearing the ground for akhand shikar it sent a clear message to the locals that the naxals were with them, thus paving the way to establish themselves in Simlipal. “Most activities of the forest-dwellers were anti-conservation—be it ritual hunting, tree-felling etc. thus nurturing a hostility vis-a-vis the forest department, the naxals have exploited and used it to their purpose,” points out a police official. Worryingly, it also leaves the field clear for the illegal trade of timber and sal patta trade. Its big business running into crores—“which will help finance naxal activity, as has been witnessed in other extremist-ridden areas.” Naxals sheltering in forests, and deriving their finances from trading in forest produce and to a certain extent wildlife derivatives like ivory, rhino horn tiger skins etc is a pan-Indian phenomenon, according to intelligence sources.
I talk to the local villagers. They are reluctant, almost hostile, when questioned. Most assert that they are fine with the forest department and wash their hands of the current mayhem. “I was fast asleep, after a good drink of hadiya,” says Mata Alda of Lanjhaghesra village near Gudgudia—though say police sources this was the same village that had held a huge meeting barely a month back basically as a show of strength against the forest department. It is suspected that naxal elements were also present.
The current siege is however just the latest blow to a problem-ridden Simlipal—the final straw that will destroy the park—unless we act now. The attack was a result of a meticulous plan, indicating naxal presence in the park for a considerable period, though their presence went unnoticed, a tragic failure on the part of the forest department. Forest officials express their helplessness—Nagaraja Reddy, the Simlipal director, says they are understaffed, and unequipped. At present to man the entire reserve, there are barely 40 guards-most nearing retiring age. “We had no choice but to surrender,” says a forest official.
Have we “surrendered” Simlipal, and our national animal? As things stand now, yes And as naxals within the state enjoy a covert political patronage it seems they are here to stay—in the forests, now sanctuary to naxals—not to tigers.

BOX:

SAVE SIMLIPAL:
Immediately deploy para-military forces
In the long run prepare a dedicated Wildlife Protection Force along the lines of para-military forces.
Equip and train forest department. Fill staff shortage
Villages within the reserve especially the core are to be rehabilitated.

Terai I: Rajaji National Park

2009-04-13T10:50:00.001-07:00

Young Rajaji Park tigress waiting for mate for four long years

Rajaji National Park

The Shivalik-Gangetic plain or the Terai Arc landscape stretches from Kalesar Wildlife Sanctuary in Haryana to Valmiki in Bihar… and beyond to Chitwan and Parsa in Nepal. Its 20,800 sq km (on the Indian side) comprises a network of protected areas, ie Kalesar, Rajaji, Corbett, Dudhwa, Suhelwa and Valmiki, connected in part by vital wildlife corridors and otherwise fragmented and surrounded by agriculture, and the press of the densest human population in the world. This landscape has been identified as a critical tiger habitat vital to the long-term survival of the Royal Bengal Tiger. Here rests the last hope for the tiger. Prerna Singh Bindra travels through the Terai - the land of the tiger, ridden with pressures, threats, conflicts…and hope.

I could hear her call, consistently, through the night. She is a tigress in her prime, calling for a mate…but to no avail, there is no answering call. “The ‘Dholkhand’ tigress has lived a lonely existence for the past four years. With me is Negiji, a forest guard, who has the duty of keeping track of the tigress. He bears the burden of worry, as any guardian would, “She needs a mate, else she will die unmarried,” he mourns. His worry is not unfounded, for it has grave connotations, in a sense the lonely tigress is symbolic of the fate of the tiger in this forest. With her will die the critically endangered Panthera tigris in this part of the world, which is the north-westerly limit of the range of the tiger. There are no males here, in the western side of the Rajaji National Park that had recorded eight different tigers between 2000 and 2003. Yet, all is not lost, there is still hope. There are tigers on the eastern side of the park, two males in their prime who could serve our lonely tigress well — except that both these sectors have been bisected by various development projects and human habitation, rendering it virtually impossible for tigers, and other wild animals like elephants, to cross over. Though subject to many pressures, primarily a burgeoning human population, the western part of the park connects with Kalesar sanctuary in Haryana and is a 1,800 sq km of good tiger habitat with the potential to hold no less than 60 tigers. However, last heard, it housed just the one. With no link to any ‘source’ population of tigers, ie, a substantial breeding population in a good, inviolate habitat, the area is virtually empty of tigers.
Rajaji forms the fag end of the Terai Arc landscape, which has been identified as a critical tiger habitat, crucial to the future survival of the tiger. The Terai (‘lowlands’ for Sanskrit), frames a grand, if utopian conservation dream, of a network of contiguous forests and wildlife corridors along the landscape, stemming from the scientifically established fact that tigers and other large mammals cannot survive in isolated islands.
The first critical link in the Terai landscape is the Chilla-Motichur corridor which forms the only connect between the two parts of Rajaji. This, however, is all but eroded by the developmental onslaught that began in the late 60s, with the establishment of the raiwala ammunition dump followed by rehabilitation of evacuees from Tehri dam in the Khandgaon settlements. A 13-km-long Chilla power channel cuts through the park, as does a railway line and a national highway, both heavily trafficked since this connects Delhi to the State capital Dehradun. There is an antibiotic factory, besides an array of ashrams, thanks to the proximity of the holy cities of Hardwar and Rishikesh that all but jut into the park.
The eastern side of the park has a population of about eight tigers, including breeding females. Chilla in Eastern Rajaji has gradually been made free of human habitat, and combined with the connectivity to Corbett Tiger Reserve, has ensured a remarkable recovery of tigers.
“Importantly”, points out A Christy Williams, Coordinator of WWF’s Asian elephant and rhino conservation programme. “The Chilla-Motichur corridor is also critical for the long term survival for elephants. Young males need to disperse from their natal ranges if they are to breed successfully, and for genetic variability.
“However, the bottleneck at Chilla-Motichur has divided and fragmented the habitat-rendering free movement of wildlife impossible. Such fragmentation will only lead to the extinction of free ranging species, such as tigers and elephants in the long run. If they are to survive here in the future, it is vital to restore this fragile link,” says Bivash
Pandav, Coordinator Tiger & Asian Big Cats, WWF International.
One way to maintain connectivity of the Chilla-Motichur corridor, especially in the face of an expected increase in rail-traffic, is to widen the two existing underpass, under the railway tracks cutting through the park. This will ensure a safe passage for tigers, leopards and elephants. Unfortunately, the issue is currently the subject of a heated debate, and is before the Supreme Court. The other upcoming threat is the plan to convert the road into a six-lane highway, to counter which, a flyover has been proposed.
“The underpass and the flyover are workable solutions,” stresses AJT Johnsingh, former Dean of Wildlife Institute of India. “If we can ensure the Chilla-Motichur link, and ease it off human pressures like grazing, feulwood, lopping, encroachments, we will have about 6000 sq km of potential tiger habitat from Kalesar in Haryana through western and eastern Rajaji to Corbett and a bit beyond till the Goula tiver near Haldwani.”
Efforts are also on to remove the other bottlenecks in the corridor. Director of Rajaji SS Rasaily informs that the rehabilitation of Khadgaon has been initiated and the Army has, in principle, agreed to shift the camp from Raiwala. Reportedly, the matter is stuck at getting clearances for the alternate site.
Can we do it? Grant the wild animals safe passage, and a secure haven…and the lone tigress of western Rajaji a mate? Or, will she be the last link of this majestic beast in this part of the world…yet another local extinction, much like Sariska.

Solutions
Establishing the Chilla-Motichur corridor is priority. The Raiwala Army Ammunition camp and Khadgaon village must be shifted on a priority basis.
Widen the underpass under the railway track to facilitate elephant and tiger movement. At the same time, says Srikant Chandola, Chief Wildlife Warden Uttarakhand, a flyover must be built over the corridor to ensure that increased vehicular traffic from the proposed six-lane highway does not cut off the movement of wildlife across this critical bottleneck
Include Hardwar Forest Division within the management of Rajaji, to help reduce conflict and strengthen connectivity. Remove the illegal ashrams that have encroached on corridors, and forests around Rajaji. All of the above is also essential if we are to reduce man-animal conflict which is increasing by the day.

Terai II: Rajaji: Relocation

2009-04-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

Ghaindikatha, Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand: They call it their second life. And it is, in many ways. “The old ways are gone,” muses 55-year-old Mohammed Yusuf Haji, not without a hint of nostalgia. But he wouldn’t go back to it--or to the dera they lived in, in Chilla, Rajaji National Park. It was difficult, living in the heart of the forest. Fear was a constant companion, and they lacked even the basic amenities. Many lost their own, before they could avail of medical facilities in the nearest town. “We couldn’t venture out at night, whatever be the compulsion, haathi ka dar tha. There was no electricity, roads were washed away by the rains,” says Smita Gujjar. And there were no schools, no hope for a brighter future. Md Yusuf smiles down at his granddaughter, Nazia, a student of Class I. “I can afford to dream now…she will become a doctor or a teacher. There are two schools here in Ghaindikatha, with about 600 children enrolled,” he adds. The gujjars lived in an exploitative barter economy, exchanging their prized milk for necessities like foodgrain, oil, and even cloth and shoes supplied to them by the seth, who had the milk collected. Now, that they are part of the mainstream and their village just off the main highway they command the market price for their milk, and in fact handle the dairy business themselves ensuring a good turnover. When they were shifted out of Chilla, the government also gave them land, two acres per family—which produces two crops in a year. But what matters most is the sense of identity. “We have an address now, jungle mein hum gumnaam the—with no entity. Now, the postman delivers my letters to Babu Mohammed, Ghaindikatha,” says Babu Mohammed. The fact that they now live collectively, unlike the scattered manner in the forest has made them a 4000-strong political base that the politicians woo, “especially now as election fever is on,” says Babu Mohammed. “We have come a long way,” he adds.
The Gujjars, essentially a nomadic tribe, came to the Shivalik hills nearly 200 years ago as part of the dowry of a princess from Himachal Pradesh. Over the years, they settled here, and by the year 2000, Rajaji had a population of some 6,000 gujjars, with their 15,000 odd cattle, making for immense biotic pressure: Cattle had trampled and ruined the grasslands, the nullah running through Chilla had been reduced to a toxic trickle making it unfit for elephants and ungulates, and the gujjars lopped trees to feed their livestock. With such intense disturbance, wildlife had all but disappeared. Pugmarks, and other such signs of the tiger was very rare. An extensive survey on the eastern bank, which has the Chilla range, had yielded not a single pugmark in January 2003. The writing was on the wall: tigers were declining, fast..and their future, if at all, looked bleak.
Then, in an exercise that lasted over an year, 193 Gujjar families from Chilla were resettled in Ghaindikatha in February 2003, and the forest in Chilla got another lease of life. To understand the impact on the forest after the removal of human and livestock pressure, a study was initiated by Wildlife Institute of India to scientifically monitor vegetation, ungulates and tiger recovery. The findings were heartening. The forest regenerated, grasslands grew back, the prey base returned, and predators followed the prey. Tigers are back in Chilla. On January 6, 2005, barely two years after Chilla had been made free of human pressures the camera captured a picture of a lactating tigress. Tigers were breeding in Chilla sending a strong signal of a healthy eco-system. It may be pertinent to note that the last evidence of breeding was some 18-years-ago when a three-month old dying cub was brought to WII from Chilla. Currently, there are reported to be eight tigers in Chilla, with three cubs.
Here is a strong message, for the messiahs of co-existence, who create laws and shape faulty policies that propagate the myth that tigers and people can live happily together. Wish they could see the rehabilitated gujjars in Ghaindikatha, and the rejuvenation of wildlife at Chilla. This is a win-win situation—sensitive rehabilitation of forest dwellers from within critical tiger habitats—that must be replicated all along the Protected Areas of the Terai Arc Landscape, i.e Dudhwa, Katarniaghat, Valmiki; and indeed tiger reserves across the country. Dr Y.V Jhala who co-authored the recent All India survey of tigers and co-predators points out that the study scientifically proved that tigers need undisturbed , inviolate spaces to survive.
Here was living proof of the same.
However, Chilla could not have seen this miraculous recovery without its tenuous connectivity with Corbett Tiger Reserve through the Landsdowne Forest division. Experts believe that tigers may have migrated to Chilla from the buffer zones of Corbett, after the Gujjars were relocated, which only serves to emphasise the significance of conservation of these connecting corridors. Similarly, these narrow forest corridors are also vital migratory paths for male elephants to disperse. A female led group uses these ancient migratory paths especially during times of stress, for plenty of water and food. If such access is blocked, it can only lead to bitter conflicts, with fatalities to both man and elephant.
The Solutions
• 878 families of the total of 1,390 have shifted out of Rajaji, and rehabilitation of the remaining needs to be taken up on a priority basis.
• The Chilla-Gohri range is contagious to Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) through Landsdown forest division—the corridor needs to be strengthened, and brought under the management of CTR—the proposal for which is pending with the Uttarakhand government

Terai III: Corbett

2009-04-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

Wayward tourists hit heart of tiger country

Prerna Singh Bindra | Corbett Tiger Reserve

If you were to liken the Terai to a human body, Corbett would be the heart, the lifeline, if you like — the part or ‘the source population’ that supports and keeps alive the adjacent forests, and to an extent even protected areas like Rajaji.

It’s amongst our oldest tiger reserves, with the highest density of tigers in India — almost 20 per 100 sq km, with 164 tigers as indicated by the recent all India survey of tigers and co-predators. Tigers are usually an easy sight, and ‘the land of trumpet and roar’ keeps its promises.

For how long, though? There is trouble brewing in paradise, and sadly, the decay of India’s finest park has begun. There are many issues that plague the park, but of utmost concern would be the increasing laxity in protection, and secondly, mismanaged wayward tourism.

I arrive just days after a tiger had been declared a man-eater, for killing a woman who entered the reserve. The woman’s body was intact, not eaten by the tiger, raising questions whether he was a man-eater at all or if it was an accidental killing, but that’s another story; and the tiger — a male in his prime, was tranquilised, trapped (on Feb 11) and is now serving time at the Nainital zoo.

Bad enough but worse is that one of the precipitating factors in his sorry fate was the fact that he was baited to entertain cat-obsessed tourists. According to reliable sources, the baiting was done by some resorts that operate elephant safaris and charge top dollar from their clients for a ‘guaranteed’ tiger sighting.

The tiger had marked Garajia, part of the buffer zone of the reserve as his territory, just across the road from Dhikuli, where most of the tourist resorts are concentrated. Elephant safaris are allowed here in Garajia, and to ensure a tiger sighting, resorts reportedly put dead bait (a live one would make too much noise, and draw attention) to lure the tiger - as they franticly ferried the tourists — eight to 10 safaris in a day for the stage-managed tiger show.

Reliable sources affirm that some resorts are also known to throw huge amounts of meat in their backyard, to attract the big cats - who frequent this path from Corbett upto the Kosi river. It is what you would call a well-kept secret. Everyone talks about it, the villagers, the foresters, the guides, the issue was even raised at a meeting of tour operators held late February, but no one is willing to go on record.

When I try to delve deeper, I am warned off - one such person who ‘asked too many questions’ was beaten up.

And no, he doesn’t want to be named either, says he ‘has suffered enough, and is better out of it.’ Baiting, and the consequent increasing interface with humans familiarises the tigers with humans, and they lose their instinctive fear of man. This changing interface could lead to unnatural behavior - like killing a human, who isn’t part of its natural diet.

Vinod Singhal, director of Corbett, doesn’t rule out baiting. “It’s possible, and we are investigating the matter,” says Singhal talking to The Pioneer. “And meanwhile we have put a stop to the elephant safaris.” Another major worry is that the onslaught of resorts - 60 and counting - is blocking a vital corridor that connects CTR to the Ramnagar Forest Division.

The other vital bottleneck in this corridor is the Sundarkhal encroachment between Garajia and Dhangadi gate -- which has long been patronised by politicians and powerful business interests who are pressing for legalising this encroachment. If so, it will only serve to accentuate conflicts, and tragedies like these, as the press of human population and the slew of resorts increases.

While the guardians of the forest are voluble in their critique of tourism, they - both Singhal and Chief Wildlife Warden Shrikant Chandola -- vehemently deny that poaching is a threat, ‘not in Corbett.’ But in the secrecy of closed doors at a meeting of senior forest officials last week, the unpalatable truth was out - tigers, leopards and elephants of not just Corbett but all of Uttarakhand were at their most vulnerable, poaching was at its peak.

News has just come in that a tiger - the second within a week - was found dead on March 17 in Dhela range in the Kalagarh Forest Division, and while the cause of death is suspected as and sources suggest that it could be a case of possible poaching, the department dismisses the death as ‘natural’ saying that it was killed by a male tiger. Both these deaths took place in the southern part of the reserve, adjoining the Bijnor district, which is ‘a problem area.’

On December 31, 2008, the putrefying dead body of a tusker was found buried in an agricultural field on the southern periphery of the reserve. “In the past eight-nine months,” informs a senior official, “we have lost one or two elephants a month on an average, and the number of tiger deaths are unnaturally high, and need to be looked into. Most cases are passed off as natural. That’s simply not true - we are also losing our animals to revenge killings by villagers and poaching. We need to address the issue, not hide it.” The problem may not lie so much within the reserve, but the buffer and the forests around are especially vulnerable, and the cancer will soon spread within Corbett, unless steps are not taken urgently.

Yet… even the basics are missing. A senior official informs that daily wagers have not been paid for the past nine months - why would they be motivated to protect? Little wonder then, that a tiger skin and bones were recovered from Ramnagar in January, reportedly ‘sourced’ from the periphery of Corbett. Four kilos of tusk were recovered buried near the Dhangadi gate on March 2, a poacher, with linkages to wildlife criminal Sansar Chand was caught in the reserve last year, while another confessed to killing a tiger in Ramnagar forest division, adjacent to Corbett.

NTCA Member Secretary Rajesh Gopal says he has repeatedly urged the State for a Tiger Conservation Plan for the core and buffer zones of the reserve but to no avail. There have also been repeated reminders to strengthen the protection of Corbett and surrounding forest divisions.

The good news is that Corbett continues to be a safe, productive haven for tigers and elephants but not for long if we continue to ignore the warning signals and allow the rot to sink in.

Solutions

Tighten protection. Induct young motivated staff. Equip current staff

Include Lansdowne, West Terai and Ramnagar Forest Division into the management of Corbett. Proposal pending with State Government

Protection must be strengthened in Bijnore Forest division in UP, which borders southern Corbett, and is most sensitive to poaching. This must also be under the management of Corbett. Though the Centre has long pressed the UP Government for the same, the State, however, has not bothered

Shift priority from tourism to conservation

Terai IV: Pilibhit, Dudhwa, Kishanpur

2009-04-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Pilibhit Forest Division & Dudhwa Tiger Reserve: Fragmented tracts of forests rich with megafauna like tigers, leopards, elephants and rhinos living cheek by jowl, or should we say amidst, the densest population in the world i.e. about 783 people per sq km—that’s what the Terai is. Pressed, surrounded and bisected by agriculture, human habitation, development and infrastructural projects all through. Little wonder then that the region is reeling under severe man-animal conflict, starting from Rajaji—where elephants their ancient migratory paths obliterated, and taken over by human habitation are brutally killed by man- for instance, last year no less than a 100 bullets were pumped into the body of an elephant that ventured into the fields. ‘Straying’ elephants suffer the same fate around Corbett. I pass through Bilahar in North Kheri, where they beat and burnt a leopard to death. But my ground zero is Pilibhit Forest Division and Kishanpur, part of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve--though only with a precarious connect.
It is not my first halt; yet in many ways, the journey begins here, this is where the idea of traversing the Terai landscape took root, beginning with the tragedy of Barabanki-Faizabad tigress. She was killed as a ‘maneater’, and is believed to have originated from Pilibhit—which is one of the most conflict prone areas in the Terai. These were historically rich tigerlands, but during partition and onwards, huge tracts of grasslands and forests were cleared to make way for agriculture, chiefly sugarcane. Consequently, the region has historically been conflict prone.
Let’s look at the situation now. In the year 2004, 12 people were killed by tigers in the Pilibhit Forest Division. The mortalities dipped a bit since then, but early this year, the situation took on the tones of a tragic-drama with three ‘problem’ tigers on the prowl. The Barabanki-Faizabad, tigress met a grisly end from the hunter’s gun, the Kishanpur tiger which killed four people was tranquilised, and packed off to the Lucknow zoo, while the third, luckier than the others, has been driven back into the forest.
Why is the region so plagued by conflict-with man and tiger thrown into a bitter battle?
Part of the answer lies in the Bhira bazaar, and reportedly, other such haats across the region. Bhira is a village bordering Kishanpur. It’s a small bazaar, but it sells a precious, if ill-gotten, commodity-venison. It’s cheap, about Rs 100 a kilo-and serves a varied palette—there is sambhar, cheetal, wild boar, barking deer, wild hare, and on the odd occasion even the critically endangered swamp deer-“because they are quite a simple shot.” It’s not available off the shelf, but for ‘a regular’ it is an easy buy. Privately, the forest officials worry that the prey base in Kishanpur and Pilibhit has dropped alarmingly, though they are chary of going on record. J S Kaler, a wildlifer based in Bhira explains that most, if not all, households in these parts posses guns—be it licensed or unlicensed. They make good use of it, infact till about two years back there used to hunting camps in Kishanpur, where the target was flushed out by beaters. While that is past history, the carnage hasn’t stopped, anyone looking for a feast, or a quick buck, goes for the kill. Such an off-take ensures that there is a paucity of natural prey base for the tiger—who must then stray out in search of prey…into the sugarcane fields which begin where the forest ends-no pause, no buffer in between. The tiger simply can’t differentiate, the field is his natural habitat—for the sugarcane grass belongs to the same genre as the wild grasses that offer shelter in the jungle. It offers perfect camaflouge, the tall grasses make for a perfect nursery, there is prey—wild boars which dig in for the succulent grasses, cattle, neelgai etc. There is little disturbance for atleast six months, till the sugarcane is cut at the onset of winter, and that is when conflict peaks.
There is simply no buffer between the forest and the fields, which is vital to minimise conflicts, and is a basic premise for tiger reserves. The other cause, rues legendary conservationist Billy Arjan Singh is increasing familiarity with humans, “and sheer mismanagement. Our forest officers are not equipped for wildlife management.” Agrees Dr Rajesh Gopal, member secretary, NTCA who stresses that, “there is an absence of professional leadership or understanding of the nature of the animal, coupled with an absolute lack of political support.” The result? Tigers are declared man-eaters post-haste, with awards on their head—“defeating the very purpose of tiger conservation.” Sources say that so intense is the political pressure that officers are told to kill tigers-or leopards-as the case maybe, now, else lose their jobs. Political interference is apparent in just about every face of forest management, the day I arrive in Pillibhit, the DFO in charge has been shifted out in haste. I am told, strictly off the record, that he packed off because “he was not lenient on the timber mafia, well-connected in political circles.” The result? Pillibhit, a crucial connect between Dudhwa and Royal Shuklaphanta Reserve across the border, and home to no less than 20 tigers and other critically endangered species like the Swamp Deer and the Hispid Hare, is without a head, for an indeterminate period, at the very least, till the elections are over. Another example concerns the shifting of a village from within Dudhwa, which has taken on the tones of vote politics, with politicians taking up the “cause” of the forest dwellers, though the villagers themselves have expressed their eagerness to shift. Again, conflict will only spiral if people continuing to live within tiger reserves.
The same issues, that follow me all through the Terai persist even in Dudhwa—the state has not yet released funds for the reserve, daily wagers who work as guards, trackers etc have not been paid till 2007, and there has been no fresh recruitment for the past three decades, inspite of a severe staff crunch.
Yet the tiger survives, against all odds..so say the set of pugmarks on the sand, a mating pair most likely, that I spot on my way out from Pilibhit. Perhaps we could lend out national animal a helping hand?
Solutions:
• Pilibhit has been given the in principle approval by the centre as a tiger reserve, but the state is delaying to declare it. This must be done at the earliest.
• Landscape level planning. A buffer zone around critical tiger habitats. No sugarcane till atleast 500 mts –but short crops like arhar, where tigers and leopards cannot take refuge.
• Increasing awareness in the fringe villages. Providing gas chullas, or fuel efficient chullas to ease the pressure off forests. The WWF is working on this with the active support of the forest department.
• Tighten protection.

Terai V: Katarniaghat

2009-04-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary: It’s an auspicious day in Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, a part of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. A truck arrived last night, carrying precious cargo—ghairals. That long-snouted extreme-looking crocodile that ranks amongst the most endangered animals on earth, with less than 200 breeding adults. These were 60 babies, reared at the Kukrail breeding centre in Lucknow, and are here to be released in the wild. We did that, with some ceremony on the banks of the river Girwa. Lifted the lid of the box, and watched them crawl, then swim—with some vacillation. It was, after all, their first taste of flowing waters—so essential to their survival—and freedom.
This would not have been possible in Girwa less than five-years-back. Oh, there were gharials here —Girwa is amongst the three places in the country where gharials survive in fair numbers. But there was no new recruitment, the nests were raided, and the eggs stolen and eaten by the local villagers. “Not one survived,” informs Ajay Singh, a forest guard.
It wasn’t just the gharials. The forest was under siege. Illicit felling and smuggling for wood was rampant, and backed by the timber mafia and local politicians. Permit to fell trees within the land-dwellings in an around the sanctuary were being used to illegally smuggle wood. The forest staff was involved and there were no less than 70 disciplinary proceedings against the staff. Poaching was the order of the day. Poachers used the local gun called bharoi-a shot is enough to stun an elephant. They would walk in from Nepal, and carry back their booty, even as the foresters watched. Evidently, signs of wildlife were rare. Game was being decimated for meat. And tigers…they were there. Very few, very shadowy- they were stalked..and killed-by man.
Katarniaghat, at the time was a sanctuary that wasn’t.
Then in 2005, the management changed. The park had a new director. This is not an ode to the purpose, and efforts of a leader, with his team. But is an attempt to record how with determination a ravaged forest can be turned around and made a haven. It is a lesson, a ray of hope.
Circa 2009: I am in Girwa—a little upset that I had missed sighting the tiger-sighting, yet happy to see their signature-pugmarks of a mother and cub. A snout pops up besides us—to reveal another rare creature. Gangetic dolphins. Six of them, twirling around our boat. Ghairals line the bank, huge ones, tiny ones, male, female-about 60 in all. In the past five years, points out the boatman Ramroop,” the hatchlings have increased from nil to 27 nests in 2008. I cross over to trans-Girwa—to meet Panditji, who runs a ramshackle tea-shop. “His shop was toppled over by elephants,” says forester Ashfaq, with a hint of pride. The elephants are new entrants, as is the other pachyderm, the rhinoceros. Earlier occasional visitors from Nepal, now a few have taken refuge here from the insurgency which ravaged their forests. You could see a herd of 40 or so swamp deer-only found in this part of the world. And best of all—tigers were breeding—a sure sign of a healthy forest. In the recent All India Tiger Census, the camera recorded 20 different tigers in the sample size of 100 sq km—amongst the highest density of tigers in the world.
How the turnaround was achieved is difficult to encapsulate in limited words, but one shall try. Wood permits were stopped, completely—there was a crackdown on timber smuggling, at the cost of threats to job, and life—after all the ‘business’ ran into an estimated 50 lakhs per day. The nexus with the police and the forest staff was broken. The staff was motivated, trained in wildlife, basic supplies like mosquito nets, jackets, shoes, vehicles for patrol etc were purchased. Tigers were constantly monitored, and a systematic method developed for the same. Grazing was stopped. Infiltration for feulwood, and poaching from the Nepal side was stopped with the help of the SSB. “Most importantly, we cracked down the tiger poaching gangs, the Bawarias who had been operating here for some years now, “ says Ramesh Pandey, former DFO, Katarniaghat. It was a February 2005 seizure of tiger skin and bones that provided the first clue. A network of informants was established. There were two more seizures, some arrests. A key poacher, Pratap confessed that they were here to kill tigers—to be supplied to Rani, the wife of Sansar Chand, the kingpin of wildlife trade. Investigations led to another key find that had ominous repercussions—the Bawarias were not just operating here in the Terai, but had spread their tentacles and were poaching in reserves across the country-as far as Periyar in Kerala, and in the North-east.
“Simply put, strict protection with no compromises, effective management and leadership ensured that Katarniaghat thrived,” says Dabeer Hasan, Katarniaghat Welfare Society.
Of course, threats persist in Katarniaghat. Primarily, the Central Seed Farm spread over 38 sq km in the heart of the reserve. A road and a railway line cuts through the reserve—and has caused fatal accidents-including two tigers in recent times. Most worrying, the slack in strict protection is slipping-cattle grazes freely, and we help drive away some ‘visitors’ here from across the border-with head loads of wood. Intelligence information is that poachers are waiting to strike and an alert has been issued from the MoEF for strict vigilance.
That Katarniaghat contains nearly 40 tigers makes it significant enough, besides the fact that it is a critical connect between the Royal Bardia Park in Nepal, and Dudhwa. What makes this park special is that it contains within its compact 440 sq km endangered megafauna like the tiger, rhino, leopard, elephant, swamp deer, gharial, dolphins, mugger essentially representing all the flagship species of the Terai. You could say it is a mosaic of the Terai, as it once was, before the invasion of man. That it survives, inspite of all the odds is the result of the blood and toil, and sacrifice of many—and the legacy must carry on…
Save Katarniaghat:
• Remove the Central Seed Farm to free critical habitat for wildlife
• Remove villages inside the sanctuary, especially Bhartapur, with the enhanced relocation package
• Alternate routes for the railway line (which has been proposed), and the road
• Trans-border vigilance, strict protection
• Fill staff shortage, timely funds

Terai VI: Valmiki

2009-04-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Prerna Singh Bindra | Valmiki

Valmiki reserve faces complete system breakdown, on verge of collapse

I could see it through the chalky white ribs of the dead cow — the magnetic stare of a pair of tawny eyes, set in a bloodied baby fuzzy face — tiger cub on a kill. Samir Kumar Sinha from the Wildlife Trust of India informs that it is one of the two cubs trapped in a camera in the dead of night at the Ganauli range in Valmiki Tiger Reserve. That was precisely one year back.

Today, the future of these cubs, and that of the 12-odd tigers in Valmiki, the only tiger reserve in Bihar, is precarious, with the park facing a complete system breakdown, and virtually at the point of collapse. In fact, Valmiki today, makes a mockery of our claims to tiger conservation. The reserve has been without a director for the past seven months, ie since August 2009, prompting S Regupathy, the Minister of State for Environment and Forests to write to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (D.O. No. 1-30-/2000-PT) pointing out “that it was of utmost importance to urgently post a field director with a good track record in Valmiki at the earliest to ensure protection and related field inputs as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority Guidelines.”

However, there has been no response from the State.

It gets worse, the tiger reserve has not had any funds for the past year — as the State has failed to sign the MoU with the NTCA, which lays down time-bound operational imperatives. The MoU is a prerequisite to receive funding from the Centre. Repeated reminders to sign the MoU have been met with no response, “they are simply not interested,” says a forest official from Bihar, “for after that the State will be answerable to the NTCA. And so while the money has been sanctioned, it lies in abeyance till the MoU is signed.”

Besides, points out an NTCA official, who does the money go to? The State has not created the Tiger Conservation Fund -mandatory under The Wildlife Protection Amendment Act, 2006. Nor is there a director to manage, plan, disburse funds. The result? The staff crucial for tiger protection ie guards, tiger trackers have not been paid for the past one year, there is simply no money for protection and anti-poaching measures, no fuel for vehicles.

Consequently, when a fire raged through Madanpur range of Valmiki in mid-February — suspected to have been ignited by the timber mafia — the forest department was just not equipped to fight it. Huge tracts of grasslands, the mainstay of herbivores were destroyed. The post of the ranger in the most crucial range, Madanpur — which is the richest in terms of wildlife, and the most sensitive, because of its proximity to Nepal, is lying vacant as well. It may be worth mentioning that in May 2008, a tiger was killed here by poachers.

The rot is set deep, and the infrastructural and constitutional support for Valmiki, and indeed other PAs simply does not exist — the State does not have a functional State Wildlife Advisory Board for the past two years, nor has it deployed a Tiger Protection Force as directed by the Centre, after the Sariska debacle.

Valmiki is the easterly end of the part of the Terai landscape, which has been identified as a critical tiger habitat crucial to the tiger’s survival, and is contiguous to the Royal Chitwan Park in Nepal. As Regupathy’s letter points out, only six per cent of Bihar is under forest and just 512 sq km occupied by tigers. Looks like Bihar will lose that too, and the Panthera tigris, unless it acts now.

Solutions

Appoint a director. Sign the MoU. Get the funds going, pay staff. Induct new staff. Stop illegal boulder mining

The political will has to come from the Chief Minister downwards. The State Wildlife Advisory Committee must be formed and made functional. Create a Tiger Conservation Fund

Step up protection along the border with Nepal. These corridors are vital for wildlife - used by tigers, rhinos, elephants, and provide for contiguity with Chitwan. International cooperation for joint patrolling

(Concluded)

No port forte turtles..

2009-04-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

"Could you piss in a bottle of mineral water, and simultaneously test it for quality?"questioned a conservationist, before he—and other leading conservationists of the country, walked out of a meeting on Friday, February 20, at the TATA Steel office with the top officials of Dhamra Port, TATA Steel and L&T who are both partners in the project. "That was in protest over their refusal to consider any suspension of dredging operations pending an independent assessment of the environmental impacts of the upcoming Dhamra port in Orissa," says adman Prahlad Kakar, who also is part of Mumbai-based organisation, Reefwatch. "They refused to even suspend construction, or at the very least, the dredging for the current two months, which is turtle mating and nesting season," adds Kakkar.
The port has long been a source of controversy given its proximity to the Gahirmatha mass nesting beaches and the Bhitarkanika National Park. Gahirmatha is one of the world's largest mass nesting beaches for the olive ridley sea turtle, a species protected under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act.
"There is no point in agreeing to an assessment while simultaneously carrying out large scale habitat alteration activities such as dredging," says Bittu Sahgal, editor Sanctuary Asia. There has been absolutely no assessment of what impact this might have on the marine food web or the erosion and sedimentation patterns nearby, including on the nesting beaches of Gahirmatha. "That's why we were asking TATA to suspend the dredging operations pending the assessment, but their absolute refusal to negotiate makes one wonder if they do have environmental interests at heart," added Ashish Feranendes of Greenpeace. Conservationists point out that Gahirmatha has not seen the arribada or the mass nesting since construction at the Dhamra port site commenced, and do not rule out the possible influence of dredging in the area, which has been going on night and day, even in the critical turtle breeding and nesting season. Those present at the meeting included representatives from Wildlife Protection Society of India, Conservation Action Trust, Wildlife Protection Society of Orissa, Sanctuary Asia, Reefwatch and Greenpeace, while the port was well-represented by top officials from Dhamra, TATA and L & T. However, the latter refused to comment on the issue inspite of repeated efforts.
Earlier in the dialogue process, conservationists led by Greenpeace had presented TATA with the Terms of Reference and scope of an independent and comprehensive environmental assessment of the port and its potential impacts, pointing out that the existing Environmental Impact Assessment has glaring loopholes and that the scope of the project had changed since then. While TATA had in principle agreed to commissioning a new assessment, there were disagreements on the scope and most crucially on the need to suspend elements of construction, particularly dredging, while the study was conducted.
Turtle expert Dr Bivash Pandav explains that enough damage has been done to Gahirmatha by constructing the missile test range right besides the world's largest sea turtle rookery. "And now whatever left is left will be destroyed by this port. This port at Dhamra is the final nail in the coffin for the turtles of Gahirmatha. Turtles in Orissa for sure are following the path of passenger pigeon." However, this grim prophecy is of little consequence to the project proponents, who have already finished with nearly 30 per cent of the port, and is proposed to be completed by 2010.
And the turtles? They are here, tens of thousands of them, just off the coast of Gahirmatha, following a ritual as ancient as time, to nest, and breed, in the same beach as they have done since millennia…unaware that their fate is all but sealed in the cold boardrooms of 'development' without a conscience.