Disappearing tigers are a sign of terrible malaise

THE tiger is back in news. This time because of its vanishing act. Even though this beast has received attention like no other animal. But in the cacophony we have lost sight of many basic facts. For example is the present method of counting tigers through the pug-mark method an appropriate one?  The originator of this method, late S.R Choudhary, never claimed that counting pug-marks would give an absolute tally of tigers in an area. The method was meant to assess abundance by comparing successive counts. But over time it deteriorated into a number game.

Forest guards should monitor the presence of the tiger in their beats through meticulous recording of evidence like kills, pug-marks, droppings, calls and sightings. The exercise should be conducted throughout the year and there should be periodic checks by higher wildlife officials. This will give the forest department a fair idea of the territory occupied by the tiger. More area occupied by a territorial animal such as tiger is a sign of increasing numbers.

But this is not the first time that tigers have vanished from a tiger project area. It happened in one part of our largest project, the Nagarjuna-Srisailam project in Andhra Pradesh in the 1990s. The local villagers being upset at the loss of their cattle, poisoned around 20 tigers. Before this, there were reports of frequent sightings indicating an increase in tiger numbers. The animals strayed into villages close to the sanctuary in search of food: they had to face the wrath of local people. The silver lining to this incident was that over a period of time, tigers from adjacent forests repopulated the area.

This episode demonstrates that though the tiger is an endangered animal across the country, there are pockets where numbers of the animal can exceed the carrying capacity of the habitat. In such cases, tiger populations should be judiciously reduced – perhaps even by hunting – in order to prevent conflict with local villagers. This system is in vogue in some areas in Africa.

Similarly, Sariska also had a fairly long tradition of maintaining more tigers than the reserve can actually sustain. The disappearance of tigers from the sanctuary could be attributed to the local people’s anger towards straying animals – though poaching cannot be ruled out.

There are other reasons that explain why tigers have vanished from Sariska. When the reserve was under the suzerainty of feudal princes, wells were dug at dug at strategic locations and forest guards were directed to fill up open cisterns every evening to attract herbivores – and with them the tiger. But the practice was discontinued in independent India. As a result tigers very often raided villages in search of prey.

Having said all this, let us not forget that local people and animals have lived in mutual respect – if not harmony – for centuries in forests. The new fangled theory of inviolable core areas has upset this relationship. The theory is also against good wildlife management: if forests are not worked, they become dense and herbivores move to the fringes. Carnivores follow suit. In fact, the last tiger census figures of AP indicate tiger pug-marks in open forests, adjacent to villages where cattle and herbivores are found in summer. Working of forests to keep wildlife inside – and away from villages – should be part of good management.

Implementing such a programme requires committed forest officers who will work for years in the same area. Wildlife management is not everybody’s cup of tea. Unless this lacuna is corrected the Sariska syndrome will repeat in other wildlife reserves.

—© CSE/Down to Earth Feature Service