The contrariness of human endeavours is exemplified by the much-hyped efforts — both Government-sponsored and privately-funded — to save tigers. First driven to the verge of extinction by reckless trophy hunters in the 19th century and early 20th century, the big cats’ revival has come to be seen as the pivot of wildlife conservation in India. The glamour quotient associated with the exercise ensures that it is constantly in the news, with every stratagem to save tigers from poachers and traders in animal parts being tracked by vigilantes in the media and experts. The scrutiny is intense in the wake of the disappearance of all tigers, numbering 16 to18, from the Sariska reserve before 2005, and the subsequent decimation of Panna National Park’s big cats — some 27 in all.
The latest tiger census figure, released in March, placed the number of these carnivores at 1706. This showed a substantial rise from the 1,411 tigers, counted in the last census, conducted across 17 States. This time, counting was reportedly also done in the Sunderbans and some Naxal areas that had been excluded from the 2007-2008 census. Determined to keep the numbers up, the National Tiger Conservation Authority in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court has contended that tourism needs to be prohibited in core tiger areas as these have to be kept inviolate. Only management interventions can be permitted in such places, with tourism-related activity required to be phased out in the fringe/buffer zones. A report of Wildlife Institute of India, an autonomous body under Union Ministry of Environment and Forests that coordinated the latest census, avers that most tigers are in the core areas which are the best habitats for their survival if human presence can be minimised.
However, tour operators and owners of hotels and lodges have begun lobbying against this move. They risk losing a lucrative source of income in the event that the Supreme Court accepts the Government’s view. The process to relocate Van Gujjars and other inhabitants of core areas in tiger reserves having gained momentum, allowing tourists, where even natives are forbidden access, seems untenable. Ranthambore Foundation Executive Director PK Sen concurs with the Government’s contention, stating there is no justification for allowing tourism in core areas from when people are being removed. Currently, each relocated family is compensated to the tune of Rs 10 lakh, upgraded from the earlier one lakh rupees.
After the disappearance of the previous inmates from Sariska and Panna reserves, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and conservationists engaged in much brain-storming on how to bolster the dwindling tiger population. The Sariska episode led to the upgradation of Project Tiger, initiated in 1973, with the National Tiger Conservation Authority, a statutory body, being set up on the advice of the Tiger Task Force. The latter had been instituted in April 2005 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau was set up in June 2007, again on the recommendation of the Tiger Task Force, and penalties for poaching and illicit trade in wildlife made harsher.
When the last census figure was released in 2008, the figure of 1,411 tigers — far below the 3,500 officially estimated earlier — was considered credible on account of the use of the camera-trap method, instead of the less reliable pugmark technique. The finding triggered fresh concern about failures in conservation. On taking charge of the MoEF in May 2009, Mr Jairam Ramesh had announced that saving tigers would be a key thrust-area for him. But he was not long enough in that Ministry to initiate radical changes in conservation policies. It is accepted by experts that the key to saving tigers, and, by extension, other endangered species, is stringent security and patrolling. And as the Authority affidavit now specifies, divesting core habitats of unnecessary human presence is integral to saving tigers.
Protecting habitat and food and water sources are also required. Conservationist Ullas Karanth observes that the decline in tiger numbers is the result of “a mission drift in forest department”. The allusion is to the focus seemingly having shifted from “the core task of protection towards eco-development, needless habitat modifications and such other distractions”. The obvious manifestations of the trend are the building of roads through reserves, guest houses, lodges and other amenities for commercial reasons.
Mr. Karanth, a founder-trustee, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, and Director, Wildlife Conservation Society India Program, added that, to abolish tourism completely would be counter-productive as that would quash the widespread interest in and concern for tigers.
An earlier initiative crystallised during Mr. Ramesh’s tenure, hinged on relocating forest dwellers and villages from tiger reserves. For, men and ferocious animals in close proximity would inevitably lead to conflict and destruction of one by the other. The local population is reported to act as accomplices of poachers. People also kill tigers in self-defence. While Tiger Task Force chairperson Sunita Narain advocated coexistence between man and beast, member Valmik Thapar’s dissenting note is worth quoting:
“The fact is that each tiger must eat 50 cow-sized animals a year to survive, and if you put it amidst cows and people, the conflict will be eternal... Tigers continue to lose out as they did in Sariska (and over 90 per cent of their former range in India).”
This pragmatic view gained the upper hand, with policy-makers drawing up a Rs 10 lakh-compensation package for every displaced family. But, if the Ministry is serious about saving big cats from human predators, tourism needs to be regulated.
