Amidst the horror stories of the disappearing tigers from Sariska and Ranthambhore, there is finally some good news. After a gap of two decades, the tiger is back in the Chilla range of the Rajaji National Park in Uttaranchal. Camera traps set up by researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India show the presence of two breeding tigresses.
Another report, though not yet confirmed, is that there is also a third tigress with a one-year-old cub. In a forest and at a time, plagued by feline drought, a growing tiger nursery is the best news the park and wild-lifers could have asked for.
Dr AJT Johnsing of the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun says that the last authentic report of a cub in this area was twenty-years ago. "I have been in this institute for about twenty years. When I joined, I was shown the tracings of tiger cub pugmarks, after that it is only now that tigers are back, and breeding. It is a remarkable success story," he enthuses. The last census conducted in Rajaji two years ago shows 30 tigers in the 820 km park, of which Chilla occupies 200 sq km. The census is open to question, the numbers highly doubtful, for tigers have always been a rare sight in the park.
The recovery of Rajaji is nothing short of a miracle. The park suffers from intense biotic pressure in the form of tree lopping, cattle grazing, grass cutting and to some extent poaching.
Pastoral Gujjar families, though traditionally nomadic, have settled in Rajaji over the years with their livestock, exerting this pressure. Till 2003, Chilla was virtually a sanctuary for the Van Gujjars, and their cattle, and had been degraded almost beyond redemption. Grasses were trampled, the nullah running through Chilla had been reduced to a toxic trickle. The most damaging was the livestock, cattle had reduced and trampled the grasslands. With such intense disturbance, wildlife had disappeared. "We knew for the fact that tigers were not breeding," confirms Samir Sinha, the former Director of the park. A major and difficult decision to rehabilitate the Gujjar families finally started in 2002, and by February of the next year, 193 Gujjar families from Chilla were resettled in Gaindikhatta.
To learn how the forest would regenerate after the removal of human and livestock pressure, a study was initiated to scientifically monitor vegetation, ungulates and tiger recovery. Chilla range was divided into three parts and twelve camera traps were rotated within these so that the entire area was covered within a thirty-day cycle.
The findings are heartening, grasslands grew back, the prey base returned, and predators followed the prey. Tigers are back in Chilla. The fresh influx of tigers has sent a strong message. Leave nature alone, and she will rejuvenate. That, and protection is all that tigers need to flourish. That tigers are breeding, it sends the strongest signal of a healthy eco-system. For a tigress chooses her nursery only where there is plenty of prey closeby.
Chilla is on the east bank of the River Ganga and is almost contiguous to the Corbett Tiger Reserve. Experts believe that it is possibly that the tigers migrated from the buffer zones of Corbett to Chilla after the Gujjars were relocated.
However, there is a lot that needs to be done before we pat ourselves on the back. Chilla constitutes just a one fourth of the park, which is still under intense biotic pressures from the remaining 700-odd Gujjar families and their livestock. Also, Chilla is a small island hemmed in by human population, agriculture and development projects. "For Rajaji to flourish, it is vital that we remove the obstacles from the Chilla-Motichur corridor," advises Johnsing.
Easier said than done. An army ammunition dump borders the park and Khandgaon III, a village where Tehri oustees have been settled will have to be relocated.
