A recent report published by the Wildlife Institute of India also states that tiger density in Corbett Reserve is the highest nationally. Will the new method show a great disparity in the tiger count? On the other hand, 66 tigers’ death in eight months scream at the headlines, but once we read the story further, four States stand out for the highest number of deaths; Maharashtra with 7, Assam, Karnataka and our own Uttarakhand with 6 each. With 46 instances of man-animal conflicts, and leopards being shot and skins caught, have we solved the problem? Considering the fact we only had 166 tigers in the entire State at the last census, death of 6 is a very high figure, the problem will only aggravate in the coming days. Some of the death can be attributed to poaching, for which we are taking remedial measures, but there are other reasons as well, and one of them could be territorial fights, as also, pressure from human habitation and that is really likely to be a serious problem, as it takes time to sort out this complex issue.

Is 166 tigers a low or a high density some thing to be proud of considering the fact that we have nearly 64 per cent of our State under forest cover? The fact remains that we have classified our forests into various categories thus the National parks, Rajaji and Corbett are well protected, the reserve forests not so well protected and the poachers now operate on the fringes close to villages where the law enforcement is lax and the animals are easy prey. To my mind the current census may give a different figure than last year but man- animal conflict is only increasing with leopards which shows that all is not well inside the jungles and we need to take steps to protect the animals as statistics of protected and supervised areas are showing. The current density is rather low and we need to take steps to increase the same.

The elephant and the tiger need large areas as the elephant herds go from one corridor to another in search of food. They go by their natural instincts and the tiger marks his boundary, on the other hand we humans too have earmarked certain areas, thus man animal conflict comes in. It has therefore become imperative that the tigers and leopards, were born free and we are cordoning them off, thus the conflict will only get worse, and in all this chaos the poacher gains the most, as he hunts now on the fringes of the jungles.

There is a need to link the various parks by corridors so that the animals do not suffer from genetic disorder during breeding. This will allow them free movement, as currently they are confined to small areas. Our five national parks, Govind National Park (472sq km), Valley of flowers (87.50 sq km), Nandadevi National Park (5860 sq km), Corbett National Park (520 sq km), planned extension of 588 sq Km, Rajaji National Park (820 sq km), adding to a total of 7,582 sq km of forest land, the two latter ones have a rich number of tigers and are well connected by road with lots of villages on the fringes thus providing easy access. Corbett established before Rajaji has more tigers and we do wish that our tiger population becomes more, 10-12 is a mere pittance at Rajaji.

These two are close by and can easily be linked. Some how to tackle this problem we do not need a departmental approach which is singular in thrust and execution but a more comprehensive approach which will not result in a blame game. Currently we only seem to concentrate on the wild life sanctuaries its time we addressed other areas as well to get a holistic plan, while the nation makes up its mind we at the state level should show the way. The very fact that leopards are coming out of the jungle and we are shooting them shows that all is not well inside the jungles.