Too many men chase too few tigers!

The Pioneer , Saturday, May 14, 2005
Correspondent : Prerna Singh Bindra
The Annual Tiger census at Ranthambhore is underway and for the first time three agencies working independently, shall enumerate the big cats. Besides the forest department, there is a Delhi-based NGO, The Wildlife Protection Society of India and the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, who are carrying out independent censuses.

The forest department is using the traditional 'pugmark' method, which takes plaster casts of tiger footprints on the premise that each tiger has a different pattern. The WPSI has fine-tuned this method by using modern technology. Their method involves the use of digital software, that creates a master imprint of an individual tiger on the basis of various parameters and variables, matches the animals to the master imprint or classifies them as 'new' tigers, thereby arriving at a number after careful analysis. This method is being used for the first time in India.

The WII has employed camera traps, which trigger the shutter when an unsuspecting animal walks over the trip wire. Individual tigers are then identified on the basis of the difference in the pattern of stripes. Traps are placed in strategic places on a rotational basis.

The pugmark method has been under a lot of criticism since it lends itself easily to manipulation. "The pugmark method is not reliable. It is virtually impossible to distinguish between males and females let alone individual tigers on the basis of pugmarks," says Fateh Singh Rathore, wildlife expert and consultant to the census.

While employment of independent agencies is a laudable move, undertaken to check manipulation of numbers, it is also feared that too many players may result in chaos.

At best, it is hoped that three agencies working on the census will act as a watchdog on inflation or manipulation of numbers, and help arrive at a consensus. At worst, fears a source, it will throw up three different results with conflict on which one to trust.

With the prevalent confusion stalking the census can the results be relied upon? Will it reveal the actual tiger numbers? Will it account for the missing tigers of Ranthambhore? As far as the missing tigers are concerned, the authorities are firm that poaching within the park,is at best a remote possibility ,or a stray incident. But they admit that there is little they can do to protect tigers straying outside the park. "Such tigers are specially vulnerable and may fall victim to poaching and poisoning by villagers," says Gobindsagar Bhardwaj, Deputy Director of the park. The disappearance of tigers from the adjoining Kela Devi sanctuary serve as an example.

Protecting tigers within the park is also constrained by an ageing force. "Seventy per cent of the staff is 50 plus," says Mr Shafyat Hussein, the director. Hasty solutions, like deployment of additional home guards, a decision taken post-Sariska, while appreciable, has brought its own set of problems. Home guards are not armed, and the onus of their wages rests with the forest department. Payment of home guards has not been accounted for in their annual budget. "I have asked for funds for their payments from the government. Till I get it, when and how can I pay them?" More worryingly, while the poacher can fire, forest guards are constrained in using their guns, as they have to prove to the magistrate that the intruder had harmful intent. Hussein stresses that he needs an additional, well-trained force if the tigers of Ranthambhore are to be protected at all.

Park on red alert

The park is on a red alert. Poachers are suspected to haveinfiltrated into the area, in the guise of sadhus, assisted by the Moghiyas (Bawarias), a traditional tribe, members of which have been previously indicted in poaching incidents. The administration has stepped up vigilance, and asked its force, now deployed inside the park to carry out the census, to be alert to untoward movement, and to take stringent action as and when required.

There is a strong and persistent rumour that tiger skins have been smuggled out through a village bordering the park, notorious for smuggling drugs, and have already crossed the border via Delhi, an important transit point in wildlife trade. Park authorities say that they do not have any proof of such incidents, but nonetheless are alert to the possibility of its occurrence.

 
SOURCE : The Pioneer, Saturday, May 14, 2005
 


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