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Tiger Conservation
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Key Members of Project Tiger India
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Rajasthan Scenario: The princely states of Rajasthan had extremely good record of setting apart the large chunk of good forests for preserving them as Sanctuaries and Game Reserves. The keen interest of the Rulers in protection and the systematic & controlled hunting ensured the sustained conservation of the areas and the wildlife within. Despite the Rajasthan having the hottest and driest habitats for the tiger, it flourished well in almost all the districts except Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Churu, Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh & Nagaur. Due to rapid and multifold increase in the human population, the pressures on forests and wildlife increased exponentially. With the result that the tiger habitats became degraded, fragmented and devoid of pay-base. This situation forced tigers to stray out in search of food and get killed. Also due to lack of proper shelter and privacy, the breeding of tigers could not take place. Hence, gradually one after another district started becoming tiger-less. It is very unfortunate but true that Rajasthan now has tigers only in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve.
Establishment of tiger reserves for the protection and conservation of tigers is by no means a "Sanctum Sanctorum" for the tiger at the cost of human specie. It, on the other hand, embodies the basic natural principle of live and let live and firmly adheres to the nature's law that all forms of life on the earth i.e. human, animal and plant have right to exist and are inseparably interconnected, interdependent and integral part of the web of life. The Project Tiger is not a battle only to save the tiger specie but to strengthen the linkages between the man and animal and plant life for improving the health of the entire eco-system. Indira Gandhi once said that "the larger the number of tigers in their habitat, the better the health of the eco-system." With this perspective, the Project Tiger was aimed at to ensure maintenance of a viable population of tigers in India and preserve for all times to come, the areas of such biological importance as a national heritage for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people. Will Tiger survive 21st Century ? The tiger is on the verge of extinction. Sadly, the beauty and majesty of the tiger were the cause of its downfall. Hunters saw it as the ultimate challenge. Its skin was coveted and stripped from its back to be sold at lucrative prices. Though a myth, yet the man now seeks to extract the strength and courage of the tiger in medicines made from bones and practically every other part of its body. The task ahead is to protect tigers in their remaining strongholds, not because of the profits which can be derived from them but because of their intrinsic value and place in the ecosystem. It has to be clearly understood now that the tiger and all the life forms with which it shares country's natural habitats, have right to exist and live. It is rightly said that survival of mankind depends on the survival of plants and animals. In India, there are only about 4000 tigers left in the wild (mainly in National Parks and Sanctuaries). The decline in tiger numbers has been a direct result of indiscriminate poaching, coupled with habitat destruction and loss of prey base. If we do not act now in the right direction for conserving the tiger, we will move in the next century but without any tiger in the forests. They will vanish forever.
Destruction of tiger habitats and disruption of existing wildlife corridors, poaching for tiger skins and bones are some of the pressures on the tiger. But the tiger also has friends, people across the country and the world who are trying to help save the tiger. If grown-ups do not do something about this soon, all the tigers in India may be killed by the time you grow up. Can you imagine how terrible it will be if your children never see a tiger at all?
Meet Tiger People, learn about NGOs and Government Departments that you can
contact. If you would like to help save tigers, you must tell your parents,
family and friends how important it is to save tigers.
Kailash Sankhala an illustrious and honoured name, who was known and recognised as Tiger Man throughout the world, and is highly credited as a pioneer, Founder Director and the first successful planner of world's largest wildlife conservation programme- THE PROJECT TIGER besides, having significant role in establishment and management of worldwide famous National Parks like RANTHAMBHORE, SARISKA and BHARATPUR and many other wildlife sanctuaries in Rajasthan. All his life, he, dedicated himself for the cause of conservation of wildlife heritage, especially to the spirit of the Indian jungles - THE TIGER. He, very earnestly and intensively studied years together on the life and behavior of tiger in the wild. His extraordinary talent was greatly admired in entire world after his
successful endeavor of accomplishing of very complicated and challenging task of
scientifically censussing the Tiger population and complete ecological
study of its habitat, for the first time in India. This played a leading and
critical role in the successful management and execution of the programme giving
it a global reputation.
Late Sankhala was the first naturalist, who realised the growing danger for the survival of tiger and raised the voice for plight of tigers as early as in 1956. He alone conducted a campaign, and walked over too, against the tiger hunting in India and inspired the Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi to save the life of this magnificent vanishing species in country. In 1970, his tireless efforts resulted in a complete ban on tiger shooting in India and got enlisted the name of the tiger as an ' ENDANGERED SPECIES ' in the Red Data Book, published by IUCN, Switzerland. This led to the declaration of tiger as an elusive species to be protected on globe. Photo- K. Sankhala With Prince Phillip (UnitedKingdom) →
In independent India, Kailash Sankhala was first civil servant who received the first Jawahar Lal Nehru fellowship in 1969 to study on the' Life of Tiger' and later on he was honored by high civil Award of the country - Padmashri in 1992 for his outstanding contribution in saving the species of tiger in India. Kailash Sankhala carried through this challenging mission with untiring energy and dedication, even at the risk of his professional career and death threats. Kailash Sankhala conducted an extensive study on tigers under the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship during a time when the tiger population was dwindling at an alarming rate due to poaching and hunting. His research would later lead him to launch Project Tiger in 1973. Prior to serving Project Tiger as Founding Director, Kailash Sankhala was the Director of Delhi Zoological Park and Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan. He was a distinguished naturalist and a forest officer, who played a key role in establishing various national parks in India. Kailash Sankhala was known the world over as an authority on tigers, and has written over half a dozen books on the subject. Kailash Sankhala was an
inspiration to many, encouraging everyone to take on the conservation cause. He
pushed for arming forest officers with cameras instead of guns. He won many
awards, including the National Honour of Padamshri in 1992.
In 1989, he established the Tiger
Trust to continue his commitment to tiger conservation. In honor of Kailash Sankhala's inspiration for work in the field of conservation, the Government of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Wildlife have constituted a Kailash Sankhala Fellowship for conservation efforts on behalf of Indian animals. The Fellowship consists of work for two years and is awarded once every two years. The Government of Rajasthan, Ministry of Forest, has announced: · That a National Park is to
be named in honor of Kailash Sankhala; Today, Kailash Sankhala is no more but his personality and creativity has left such a rich wealth of wildlife knowledge, which can well utilised by generations to come for saving the natural heritage.
- K. Sankhala With Prince Charls (United Kingdom) Books-
Wild
Beauty:- Kailash Sankhala (National Book Trust)
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Project Tiger:
Kailash Sankhala, widely known as
Tiger Man, was the first conservationist who raised a voice in favor of
protecting the tiger as early as 1956. He spearheaded the crusade and succeeded
in helping rescue the species from the brink of extinction in an age when
hunting tigers was practiced.
He
also has authored books on National Parks and Indian wildlife, and has written a
number of scientific and popular science articles. 
You can make a difference!
By Bittu Sahgal
When most people think of the massive environmental problems ahead of us, they wonder how anything they could do can possibly help the environmental movement. But from my experience, it is always the acts of individuals that wind up making a difference... either to help or harm the environment.
Think about it. Every time you go out to buy medicines or vegetables for instance, a shopkeeper thrusts a plastic bag in your hand and by accepting it you add to a very serious problem in our towns and cities. The bags cannot be disposed off safely. Even if you throw it in the garbage bin, they wind up in dumps from where the wind carries them to drains, which they block. If they land in the sea, turtles and dolphins choke on them because they look like tasty jellyfish in the water.
Even if each of us uses only one or two bags a day, the problem becomes gigantic in a city where millions of people live. But this is one environmental problem you can easily solve: just carry a cloth bag around (like your grandmother used to!) And remember to tell the shopkeeper why you are not taking his bag from him so that he slowly gets the message and stops offering them to customers.
You can also start a "clean-up" campaign in your organisation or neighbourhood. And, of course, one of the best ways for you to help the environment would be to write letters to newspapers about how you feel, or to politicians to protest against plans to destroy the environment.
If you respect nature, learn all you can about nature and support conservation organisations; you can take a great first step towards launching yourself on the path of environmental activism for the rest of your life. It’s such a beautiful world and if each of us does even very little to help, we can keep it that way.
Every individual can play a
role in safeguarding our environment. Adapt your lifestyle and make a
significant change!
Conserve water
Did you know?
One person out of every 5 people in the world does not have clean water to drink.
99.5 per cent of all fresh water in the world is in glaciers and ice caps.
Conserve Water!
Little drops make the ocean...
Fix every leaking tap the moment you detect the leak.
Use flushes that use half the quantity of water and low-flow taps at the washbasin.
When washing your face and hands, keep the flow down to a trickle instead of a torrent.
Never leave the tap running while washing clothes and dishes or brushing teeth and shaving.
Take a bucket bath instead of a shower. (80 per cent of the city is forced to do this anyway, but those with running water use as much as all the others put together).
Never wet-service your car or two-wheeler. Besides conserving water, this will also protect your vehicle from corrosion damage.
If you use a washing machine, make sure you always run it on full load. The amount of energy utilised is the same.
Put a brick into the flush tank to decrease the quantity per flush.
Don't litter
Did you know?
The average middle class urban family produces 20 kg. of trash every week.
Disposable diapers could take 500 years to decompose in a landfill.
It’s not all trash!
Don't dispose your kitchen waste in non-biodegradable polythene bags.
Separate household wastes into 'Wet' and 'Dry' components. The 'Wet' portion comprises foodstuffs, dead animals, plant remains and wastes which are biodegradable. These can be processed to yield manure and fuel in the form of biogas.
Non-degradable wastes like plastic, metals and glass should be given to recycling factories.
Do not litter. Always throw waste in the dustbins that you find on the
roadside, and if you cannot find one, carry the waste back home and throw it in your own household bin.
Use cloth bags for shopping.
Reuse envelopes, use both sides of paper and if you must use wrapping paper, be creative and consider options like coloured newspapers for attractive packaging.
Stop junk mail. Write to companies asking them to take you off their mailing list.
Buy products in bulk to minimise packaging, and do not patronise products with unnecessary and wasteful packaging.
Carry your own ceramic cup to the office to avoid using paper cups.
Pass on textbooks to a younger child and share books and magazines for leisure reading.
Encourage the practice of passing on old newspapers and magazines to the raddiwalla.
Stop polluting
Did you know?
Pollution levels inside cars can be up to 18 times higher than those outside the vehicles.
Mumbai city alone discharges around 2574.23 million tonnes of sewage into the sea everyday.
India uses nearly 100,000 tonnes of pesticides annually, of these 70 per cent are either banned or strictly restricted in industrialised nations.
India's standard for suspended particulate matter in residential areas is 2.3 times the 60 micrograms per cubic metre guideline recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Act now!
Special devices should be installed in factories to remove particles and poisonous gases before releasing fumes into the atmosphere.
Steps should be taken to ensure that automobiles do not release unburned fuels
from their exhausts. Use unleaded petrol and ensure that a PUC (Pollution Under Control) test is done regularly.
Encourage car pools to travel.
Use neem leaves to keep out insects instead of toxic pesticides.
Save energy Save energy Save energy
Did you know?
A 40-watt tube light consumes as much electricity as a 100-watt bulb.
Refrigerators and air conditioners emit CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) that are responsible for destruction of the ozone layer.
According to some conservative estimates, oil reserves will last for less than 40 years. At the present rate of consumption India's reserves will last for only 22 years.
Save electricity
Removing two lamps in a fixture meant for four would save 50 per cent of the electricity bill.
Compact fluorescent bulbs consume less energy for more output.
Replace bulbs with tube lights as they consume less electricity for the amount of light they give out.
Turn electrical appliances off when you do not need them. Saving electricity means conserving fossil fuels and reducing pollution.
Instead of using air conditioners rigorously in summer, consider using old-fashioned khus sheets or just try splashing water on yourself and sitting under the fan.
Open refrigerators less frequently to save energy.
Do not switch lights on during the daytime. Open your windows instead and let the sunlight in.
Protect wildlife
Did you know?
If present trends of extinction continue, a quarter of the world's species of animals and plants could vanish within 50 years.
Two per cent of India's mammals, ten per cent of its flowering plants and five per cent of its birds are on the verge of extinction.
The world loses up to three animal species per day and according to some scientists this may go up to three animals per hour in the next ten years.
It is estimated that India loses at least one tiger every day.
80 per cent of all ivory is taken from elephants that are illegally hunted and killed to make artefacts.
More grain and cereal is fed to the livestock bred for meat in Russia and the USA than is consumed by the entire population of the third world.
A single sheep or goat bred for meat is fed the equivalent of 4 hectares of vegetation every year.
Care for nature
Report any instances of cruelty to animals to organisations such as the SPCA.
Boycott visits to zoos or circuses where animals are treated badly.
Do not hunt or disturb animals when you visit a sanctuary.
Be kind to your pets and to all animals in your neighbourhood.
Change your food habits. It’s greener to be vegetarian.
Bittu Sahgal is editor of Sanctuary magazine.
CONSERVATION
`The tiger has been placed in its coffin'
Interview with Valmik Thapar, wildlife conservationist.
The Union government set up the Tiger Task Force in April this year, comprising well-known environmentalists and wildlife activists in the aftermath of the tiger-disappearance scare at the Sariska reserve, Rajasthan. The Task Force report, "Joining the Dots", which was presented to the Centre in August, had a lone voice of dissent, that of conservationist Valmik Thapar. In an interview given to Annie Zaidi, Valmik Thapar explains his stance on the issue, arguing that tigers and humans simply cannot coexist.
Your name is not included in the list of authors of the Tiger Task Force report.
Yes, it is not. In fact, I was never shown the final report. But I have said what I wanted to say in my note of dissent.
I have problems with the chapter on `coexistence'. I do not believe that tigers and humans can coexist. The authors talk about `inviolate tracks' in reserved areas. But in the following line, they talk of giving new packages to allow villagers to coexist [with the tigers]. I also don't agree with the one-year deadline; it is just not practical.
What went wrong?
We must remember that the focus here is on tigers. If you wanted to deal with people's problems, you should have set up a `People's Task Force'. The Tiger Task Force cannot deal with the whole cauldron of life.
I say, give the villagers the best [relocation] deal money can buy. Don't just throw them out. For example, in the Bhadra reserved forests in Karnataka, the forest-dwellers were given the best agricultural land possible, in Chikmagalur. We should give the villagers the option of the best land, in rural or urban areas. But if you move one person and give the other person the option of staying back where he is, why would anyone want to relocate?
We could also try rationalisation of boundaries. Maybe we need to redraw the boundaries [of reserved forests]. We could tackle it through the denotification of some areas, where relocation is not possible, and extend boundaries in places where there are no human settlements.
The issues raised by the report cannot be tackled through the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. In its present form, there is no provision in the Act for the concept of coexistence. It would need major amendments and that would mean sending it back to Parliament. According to me, that would be a negative development.
What were the problems you had with the Task Force report?
I think it is great that the Task Force could come out with such a voluminous report about recent events, in just three months. There are some very good suggestions in the report. But when it comes to coexistence, according to me, it takes a nosedive.
Let me give you an example. In 1970, Sariska had 40 tigers. Ranthambhore [also in Rajasthan] had 14. Ranthambhore resettled 12 villages that were located in the heart of the forest. Sariska tried to resettle one village, but failed. As a result, despite two very bad years of poaching - 1992 and this last year - Ranthambhore has 26 tigers. In fact, the figure had gone up to 50 tigers at one point.
Sariska, you know the story. The problem is, poachers use the villages as their base. They enter the village, go out and kill, and return to the village. In places where there aren't many villages, poachers find it hard to strike. At the most, they can strike from the fringes of the forest.
Why do you say that the tiger cannot coexist with people?
You have to understand the tiger as a species. Peacocks can coexist. Nilgai can co-exist. They can eat grain or the people may even feed them. Tigers cannot coexist because the tiger will eat milch cattle and other livestock. That is its food. Or it will eat people. This brings it in direct conflict with humans.
Also, human settlements get bigger and bigger. They will encroach on more and more land, which is the tiger's habitat. The conflict would increase with each passing year. Look at the Caspian, South Korea, Java or Bali [in Indonesia]. Tigers are extinct in these regions. They thought people would be more friendly towards tigers. It didn't happen.
But have forest-dwellers not lived in peace with wildlife for centuries in the past?
I've been to tribal areas where they have the `cult of the tiger'. The tribal people worship the tiger. But the market and the way people live have changed. There is a huge difference between 1905 and 2005.
Some tribal rights activists claim that the tribal people actually protect wildlife and forests. Do you agree?
I am willing to face an open debate on this. Give me one example where people have lived easily with tigers. I've worked with tigers for 30 years. I know the tribal areas and the national parks and the sanctuaries. I also know that if there were no reserved parks and guards, we would not have had any tigers.
There is an opinion that tigers would be better off in the reserves if there were no armed forest guards.
What about Indravati [reserve in Madhya Pradesh]? That is a naxal area, so no guards venture into the forest here, but where are the tigers? What about Palamau [Jharkhand]? Or Manas [Assam]? There were only Bodos, no forest guards. The great one-horned rhino was wiped out, as a result.
Would these activists [who demand fewer armed guards] demand that there be no gunmen outside their banks and ATMs? The forest is a liquid bank. Removing armed guards is like standing outside a bank, with baskets of cash, saying `take it all'.
What about allegations of guards conniving with poachers?
Surely poachers cannot be so active without the guards' neglect or active connivance. There are mafias everywhere in this country, including the forests. Let us be realistic. We have an entire forest machinery to protect 20 per cent of our country which fall under forests. There are some 175,000 forest guards. But no new recruitment has taken place since 1987. The average age of our guards is between 45 and 50. They cannot patrol much on foot. They cannot chase poachers. What do you expect?
What about tourism?
Tigers are not compatible with tourism either. In this country, tourism has been a great disturbance to the tigers. All hotels should be at least 5 km from the boundary of reserved forests and national parks. They should be open to tourists for one year and closed the next year. A rotational system might work. In any case, out of the 600 reserved forests, only about 10 get visited. The situation is desperate in these 10.
What government policies have been most harmful to the tiger?
The leadership is not taking strong decisions. They don't even realise that our 600 perennial rivers and streams are in areas inhabited by tigers. Protecting the tiger means protecting our water security. Whether this is intentional or because of apathy, I don't know. But after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, we have had no leader who had the wisdom to take decisions in favour of the tiger.
Forests in India are a treasure house. Everyone wants to grab a bit. There is the timber mafia; I know thousands of cases where tribal people were employed to cut down trees. There is the land mafia, out to grab forest land and encroach. There are miners - mining for marble, uranium, diamonds, whatever available. It is in their interest to have forest land denotified.
So, what is the next step?
I think the government needs to decide whether it wants tigers, and how many? If you want only 1,000 or 1,500 tigers, then say so, and allocate resources accordingly. As it is, only 6 per cent of our 20 per cent forest-cover is wildlife-rich. You have to work around that figure and protect these regions. Coexistence can be taken elsewhere.
What would you say is the future of the tiger in India?
I've just finished writing my fourteenth book, The Last Tiger, which is to be released in October. The tiger has been placed in its coffin. All that remains to be seen now is what will serve as the last nail in this coffin. Nothing short of a miracle can save tigers in the wild in this country. There are many well-intentioned people, but they don't know the needs of the tiger. We have half the world's tiger population. But on the horizon, politically, I see a zero chance of its survival.
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