Project update - December 2005

News of the current tiger poaching crisis makes headline news in the Indian press

Unfortunately we could not keep the story under wraps any longer. A journalist found out about our undercover operation and has put it on the front page of the Indian Express. www.indianexpress.com (click on IE Archive "Search by Date" , search using 20 Nov 2005 and look for the story title 'Ten of us, we killed at least 22 tigers' )

Now nothing is left to the imagination. It has been proved beyond doubt that poachers are killing the tigers while the forest department looks on pretending that the cause of their decline is tourism. There is nothing left to the imagination.

What people don't understand is that once the tiger becomes extinct in Ranthambhore that will be its end in India no matter what people may say. The kind of work we have done in every field to try and get the situation under control here including the poaching exposure is something that is unlikely to happen anywhere else. Just looking at the interest generated in the Indian media it seems as though the tiger is already dead for them.

Now we have all got to use every contact, every bit of power we have to capitalise on this information and make sure the government at both the state and the national level is embarassed into acknowledging the facts and into sacking the officers who have so badly misled the whole issue.

I cannot even begin to explain the risk that some of our boys on the undercover operation have taken. I wish we could have delayed the story a few more days as we were all ready to catch the big fish that supplies the tiger parts to Delhi. Fortunately we have got unprecedented support from the police, better than ever before and this has added credibility to our efforts. Otherwise the system would have found a way to discredit us in some way or the other.

This is the last chance for the tiger in Ranthambhore. I don't think it can go on like this especially in light of the fact that a few tigers have been lost even after the Red Alert.

I am sorry to have to pass on this horrible news to you but I see it as a silver lining.

As always with warmest regards and thank you for helping us make this possible by supporting us in spirit and with money.

Warmest regards,

Goverdhan Singh Rathore

Letter from Fateh Singh Rathore, 1st warden of Ranthambhore tiger reserve to
the Chairman of the State Tiger Task Force

25th November, 2005

Respected Shri V.P. Singh Sahib,

As someone who has spent over 45 years with tigers I am saddened with the state of affairs at Ranthambhore. There is no doubt in my mind that our Honorable Chief Minister Smt Vasundraji is totally committed to saving the tiger in Ranthambhore. This is precisely the reason why she had immediately constituted the State Task Force with people like Valmik Thaparji, Rajpal Singhji, Ms. Belinda and others who have an untainted and impeccable track record and expertise in this regard. As part of the task force you clearly highlighted the plight and concluded that indeed tigers were missing due to poaching in the last year. For the first time in the history of wildlife conservation as Chairman of the committee you instituted a Red Alert providing additional manpower and suggestions to safeguard the future of the tiger. Unfortunately the express intent of the Honorable Chief Minister and that of the committee has been taken very lightly by the officers in-charge of the park and even by the Project Tiger Directorate. All those involved with helping save the tiger have continued to misguide everyone by pretending that everything was well and under control. Additional guards have been removed without any indication that poaching had stopped. No efforts have been put to assess the real situation even though another census was to be conducted during November. To make matters worse the Director in-charge of the core area was sent off for training for nearly a month to America leaving the important post of Core area vacant. Those in charge of Ranthambhore provided even the Prime Minister, during his fact-finding mission, wrong information. Left to the Department, Ranthamhore would have become another Sariska sooner than later and Rajasthan would have become a state without tigers.

It is very fortunate that the timely action of our Police Department was able to execute successfully an undercover operation that has been able to expose the whole tragedy of poaching which has continued unabated.

Even now the Forest Staff is preparing to strike, pretending that the issue of missing tigers is not true and that a CBI inquiry must be conducted. I wholeheartedly support this but before anything of the sort can even be done, the Forest Department would have to prove that the tigers are not missing. This they have been unable to do for nearly 20 months since we reported on the missing tigers in June 2004.

Having already lost a few more months since the crisis first came to light we may have already lost some more tigers. I believe the current situation is extremely grave and some urgent matters may have to be taken with immediate effect. Some of which are:

1. Immediate assessment of tiger numbers using photo trapping preferably with as many as 100 cameras.

2. Immediately transfer all forest staff members that have serving in the area for the past few years and bring in new and young staff from other areas.

3. Warn all staff members trying to create a nuisance and trying to misguide people that this is an emergency situation and such actions will not be tolerated and the severest of action will be taken against those that continue to do so.

4. Put together a team of experts to assist the Park management in day-to-day monitoring of tigers, reporting on the situation on a monthly basis.

5. Instruct the department that for the next few months they should take their focus away from counting tourists and spend their time counting tigers. 35 vehicles on restricted routes should not be allowed to become the focus of attention of all park management issues, as has been the case for many years now. The results are there for everyone to see. If the tigers are saved there will be enough time later to sort out the tourism issues, but if they die there will be no tourism left to manage.

It may be possible that the current situation of the park may have already reached the critical point of having only one or two breeding males. All efforts must now focus on monitoring these males and making sure that they survive. Not doing so may spell doom for the tigers in Ranthambhore and there may never be a second chance.

I hope you will be able to understand the extreme gravity of the situation and issue instructions to implement the above suggestions with immediate effect. As always I stand committed to saving the tiger in Ranthambhore and would be happy to assist you in any way I can at all times.

Yours sincerely

(Fateh Singh Rathore)
Ex. Field Director Ranthambore & Vice Chairman, Tiger Watch

cc. Kr. Rajpal Singhji, Member Task Force