Chronicle of a death foretold

The latest census and an investigative documentary proves that Indian tigers are fast disappearing due to mega projects, ecological destruction and organised poaching

Akash Bisht Delhi

What are the chances of the tiger surviving for much longer in whatever little remains of the fast shrinking Indian forests? The stark reality is sending shockwaves down the spines of conservationists and wildlife lovers.

Almost two years after the Sariska shock, when the entire tiger population disappeared from this wildlife sanctuary, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and National Tiger Conservation Authority have revealed in their preliminary census that there has been a 60 per cent fall in the tiger population in central India since 2002. A two-year research study in 16 tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh, Mahar-ashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand has shown a steep fall in the number of tigers. In 2002-03, these states accounted for more than 1,000 tigers. Now, these numbers have come down to a dismal 417.

Madhya Pradesh, also known as the tiger state of India, has registered a decline of 61 per cent, while populations in Maharashtra and Rajasthan came down by 57 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. The complete report is due  out later this year. The uncanny question is : Why has the central government's Ministry of Environment and Forests chosen to bring out this half-hearted report even when it is so obviously incomplete?

While presenting these figures before tiger conservationists and journalists in Delhi recently, Qamar Qureshi, one of the two scientists with the WII that have conducted the survey in four Indian provinces, said, “There is definitely a downward trend because of increasing anthropogenic activities, rampant poaching and habitat encroachment.”  All the facts emerging from this grim scenario suggest a sharp and depressing drop in the tiger population in India.

Under Project Tiger, the government in 1973 conducted the first survey on tiger populations and concluded that there were 1,827 tigers in the country that year. Till 2002, the tiger population was on the rise and reached 3,700. However, most conservationists felt that the numbers were far too optimistic and inflated. This report did not go well with those who opined that the animal is under severe threat and faces extinction. “These results are depressing. Instead of playing the blame game the government should focus on conservation in a right manner,” confirmed Belinda Wright, director, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), and a relentless crusader to save the tiger.

“Earlier, pugmarks were used to determine tiger populations but many considered this inaccurate. The method adopted in this survey is scientifically more accurate and robust. We used camera traps, pugmarks and dung to determine the population in these reserves,” explained YV Jhala, Scientist, WII. But the nagging fears and doubts remained.

Indeed, a recently released hard-hitting documentary film, Tiger: The death chronicles, by Krishnendu Bose exposed how pugmarks can be fudged even while the tigers disappear, poached and killed by an organised mafia. According to Bose, “Pugmarks can easily be fudged and this is one of the most outdated ways of determining the tiger population. Counting pugmarks doesn't have scientific rigour and neutrality and, therefore, has always been surrounded by controversies and confusion.”

The film graphically investigates the 'tiger genocide' across the various national parks and precious ecological spots of India. It shows Buxa in West Bengal as a case where the tiger's numbers have always been projected above 30. However, the prey base and the forest have never been able to support more than a couple. “How many people have seen tigers in Buxa in the last 20 years? At least I haven't seen a single tiger here in the past ten years. There are pugmarks but where is the prey base? And the plaster pugmarks of 1991 are probably stamped again as the pugmarks of 2001,” rues PK Sen, former director, Project Tiger, in Bose's film.

The WII report indicated that the tigers living in protected areas were doing well while the ones outside the reserve were more vulnerable. In an earlier census, it was revealed that almost 60 per cent of the tigers live outside protected areas. “The prey base outside protected reserves can in no way sustain such high tiger population. While conducting our research we found a there were hardly any tigers outside these protected areas,” said Jhala. The scientists also stressed that linkages between parks and reserves must be restored so that the tiger can have a large prey base as tiger reserves are too small.

Lopsided development projects with the profit-principle as the only motive, corporate greed, ecological destruction through mining, and organised poaching have threatened the existence of the species. Officials blame encroachment, conflict with human neighbourhoods and habitat destruction as one of the main reasons for tiger disappearances. Most of the tiger reserves in India sit on land rich in minerals, and extensive mining in these areas has sharply threatened their existence. These reserves are also facing threats from power plants, big dams and insurgency. “It is extremely important to remove anthropogenic presence in tiger habitats,” said Jhala.

Ulhas Karanth, a tiger conservationist for more than 30 years, said that in the precious ecological heritage of Nymagiri hills in Orissa, large chunks of forests have been allotted to the Vedanta group for mining bauxite, threatening the entire eco-system of the region. “The main problem is that authorities are too interested in short-term development benefits and a mindless quest for profit, which is destroying tiger habitats through deforestation and mining,” laments Bose.

Tiger: The death chronicles confirms that a total of 95,002.86 hectares of land has been diverted to mining. Half of it is in the tiger reserves of mineral-rich Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. India also lost 26,245 square kilometres of its dense forest cover for several mega projects.

Poaching tigers for skin and bones is rampant in most parts of the country. Though WII officials chose to stay mum on poaching, they did mention that poaching for tiger parts has severely threatened the existence of the species. A huge demand for tiger parts in China, with lucrative prices, has forced many criminals into this 'profession'. “The poaching mafia is extremely organised and they can wipe out the entire tiger population from a single reserve as they did in Sariska. Poachers in Sariska knew that the management was weak and took advantage of it. Similarly, they can wipe out these big cats from any reserve having bad management,” laments said Wright. She revealed how people in the Litang Festival in Tibet wear and parade in tiger and leopard skins smuggled from India.

The other worrisome fact is that 150 of the poorest tribal districts share their habitats with the tiger and conflict situations have emerged where millions of humans are competing for space with a few hundred tigers. This is bound to create more human interferences in tiger habitats and further put the tigers’ lives in jeopardy.

Some conservationists believe that the response of the central and state governments has been lukewarm and discouraging. This was aptly reflected in the rather 'detached and cold' attitude of a senior official at the WII press conference. While the figures of the 2007 census were being talked about, Ministry of Environment and Forests Secretary, Prodipto Ghosh, said, “This is a WII report and not a government report and hence I can't comment whether the numbers are showing an upward or downward trend.”

Bose  raises this point sharply in his film, and explains how tigers are systematically being eliminated to pave way for economic development. “The rich want a bite of the tiger habitat and it's the tiger that is ending up paying the price,” he says. His film exposes how in the last five years the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) has been favouring industrialists and corporate groups.

Another fact that makes the entire issue murkier is that the EIA 2007 notification does not mention the word 'tiger reserve' even once. “The EIA dealt with the dwindling tiger population crisis by completely deleting the word 'tiger reserve' from its notification and now the government has decided that no notification will be provided for any development projects in a tiger reserve,” complains Ritwik Dutta on camera.

Concluding his presentation, Jhala said that the fate of the tiger is not in the hands of biologists or conservationists. It will be determined by how society views and values tigers, what it is willing to pay and how it motivates the political will to conserve it.