| Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has a new number to mull over "" 1,411 "" and this one isn't going to grow at 9 per cent annually. | |
| With just that many tigers in the wild, according to the recent National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) report, it's hardly surprising the Prime Minister is personally leading the inquest into the disappearance of the royal Bengal tiger "" first from the Sariska National Park, prompting Manmohan Singh's Tiger Task Force (TTF) to conduct a post-mortem into the "Sariska Shock" and deliver a comprehensive report on the issues facing the tiger in India. It's first concrete outcome, a report on the Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India, has been released by the NTCA, the re-named avatar of Project Tiger. | |
| The Prime Minister's reaction to the dwindled numbers has been to post a Tiger Conservation Plan to the states, and he will soon chair a meeting with the stakeholders to finalise a plan for its implementation. | |
| Valmik Thapar, conservationist and a panelist of the TTF, bluntly summed up the conundrum facing Dr Singh: "The Prime Minister has to see now how many tigers this country can manage, and where?" | |
| The latest status report on the tiger, compiled over three years, is billed the most "scientific" assessment ever. It has covered all existing tiger landscapes in the country except the Sunderbans and the large swathes of jungle in the grip of the Naxal insurgency in Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Jharkhand. | |
| The numbers are being hailed across the board for definitively debunking the earlier "pugmark census" which, for years, has been accused of grossly inflating tiger numbers, both due to genuine misinterpretation and mass malpractice. | |
| Instead, the median of 1,411 has been arrived at using a combination of data collection (animal sightings and presence indicators), satellite imagery (layered with inherent factors such as habitat quality, human presence and livestock density), camera traps for direct imagery and, finally, tracking individual tigers using GPS and radio tracking. | |
| But what is one to make of the number? | |
| Dr Rajesh Gopal, member secretary, NTCA, says "the tiger numbers can be more". The report addresses the long-standing issues plaguing the tiger "" direct poaching, subsistence killing of prey by humans and habitat degradation and loss "" but an analysis actually helps in identifying areas where the tiger has the best chance of survival. | |
| These are "Nagarhole-Madumalai-Bandipur-Wayanad (south India), Corbett (Uttarakhand), Kanha (Madhya Pradesh) and possibly the Sunderbans (West Bengal) and Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong (Assam)." They are the last remaining contiguous tracts of forest for the tiger to roam in. | |
| The common call for saving the tiger has been due to its position at the apex of the ecological food chain. But over the years, realisation has sunk in that the tiger is the "key piece" in a myriad, multi-layered jigsaw that encompasses a variety of interests "" primarily economic. | |
| The TTF 2005 report points out that typically, tiger habitats are the most fertile and resource rich, thus facing the most acute human and development pressures. | |
| Scientists Ullas Karanth and Raghu Chundawat have been the biggest proponents of using science for studying and managing the tiger in India. After years of being "sidelined", they are finally being credited for their efforts, though Dr Karanth remains short of actually "endorsing" the report. | |
| He says that using previously identified density benchmarks "there is habitat for up to 6,000-7,000 tigers. We can sustain that tiger density, it is doable", blaming the large-scale subsistence hunting of prey "in the vast forests of the North-east, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa" for the disappearance of the tiger there. | |
| When Project Tiger was envisioned in the '70s, a minimum of about 2,000 sq km of core habitat was deemed necessary for a breeding population. It was soon revised to 1,500 sq km and now stands at between 800 and 1,000 sq km. | |
| "That is the number needed for a breeding population of, say, 20 female and 10 male tigers. If there is good prey density, that can result in support for a total of 60-70 tigers, which includes cubs, juveniles and dispersing individuals," says Dr Gopal. | |
| Dr Gopal and his co-researchers have identified that 31,111 sq km needs to be the country's "core tiger habitat", which should be inviolate to human presence. For this purpose they have suggested that Rs 10 lakh be set aside to relocate and resettle each family settled in villages inside these areas. | |
| If events during the TTF in 2005, when the panel was polarised on the issue of relocation and resettlement, are a barometer, it remains to be seen how the process will be smoothened now. | |
| There is also the matter of the Forest Rights Act being passed. Shankar Gopalakrishnan, who is part of a campaign called Campaign for Survival and Dignity, insists that defining Critical Tiger Habitats (CTH) under the Wildlife Act a day before passing the Forest Rights Act, which already contained the Critical Wildlife Habitat (CWH) clause, was unnecessary and done in hurry. | |
| "The notion that because of the Forest Rights Act one cannot relocate people, and that with the CTH people have no rights, is wrong. People have rights and relocation can be done only if it is voluntary and proven absolutely necessary. You need the right compensation packages, not just a financial package. You need a provision for alternate livelihoods," he argues, insisting on a review of how these habitats are identified. | |
| Gopalakrishnan cites cases of improperly implemented relocation attempts, such as at Sariska, where the relocated returned to the reserve because it is said the land they were granted by the state was "barren". | |
| He stresses on the need for alternate livelihoods by pointing to examples such as the Soliga adivasis in the BR Hills of Karnataka, who generate 60 per cent of their income from wild honey. | |
| "We need a transparent process to monitor resettlement because there are huge sums involved," says Gopalakrishnan. Others are pressing for a "Director of Resettlement" drawn from outside the government cadre to oversee the process autonomously. | |
| Rights activists say the biggest threat is not humans but resource exploitation, and question the role of the Supreme Court's Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) on forests, of which Valmik Thapar is a panelist. | |
| They quote data which says: "Forest diversion for other uses from 1980-2001 (before the CEC) was 8,27,857 hectares or an average of 37,629 ha per year. From 2002 to April 2006, with the CEC, 3,38,345 hectares or an average of 78,139 ha per year "" a rate of forest diversion 2.08 times greater than before the committee." | |
| Thapar insists that "every little patch of forest given was scrutinised in detail". "We need to question the model of development. Everybody is after the land of the tiger, and this development is most going to affect the lives of simple people," he says. | |
| He adds that the CEC's task is doing a thorough "double check" and cites the case of its coming to the aid of the people against Vedanta Alumina's bauxite mining initiative in the ecologically sensitive Niyamgiri hills in Orissa's Kalahandi district. | |
| To give a fillip to the population of tigers, both Dr Gopal and Dr Karanth feel genetic exchange between surviving isolated populations is critical. While Dr Gopal's team might soon reintroduce tigers to Sariska from Ranthambore, Dr Karanth and Thapar feel it is an expensive proposition that only "distracts attention". | |
| "We need to identify critical habitats outside current protected areas as some current areas are write-offs. We can use the money to resettle the right villages in the right habitats," they argue. | |
| What is worrying now is a perceived "rift" between the state governments and the centre. The Orissa government has a lot of explaining to do after the NTCA released camera trap images of subsistence level hunting of the tiger's prey. Dr Gopal says the loss of prey is the biggest reason for just 20 tigers being identified at Simlipal. | |
| Next in line is the Sunderbans. Despite the West Bengal government's protests, official sources in the centre and eminent scientists say a "rude shock" awaits the nation when the numbers are officially released. | |
| With more states expected to follow Orissa's example of ordering an independent count based on the "pugmark method" to prove increased numbers, it remains to be seen how much time the tiger has, at least in the wild.
| |
|
| |
|
| |
Top Section
Explore Business Standard