Wildlife corridors from Ranthambhore

A few days ago I read the following news in the Times of India, one of India’s leading daily newspaper. It goes like this:

Tigers will now roar at Darrah
JAIPUR: After Ranthambore and Sariska, Darrah. Rajasthan is all set to get its third tiger reserve, and India its 39th, very soon. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has given its in-principle approval to the project at Darrah National Park, which is about 50 km from Kota.
State forest department officials said it was very likely that the first tiger would be relocated to the forests of Darrah by 2011.
The state government had submitted a proposal to the Centre for a tiger reserve at Darrah. NTCA has given its in-principle approval to it. The surplus tigers of Ranthambore will be translocated to Darrah after the area is declared a tiger reserve under Section 83 (v) of the Wildlife Protection Act 2006, said state forest and environment minister Ramlal Jat.
According to the minister, once declared a sanctuary, it will help form a large corridor connecting Sariska, Kota, Bundi and Ranthambore to Madhya Pradesh. This will not only take away the excess visitors from Ranthambore but also help Kota attract a large number of tourists, he said.
The Darrah National Park, also called the Rajiv Gandhi National Park, consists of three wildlife sanctuaries of Darrah, Chambal and Jaswant Sagar. It was declared a national park in 2004 and is spread over a total area of 250 km. It is separated from the Ranthambore national park by another 250 sq km stretch of Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary.
The park is the only one to have a perennial source of water from the Chambal Basin with the river running 4 to 5 metres deep in certain stretches.
(The Times of India, TNN 7 November 2009, 05:21am IST)

After reading this I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

The NTCA is in a rush to declare more and more forests as tiger reserves. The fact that a lot of the newly declared reserves, neither have any tiger nor any prey, does not seem to make any difference. Declaring the “Rajiv Gandhi National Park” as a tiger reserve would be really pushing it. In fact it would be a big joke.

The Rajasthan Forest Minister’s statement – “ The surplus tigers of Ranthambore will be translocated to Darrah after the area is declared a tiger reserve .........once declared a sanctuary, it will help form a large corridor connecting Sariska, Kota, Bundi and Ranthambore to Madhya Pradesh. This will not only take away the excess visitors from Ranthambore but also help Kota attract a large number of tourists” – is absolutely ridiculous.

What the minister does not know or did not state is:
1. Ranthambhore does not have surplus tigers : the current official figure is that there are 41 tigers in Ranthambhore tiger reserve. The Ranthambhore tiger reserve is 1334 square kilometers in area. Areas that have 10 or so tigers in 100 square kilometers is considered to be a high density area. By this logic 41 in 1334 square kilometers is not really high, so where do the surplus come from? The ral story is that out of the 1334 kms of Ranthambore tiger reserve - about half the area is the Kela Devi Sanctuary, about one fourth is the Ranthambore national park and most of the balance is the Sawai Mansingh snactuary. (See the map below). The 41 tigers are distributed in the entire tiger reserve as follows - Kela Devi has one, Sawai Mansingh has 5 or 6 and the national park has the rest. In other words, half of the entire tiger reserve just has one tiger and almost all the tigers are within the national park or the immediately adjoining part of the Sawai Mansingh sanctuary. It would be correct to say that the national park has a surplus of tigers but the same can not be said for the entire tiger reserve. In fact Sawai Mansingh sanctuary only gets tigers when there is a surplus inside the national park and Kela Devi sanctuary (which is nearly half the area of the total reserve) has hardly had any tigers in the last decade or so. Tiger do drift there from the national park but they do not last very long in this sanctuary, mainly because this sanctuary has very little prey and almost no protection.
2. There already is a corridor between Ranthambhore national park and Darrah wildlife sanctuary via the forests of Sawai Mansingh sanctuary, Lakheri, Talwas and Ramgarh sanctuary. Tiger in the past have gone all the way to Darrah and in the near future have been going till the forests of Lakheri. In reality this corridor is a death trap because in the last 10 years not a single tiger that drifted this way survived for long. There is very little prey and even less protection south of the Sawai Man Singh sanctuary. The adjoining forests of Madhya Pradesh (MP) are in an even worse state, in fact, this part of MP is the poaching heartland of India. Till about two decades ago this entire corridor was an excellent wilderness area. The last tigers of Darrah and Ramgarh died out without making any noise at all) in the early 1990s. Since then this corridor has been taking a thrashing at the hands of man. Right now the forest canopy still exists but the prey species (deer, wild pigs etc) are gone. There is a lot of cattle that the tiger can kill but that leads to conflicts with man, which are often lethal for the wild animal.
3. The above mentioned corridor has no links whatsoever with Sariska, which is a true "ecological island" with no scope at all for any inwards or outward migration of wild animals. For a tiger to get from Sariska to Ranthambhore, he will have to cross a very busy national highway, miles and miles of agricultural fields, numerous villages and at least three large towns besides a number of small ones. A really tough task for any tiger.
4. This will not only take away the excess visitors from Ranthambore but also help Kota attract a large number of tourists, said the minister. This is a pretty heavy price to pay to attract tourists to Kota.

What is needed is active and prolonged protection along this forested belt and it needs to be done now. A few years later may be too late. What is definitely not needed is to tranquilize a few tigers from inside Ranthambhore national park and fly them to Darrah Sanctuary and hope that they flourish there. Some of these tigers may have to turn vegetarian in Darrah since there is not enough meat on hooves there for them.

Don't just take my word for it. Read what the Ranthambhore Project Tiger Management Plan 2001-2011 has to say about this (pasted below). The last para is the most interesting. (RTR means Ranthambhore tiger reserve and RNP is the Ranthambhore national park).

Ecological Boundaries:-
The flora and fauna of both Vindhyan and Aravalli hill ranges exist in the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. The forests of both the ranges were continuous in the past but due to fragmentation of vegetation cover the RTR has become an ecological island.
The RNP adjoins Keladevi sanctuary in the N.E. separated by river Banas, but the river does not present any barrier for the wild life to cross over. The Keladevi sanctuary is linked to the forest areas of Dholpur through a continuous forest tract. The forests of Keladevi sanctuary are gradually improving with increased level of protection, ban on migratory sheep and participatory forest protection strategy adopted by the villagers in the form of “Kulhadi Band (ban on use of axe) Panchayat” under the guidance of forest department.
In the south west of the RNP, Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary & Kuwalji Closed Area extend up to river Chakal and beyond. The adjoining forest areas of Bundi further connects RTR to forest areas of Kota. Therefore, a whole corridor is available for the movement of wildlife provided the adjoining areas of Dholpur, Bharatpur, Bundi and Kota districts also gets adequate protection. In fact, the area mentioned above can be a contiguous area for the Tiger.
The river Chambal in South to South East of RTR and the river Banas in North East to South East of the RNP forms a seasonal barrier to the wildlife to migrate from one area to another but there are reports of occasional presence of non-resident wild dogs in RTR and migration of wild animals such as Tigers and Leopard in Keladevi Sanctuary from M.P. forest area crossing the Chambal river as per the indirect evidences gathered from the Maharaja of Karauli.
On all other sides, RTR is surrounded by agricultural revenue land but the abundant presence of Black buck, Chinkara, Blue Bull, Smaller cats, Jackals & Foxes in the agricultural fields indicate that there is no barrier to these mammals and the area as a whole is rich in wildlife. Even tigers and panthers are reported from the habitation areas like Chouth Ka Barwada & Bhagwatgarh, which are nearly 30 Kms from RTR.
We may say that a belt of 50 Kms width along the left banks of the river Chambal from Kota up to Dholpur can be considered as the ecological boundary for the Tigers and other wild life of RTR.
The description given above indicates that a large tract constitutes the ecological boundary of RTR, but the fact remains that with the degradation of forest area, expansion of agriculture fields and other land uses, the ecological boundary tends to limit up to RTR area only in a true sense.

View Rajasthan Wildlife Corridors in a larger map

A Great article by Pankaj Sekhsaria

Wildlife is on the brink

by PANKAJ SEKHSARIA

Wildlife is on the brink and it is high time we took a critical look at our conservation realities and policies. Most that share landscapes with wildlife, for instance, live extremely low impact lives yet they pay the biggest cost for conservation.

Question of survival: Tribal settlements in Orissa¹s Simlipal Biosphere Reserve.

If there is one dominating sense about the fate of wildlife in this country, it is that of Œthe end¹. The wiping out of the tiger from the Sariska and Panna Tiger Reserves has been headline news; poaching and trading in wildlife parts con tinues unabated; human wildlife conflict ‹ be it with carnivores like leopards or tigers, large mammals like elephants or smaller animals like wild boar, deer or monkeys ‹ is seriously on the rise; lakes, rivers and other wetlands are either being dammed, poisoned or encroached upon; climate change threatens to change the world in an unprecedented manner and as a combined consequence wildlife numbers are dwindling precariously and many species of birds, animals and plants stand dangerously close to the precipice of extinction.

The Forest Rights Act

An important new twist was added to wildlife conservation debates a couple of years ago with the enactment of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, popularly known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The debate over this act has been volatile and the opposition, particularly from a section of wildlife conservationists and former forest officers, has been and continues to be strong. A lot has been written about these concerns and strong affirmation came from a rather unlikely source around a year ago. A report in Newsweek (³India¹s missing tigers², May 5, 2008) took the argument to an unexpected extreme when it argued that Œdemocracy and economic development¹ were driving the tiger to extinction in India.

Many might actually agree with this articulation, but even a cursory analysis will reveal that the conclusions are as ill-informed as they are short sighted. An entire argument cannot be built on the analysis of and comment on just one piece of recent legislation in the country: the FRA. The law is a recent one and its implementation, if it is happening at all, has just about begun. While fears about forest and wildlife loss may indeed be justified, selectively wiping away history and placing the responsibility for the tiger¹s demise at the door of this one legislation and one set of people is not only irresponsible but also can be counter-productive.

Particularly so since because one aspect of India¹s conservation history ‹ the role of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ‹ continues to be repeatedly invoked, like in the Newsweek piece. A whole generation of wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists believe, and with good reason, that Indira Gandhi ensured that Indian wildlife still has some hope. She was the architect of critical legislations and frameworks that certainly helped protect wildlife and her personal interest and intervention like in the case of Silent Valley in Kerala ensured that many critical habitats were saved.

It is a legacy we cannot deny or wish away, but we also need to ask whether we can keep hanging on to the past? Our socio-political-economic-cultural realities have changed drastically since her time. It is the same nation and yet it is different . Wildlife conservation today, like anything else, has to be placed within this rapidly changing context. It is crucial to recognise that the same wildlife conservation policies will not succeed today just because they did in a different era. If she were alive today, Mrs. Gandhi would perhaps have agreed.

There is also a whole new Œpost-Indira Gandhi¹ generation of wildlife biologists involved in cutting edge research across wild India. Many of their formulations of problems and solutions are extremely nuanced and far more representative of realities on the ground. They need to be asked and they need to be listened to.

Condemning the most vulnerable

It is no one¹s case that wildlife conservation is easy. The challenges are immense and no one but the most optimistic will argue that the future for our wildlife is bright and hopeful. However, blaming the poor and the tribal; demanding their displacement to protect wildlife; seeking stricter and military-like protection is the wrong place to start. By doing this we are also ignoring many other realities. Most of the communities that share landscapes with wildlife, for instance, live extremely low impact lives and yet they are made to pay the biggest cost for conservation.

It is also not a coincidence that innumerable people¹s agitations across the country today are fighting policies and projects (big dams, large scale mining, increased industrialisation) that predate on the basic survival of forest and land dependant communities. Neither is it a coincidence that many of these are important habitats that support a great diversity of threatened flora and fauna. It is as important that we recognise this overlap as it is for us to recognise that both communities and wildlife are, together, losing this battle. Nothing ‹ be it the laws and the courts, the politicians and the bureaucrats or the media and the wildlife conservationists ‹ are able to help them.

Hope and the FRA

Increased mining across the country, for instance, has been one of the most significant sources of concern for its impact on forests, tribal communities and important wildlife populations. In an ironic twist now, it is being suggested that the FRA might actually be the only hope for preventing mining in forest and wildlife rich areas. Efforts towards this end are already being made in states like Orissa and in particular in the Niyamgiri hills where the Dongaria Kondh Tribal community itself is fighting to save the forests. Additional hope has been kindled following the July 30, 2009 notification of the MoEF stating the forest land diversion for non-forest purposes should ensure compliance with the provisions of the FRA.

In this larger context then, it comes across as completely unfair to argue that rights for the poor, the marginalised and the historically dis-privileged necessarily means the demise of our wildlife? Can we turn the question and wonder if, in fact, ³it is not too much democracy but too little of it that lies at the root our wildlife crisis?² That a more empowered people might actually fight better and more successfully? We don¹t have the answers today; what we do have is the choice of which question we will ask.

Sariska tiger have been partying

Sorry for the long silence. I was on a well deserved vacation. In the midst of all the global gloom here is some good news - the tigers of Sariska project tiger reserve have being partying. The Sarika brochure states that the tiger "prefer" large prey like Sambar deer....and cold beer. Dharmendra Khandal sent me this one. Don't believe it - see the brochure pic below:

Interesting email exchange

Interesting email exchange between Deepali and your truly. Deepali is a naturalist, photographer and economist from Delhi. I got her permission to share this on the blog.

From: Deepali Sharma Sanwal Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 11:11:25 +0530 To: Aditya Singh Subject: hi from Delhi

Hi Aditya

Hello from Delhi. Read your blog.. wanted to read something on conservation after my postings and your replies on INW.

..I am astonished to find that the name of the poachers are so common knowledge to forest department !

interesting blog and great photos on your website.. had a word with Poonam few days back as we were planning to come down to ranthambhore but the plan did not materialize.. hoping to make it sometime in June !

Regards Deepali

-- There is an economist in all of us.

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 5:17 PM, Aditya Singh wrote:

Hi Deepali,

Sorry you could not make it down but the end of June (from 20th onwards – park shuts on the 30th) maybe a better time. Somewhere in the mid of June we get one or two showers (just a few days after Delhi gets them) and the park just changes colors instantly. The weather and the scenery is much better after that.

I will tell you some interesting facts about poaching and tiger conservation around Ranthambhore region. I am sure these are true for all of India but since I have spent 11 years in this area, I have more examples from here.

1. The “Ranthambhore poaching region” includes Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh till Panna. This area includes all of Rajasthan’s Aravalis (good for leopards), most of river Chambal (crocs, gharials and otters), Sariska, Kuno (MP), Madhav national park (but there is nothing left there to kill and a poacher told us this) and Panna. The same guys operate in all these place. This is particularly true for the dealers and not so much for the shooters/trappers.

2. It is generally made out to be by the NGOs working in “anti-poaching” line that poachers are very secretive, very organized, very dangerous etc etc – which is a load of bullshit. They probably say so to boost their own image and get more people interested. In reality everyone locally, including the forest department, knows the names of the shooters/trappers (at least they know all the gang leaders and reputed poachers), of the buyers, of the couriers etc. It is such common knowledge that if you walked in here and did not know anyone – you could collect most of the data in a week by just asking around in the villages. Most of these people occupy the lowest social spectrum in the caste set up and they are scared of the upper castes. We have often walked into their houses and caught them. They had guns and other arms but would not dare use it against a local upper caste person.

3. The big buyer here is on old woman (and now her two sons) called Munni Bai. She has been doing this for over 30 years and most people around here know of her. At least everyone in the local forest department does. It is only the leading conservationists and senior officers in the forest department at Jaipur and Delhi level who don’t. She is not really the end buyer but she collects stuff and sells it to buyers in Gwalior, Guna etc who further sell is to the big boys in Delhi, Kanpur, Khaga etc.

4. The big centre for leopard skins is Hissar and one of their main guy here is known as “Pal.” He visits this area once or twice a year and has been doing it for over 20 years.

5. At the ground level there is no body working on anti poaching. Here Dharmendra Khandal of Tiger Watch is the only person working on collecting information on poachers. Besides him – no one. No Forest department, no police, no NGO. The problem that he faces is that he has the information about the bad guys but what can he do with it. The forest department does not want the information, the police generally speaking does not work on it because most of the time they need to cross the boundaries of the district. The general attitude is that if it is not happening in my beat it is OK.

6. The big boys of conservation - few well-known megalomaniac personalities who have cornered the conservation limelight/profits (believe me it is very profitable) and the Project Tiger (or NTCA) - are living in an elite dream world and are hopelessly out of touch with reality. They have a mutually beneficial relationship based on you scratch my back and I scratch yours.

The basic problem with tiger conservation (in fact all conservation) in India is:

1. It is too centralized and elitist. All our conservation planning is done by people who are basically rich, based in metros and are very far removed from the ground reality. As a result their plans just do not work and have not been working for over 25 years. After 25 years of failure they are still in the driving seat. This includes the Project Tiger, Supreme Court’s Special Empowered Committee etc etc. Any ground level conservation initiative is killed as soon as it starts becoming popular. The only conservation initiatives that have worked in the world are those which had support at ground level. We have such funny ones – like there was “an anti-poaching workshop” here two years ago, which was (and I am not joking) “a black tie and caviar affair, where no locals were invited.” Most of the villagers here believe that the national park was sold off by the government 20 years ago to foreigners and rich Indian – for their entertainment.

2. It is too unscientific. There has been no decent research done on tigers for the last 45 years. Schaller in Kanha did the last one in mid 1960s. The data on the basis of which conservation planning is done in India is totally false and has been falsified for the last 30 years. How can you come out with a workable solution if the data that you have it totally false.

3. It is too low priority. The government does not care, the rulers do not care, the conservationists do not care – basically we all talk but rarely act. There is no will, no funds, no responsibility and no workable plans. This for an industry that generated over US $ 2 Billion per annum and employs huge amount of people, who are often the poorest of the poor.

Sounds depressing? We got over it some time ago. Some one has to catch the bull by the horns and only then would things begin to change.

Regards, -- Aditya Singh

From: Deepali Sharma Sanwal Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 09:37:38 +0530 To: Aditya Singh Subject: Re: hi from Delhi

Hi Aditya

I could not agree more with you on so many points made by you!! Though I hardly know too much and most of my ideas are from the observations I have made.

I am indeed surprised to some extent ( though not fully..no one can be who has lived and traveled in India ) that majority of people involved in this whole exercise of conservation are too far away from all this. ( Though most of us are.. and it really takes lots of guts like you did to be actually based right there leaving aside more lucrative earning options in a big city).

I strongly feel that tiger conservation needs to go beyond what it is doing right now. In my opinion people who reside inside or around really can no way be the biggest culprits as they are made to sound sometimes. It is generally the elitist who want the best without really wanting to pay a price involved. Moreover, I feel it has become an in-thing to say that " I am into wildlife".. probably it just means that "I visit national parks over weekends to click picture" ( no harm in that too though. people have their own objectives).

I feel the best conservation practices would come only when people who are involved in their daily lives are a part of it and also derive benefits from it..like benefits from tourism. One of the best practices and also one which I thought was working very well was what I saw in Valley of flowers. It is being maintained by joint cooperation of forest department and villagers. The place and the long trek upto the valley is so clean and well maintained, with all facilities for visitors that it comes across strikingly as a very good best practice example. I am sure there are may such examples all over that operate efficiently and silently.

As for conservation, in general, I still have my doubts with its role and placement within the Survival of fittest Darwin theory.. maybe I need to understand it from science.. but the growing human-animal conflict makes one ponder about it. ( last Sunday’s supplement in The Hindu carries three articles regarding HAC)

Lastly, most of the problems we face today are purely due to human GREED.. we ALL want our cake and eat it too.. whether it’s the financial crisis ( which as an economist, I can vouch is largely due to factors that standard theory might not be able to address) or problems of climate change and conservation... something we are not being able to control !

But I am sure there would be a way out else nature has its own way to correct disequilibrium!

Thanks Aditya for explaining in such great details.. am sure there is so much more I need to learn !

Best Warm regards Deepali

On Tue, May 13, 2009 at 3:22 PM, Aditya Singh wrote:

Hi Deepali,

Thanks for your mail.

I am actually making a fairly lucrative earning here (for Ranthambhore standards). In the last 11 years I have morphed from and into - a hotel owner/manager, naturalist, conservationist, photographer, traveler, activist and a local farmer. Before I came to Ranthambhore I worked for the Central Government for a short time, so I kind of understand how the government works. As a result, my problem is that I have been here for too long and pretty much understood how the whole wheel turns.

Regards, Aditya

PS: If I had to sum up the present scenario in most tiger reserves in India, I would do it like this. [To really understand it you have to read between the lines and have a clear understanding of the keywords].

The existing situation in most tiger reserves in India is as follows:

The people who reside around the reserves that have decent wildlife are definitely not the “culprits” that they are made out to be by the “experts” and the “trendy.” Neither are they God’s own creatures as the “leftists make them out to be.”

The people who reside around the reserves are mostly “poor (with a dash of rich)” and for generations they depended on the forest for some “renewable resources” such as fuel wood, fodder, some minor forest produce “etc”. The problem that they have is that since the forest around their villages has now been declared a “tiger reserve” it is gradually getting “more and more illegal” for them to get their requirements from the forest. The problem that the “forest managers” have is that the population in their villages has gone up tremendously due to improved medical conditions. The forest just cannot support the needs of all locals. It could do with “lesser disturbance” as more disturbance means less wildlife. The locals need to fulfill these “needs, so they do it illegally.” The forest managers are “overwhelmed” by the sheer numbers of locals and are unable to stop them, so they turn a “blind eye” towards it.

The planners, experts and trendy (which is the entire lobby), however, insist that everything should be “strictly legal” as they had a big hand in “making the law (which is blinder than a bat)”. So the planners are “told” that everything is going on as per the law. The planners take it as good feedback and on the basis of this they make more laws and plans. They “periodically check” the ground to see the ground reality for themselves and almost always end up agreeing with the “feed back.”

Thus the cycle repeats itself.

I think our problem can be summed up in four points:

1. Our centralized federal planning does not even take into consideration the ground realities. 2. The implementation of the plan is done by a state government agency that is the lowest priority for most state governments. 3. There are too few voters for wildlife in India. 4. Greed at all levels.

-- Aditya Singh

Machali - 12 years old, an award winner and fighting fit

On the 24th of April 2009, Machali (Ranthambhore’s most famous tigress) and B2 (Bandhavgarh’s most famous tiger) were given a “life time achievement award” by TOFT in Delhi. TOFT or Travel Operators for Tigers is a pressure group of Travel Operators (http://www.toftindia.org/index.php), Destination management companies and Accommodation providers who aim to make wildlife tourism in India more responsible.

TOFT estimated that Machali contributed about US $ 10 million per annum for the last 10 years to the local economy in Ranthambhore, while B2 contributed over US $ 7.5 million per annum to Bandhavgarh’s economy. This is their contribution to the local economy and I for one believe that these are very conservative estimates. Their overall contribution to the Indian economy is far more than this maybe even three or four times more than this.

Are such awards just a gimmick or do they help? I got a lot of flank from “net activists” that this a pure gimmick and that I should not be involved in such activities. I am involved and totally support such awards. They tend to increase the profile of the individual tiger and their park, which straight away means more and better protection. Such awards also give a much-needed boost to the morale of the staff working in the park. Right now most of the officials working in Ranthambhore are on cloud nine and I sure the guards in Bandhavgarh are as thrilled. Generally speaking, unknown tigers usually die an unknown and premature death while the known ones tend to live out their natural life.

I do not know much about Bandhavgarh, so I will let someone else blog about B2 but I do know Machali. Machali and I came to Ranthambhore about the same time. What I mean is that when I moved permanently to Ranthambhore in 1998, Machali was a cub – the dominant one out of a litter of three females. In early 1999 she took over the area of the lakes in Ranthambhore and has stayed there since then. She sired four litters and two of the three tigers that were relocated to Sariska tiger reserve are her offspring’s (so much for mixing the gene pool in Sariska). About three years ago she lost most of her canines but that did not stop her from giving birth to and raising a litter of three females. She is now old and I am not too sure if she will live for much longer. She has only half a canine left, her territory has shrunk and she rarely goes near the lakes any more. The lakes are now part of the territory of her dominant cub from the last litter.

In the end of March she killed a large male Sambar deer in a narrow valley (Bhoot Khurra) in the heart of Ranthambhore national park. Two days later a male (that we call Star male or T 28) snatched her kill and a few hours after that the to of them had a fight. We were fortunate to be in the right place when the fight happened. The Star male is young and at his peak but Machali held her ground. Though just a year ago this male would not have had a chance against her. This was on the evening of 1st of April 2009 (April fool’s day) but I am not trying to pull a fast one on you. See the 6 pictures below.

Star male cautiously approaches Machali's Sambar deer kill

Star male pushes Machali off her kill and starts eating

Machali returns to the kill after a few hours and the stage is all set for fireworks

Fireworks. The Star male has his back to the camera

Fighting tigers

After the fight Machali gets all submissive while the male walks off

Mails from Dharmendra Khandal

Sorry for not writing for a long time but I had been busy traveling (basically having a good time).

I got a few mails from Doctor Dharmendra Khandal – the Field Biologist of Tiger Watch, a local non profit organization that is doing some amazing anti-poaching work in and around Ranthambhore. He knows more about the local poachers and their network than any other person. I have pasted below the mails without making any changes (except for some very cosmetic ones).

They are alarming and go to show that despite all the media storm about dwindling tiger in India, despite all the “action taken” by the government noise made by our “conservationists” – at the ground level nothing has changed. You should be alarmed too.

END JANUARY 2009

Hi,

Rajasthan police and Tiger Watch team ( Lokesh,Lakhan and me) caught a wanted poacher Battilal.

He is wanted since November 2005 in a Tiger Poaching case. He is the real brother of Devisingh Mogya (a dreaded tiger poacher).

Recently 10-13 Mogyas came from Madhya Pradesh (the adjoining state in Central India) side to Ranthambhore for the work of crop protection. All these people are potential poachers and all of them have illegal guns and they can harm Ranthambhore at many levels.

regards, dharmendra khandal

PS: Ranthambhore Deputy Field Director Mr. Shekhaweat is busy in VIP tourism and Assittant Conservator of Forests Mr. Sudarshan Sharma is busy in managing tourism. 4-5 other patroling vehicles are also busy in tourism………….

END JANUARY 2009

Hi,

The first raid has been successfully complete. We have found two Bagaria tribal poachers and one illegal weapon. They were operating in Sawai Mansingh sanctuary area and regularly killing wild animals for bushmeat.

Sawai Madhopur’s Superintendent of Police Mr. Kaviraj Sharat provided a wonderful team of police personnel that conducted this raid.

The place where we caught them is just 2.5 km far from the Sawai Mansigh sanctuary area. They were regularly killing animals from sanctuary and other adjoining areas for sale as bushmeat. They are also involved in Bhagwat leopard killing.

regards dharmendra khandal

FEBRUARY 2009

Dear Aditya,

Thank you for the interest shown about the Madhya Pradesh poachers. I am sending my draft for your blog. you can edit language and grammar but try to keep it as it is.

According to my informers, at least 15 Mogyas tribal’s have congregated around Ranthambhore. Each one of them has the experience to poach tigers in Ranthambhore. They may be not lead the gang but they belonged to some small or organized tiger poaching gang.

1. Battilal (we caught this guy) 2. Mukesh (already wanted in police for tiger killing) 3. Roop Singh (wanted in police for tiger killing) 4. Rai singh (again having experience of tiger poaching around Uliana and Chhan) 5. Kalwa 6. Suresh s/o Alamji 7. Debi 8. Mangal 9. 10 to 15 unknown migrant guys from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Why they are dangerous?

1. becoz they are having experience to poach tigers in Ranthmabhore.
2. some of them are still wanted in tiger poaching case.
3. they are purely nomadic not like our semi nomads Rajasthani Mogyas.
4. they have 2-3 identities and are not listed by any state agency. I mean they have no ration card, voter card or BPL cards etc – for all purpose they do not exist.
5. very agile and swift people.
6. few bad Mogyas stated their job again like Jugraj, Lodiya and Laxman. These are people who have been caught and convicted earlier.
7. Tiger watch (the organization that I work for) has been handling women and kids of Mogyas, but we could not provide any alternative jobs to men of Mogya community. If Field Director or any state agency is ready to work with Tiger Watch we can change some Mogyas in nature trekker guide etc.

But very frankly the officials of the Forest Department arespending more time to shut down Tiger watch efforts instead of supporting or guiding to us.

Now 3-4 topics that should be debated and explaination should be called for from the Forest Department:

1. Construction of undesirable water bodies in side park like entire kachida area is now been made into a wetland type habitat.
2. Construction and erection of guard post or tent near water holes like in bakola, lakarda, berda, etc.
3. They are wasting more time in tourism instead of forest department work.

Regards, dharmendra khandal

Missing Tiger found in Ranthambhore

There are reports in the local and national newspaper that a male tiger – officially known as T 3 (pictures below – taken before he was radio collared) – has been reported missing from the Ranthambhore national park for over two months. This tiger (we call him Bahadur or Bunty) is the male cub of Machali (Ranthambhore’s best known tigress) from her previous litter. He is about 4 years old and use to be found in the heart of the park between the lakes and a place called Lakkarda (with in the bigger circle in the map below). T 3 was one of the first tigers of Ranthambhore to be radio collared by the Wildlife Institute of India. However, there was some defect in the transmitter in his radio collar and it never really worked properly. Somewhere in the second half of October he moved of this area and was not seen since then. The Forest guards did try for many days to track him down but had little success. Recently it came out in the newspapers that this tiger is missing. We have no idea why he decided to change his territory. In the middle of November we had Daniel and Daniella Free (our regular guests from UK) staying with us. On the 17th of November 2008 they had gone for a safari on zone number 5 that goes right across the park. In the early afternoon they spotted a male tiger (without a radio collar) near the Thumka chowki (smaller circle in the map above). Their guide (Vijay Singh) told me that they had seen a young and confident male crossing the forest track and that the male had blood marks on his chest, probably from eating a kill. At that time we were sure that it was not T 3 that they saw because they had seen a tiger without a radio collar. Daniella was generous enough to give me two pictures of this male (the two pictures above) and just yesterday I got down to match those two images with the other pictures that I have. And guess what it turned out to be T 3 without the collar. I immediately called up the forest authorities and informed them. The Deputy Field Director came over to the shack that we call our office and took a copy of the images. Even he took a long time to believe that this male had somehow managed to get rid of the ugly collar around his neck. Three cheers for T 3 without the collar.