©Suhas Kumar, Oct 31, 2015
A hapless young male tiger strayed away from
its already depleted and deeply fragmented habitat, which once allowed tigers
of Malwa to travel far and wide in search of new home and mate, into the
outskirts of a rapidly expanding Bhopal city. The tiger entered a fenced
compound probably in the night and when the first rays of the sun struck, he
was at its wits end when he found himself on totally unfamiliar grounds. He
couldn’t gather courage to move away and find his way back home as the clamour
of the city and activities of humans had already begun and soon he was
surrounded by a huge crowd and a team of rescue personnel. He knew he was in
grave danger, he tried to escape – jumped on to an asbestos roof but his heavy
frame was too heavy for the sheets – a sheet broke and he fell into an empty
room – trapped.
The rescue team climbed onto the roof and
immobilized it. The tiger was then safely transported the tiger to Van Vihar
for a health check up.The next step after
rescue and health check–up was to release the animal in a suitable habitat as
a healthy full grown wild animal has no
place in a zoo - he belongs to its habitat, alas habitats are all usurped by we
humans.
Tiger is not a refrigerator that you can lift, transport and install safely somewhere else - they are living creatures,
they are part of a larger system and before they could be rehabilitated one has
to find out a safe place (in terms of intra- specific dynamics, availability of
prey, water and cover). Usually when a tiger or leopard is rescued and caged
the whole town wants to see the poor animal; especially the public representatives,
the news reporters and the local mandarins pressurize the forest officials to
keep the animal in the cage until the last member of their family takes a peep
at the animal. This causes a lot of trauma to the captive animal and in some
cases the irritated animal damages its
canines or loses its claws as while
venting its anger on the iron grills of the cage. When this happens, such
impaired animal cannot be released in its wild habitat and spends rest of its
life languishing in a small enclosure of the zoo.
The rescue protocol and the law (section 11 of the Wildlife
(Protection) Act demands release of captured healthy animal in habitat suitable
for it as early as possible and under the law the chief wildlife warden has the
exclusive authority to take a decision.
In order to save it from further persecution and trauma, the forest
staff don't keep rescued tigers on display for VIPs, news reporters and public
– to them, the life of the tiger is more important than satisfying personal
needs of individuals and to soothe their inflated egos.
As I said suitable habitats for tigers have
become scarce and those areas that qualify as suitable habitats have enough
tigers already. Each tiger needs a large territory where it performs its life
functions and if the resources are scarce, it defends this piece of land with
all its might. In areas where food, water and cover are abundant tigers have
been found to tolerate other tigers to a greater extent, but here, this
tolerance is fragile – as such tolerance can easily wither away with any
negative change in the conditions of the habitat. Therefore, when it comes to
rehabilitating a tiger into a tiger habitat understanding these factors and
finding a suitable place for release is part of the protocol. As I understand,
in this particular case the wildlife wing had three choices in mind – Nauradehi
sanctuary, Satpura tiger reserve and Panna tiger reserve. Nauradehi is under
heavy biotic pressure from 69 villages inside its boundaries and numerous
others just outside the periphery, and as a result the prey population is
insignificant. Besides the staff in Nauradehi is not trained and equipped for
intensive monitoring of tigers. Reintroducing tiger at this stage here
might lead to serious man: animal conflict as cattle
would become the staple prey as natural prey is already depleted.
Satpura tiger reserve has received 5 tigers
from outside in the last three years. These tigers have occupied the relocated
village sites and prey on feral cattle and herbivores who have responded well
to the restored habitat. Now, at the moment there is hardly a vacant place
where another tiger may settle down. On the north eastern side of the reserve a
few villages have been relocated recently, the habitat is still recovering,
prey population is low and the feral cattle are hard to find as villagers from
these villages took away all their livestock when they shifted out, therefore
this site, at the moment is unsuitable for releasing tigers. The management is
on its way to translocate some chital from Pench tiger reserve to catalyze
rapid growth of prey here. I hope that a year from now this particular area may
be in a position to sustain one or two tigers.
Considering the facts mentioned above, Panna
tiger reserve stood out as the best choice among the three available choices.
The Panna tiger reserve has a huge core area and a much larger buffer with some
suitable habitats to sustain tiger. The habitats have improved and the prey
base has responded to this improvement. The Tiger reintroduction plan for Panna
tiger reserve, emphasizes on the importance of bringing one male from other
area to refresh the genetic stock. There is a sound protocol as well as trained
professionals for monitoring of tigers, therefore, shifting this tiger to Panna
was the best possible option for the wildlife managers. The threat that a tiger
might succumb to intra-specific fights, diseases or poaching is omnipresent,
the only precaution that a manager must take is to remain vigilant and ready to
ward off the external threats such as poaching and manmade destruction of tiger
habitat. We need not be overly sentimental about territorial fights,
cannibalism, abandonment of cubs by mother and cub mortality as this is the way
the nature works. Even interfering too much in case of an injury caused
naturally is uncalled for, this should be done only when the tiger is incapable
in cleaning and licking the injured part or the injury is such that it needs
immediate surgical intervention.
The issue of tigers in
Bhopal
Next morning all the Bhopal dailies were
blaming the tiger for coming to the city – Berasia mein tiger - log dahsaht
mein". How callous of them. It was not the public who were being
terrorized by the tiger but this poor tiger that was shivering with fear of the
thousands of humans who had gathered in large number - shouting and jeering.
The News papers reported that the hon'ble –
NGT has asked the government to keep the tigers within their habitat and to see
that they don't enter areas where humans live. Is it not ironical to
erroneously believe that the tigers are the intruders? I wonder who the
encroacher is – man or tiger?. The City of Bhopal sits within a tiger habitat
and in the last 15 years the city has grown rapidly eating further into the
wilderness - fragmenting and destroying tiger’s home. Look at the maps below showing the forest cover in and around Bhopal town 2015 and 1960 to
comprehend the situation: -
The city of Bhopal is surrounded by a garland
of forested habitat. Though, this habitat is fragmented at places by the human
habitations and developmental infrastructures, the tigers still can move
throughout this garland taking advantages of nalas, and riparian vegetation
(along the river banks) . The Ratapani sanctuary is a secure habitat where
tigers have been breeding. Over the years the habitat has improved and the
number of tigers has increased, necessitating young tigresses and tigers to
move out from within the sanctuary boundary to the forests outside the reserve
to find suitable breeding and foraging places. My personal knowledge is that
tigers movement in Kerwa has been reported every year since 1996, it is another
matter that in those times media was not so proactive to seek out tigers and
the news about tigers nor the Kerwa area was so full of academic institutions ,
human colonies and a heavy tourist inflow. The only change in the behavior of
tigers that we see now is that some tigresses have begun using Kerwa and
Smardha forests for breeding and raising cubs.
Tigers make news especially when they are seen
around cities, only a little commotion precipitates in media when a tiger is
seen around a village. Is it an elite abhorrence of tigers? The facts that
stares in our face remains that the city dwellers are under real threat from
rising number of criminals in Bhopal and from among animals they are more prone
to contracting rabies from a huge population of stray dogs as well as their pet
dogs and cats and getting a deadly bite from the snakes that have become more
active as their dwelling holes and crevices are being dug out and destroyed by
colonisers ; on the other hand the tigers around Bhopal pose a marginal threat,
in fact, they are themselves seriously threatened by humans.
Possible Strategy that
may resolve the problem :
1. Plan the expansion of the city rationally
in order to preserve the garland of the extant green belt around Bhopal.
2. Identify all movement paths that a tiger
might use to stray into human dwellings, fence these areas off with a
combination of mesh-wire and solar power fence. Both type of fences would need
intensive up keep and monitoring.
3. Train and place at least 6 professional
teams to monitor and report tiger moment 24X7 outside Ratapani sanctuary, and
issue timely alerts.
4. Identify suitable potential tiger habitats
outside protected areas (in territorial divisions and buffer zones), carry out
required habitat augmentation work to enhance prey base, build capacity of the
staff and equip them in a way to combat wildlife crime and monitor tigers in
their areas. Once this is is achieved the wildlife wing may be able to rehabilitate
tigers straying out of natal areas into towns in such potential habitats.
5. Improve habitat protection and development
of grasslands in Kerwa, Kathotiya Ratapani, Badi and Samradha forest and
augment water sources where necessary in these areas. Once the habitat improves
translocate chital from PAs with surplus chital population.
6. Implementing this plan will entail a huge
capital and recurring expenditure, but in a state that is committed to
conserving its natural heritage, this is the only logical way to protect the
Bhopal tigers from vanishing into oblivion.
Shift tigers ?
I would emphatically
say 'No' to any suggestion that involves shifting all tigers inhabiting Kerwa
and Samardha forests to other areas. The reason is obvious but people don't
want to see reason – Once a tiger is removed, the dispersing tigers from
Ratapani will occupy the vacant territory. Secondly at the moment we do not
have any area left where we may safely release tigers from outside. As I said
earlier we have to create such safe release areas to accommodate tigers that
are threatened by human intolerance.
Note : Views expressed above are solely
my personal opinion based on my very long experience of managing wildlife
and guiding the management of wildlife in Madhya Pradesh and not
written in any official capacity.
