Project update - September 2005

The Tiger in Ranthambhore faces its biggest crisis yet
Report by Prakratik Society Director, Dr Goverdhan Singh Rathore

The weakest link in tiger conservation continues to remain the threat of poaching. The past two years have seen an increase in poaching due a direct lack of commitment by the park authorities to combat this menace. Once again this was highlighted by a local NGO, Tiger Watch, when it declared that as per its research during the latter six months of 2004, 18 tigers were missing in Ranthambhore. In 1992 when a similar crisis had nearly threatened to decimate the tiger population in Ranthambhore, the inquiry commission effectively protected all the park officials responsible by saying that there was a system failure and therefore no one person could be held accountable. The current crisis has led to the State Government declaring a Red Alert, putting additional armed guards inside the park. Three different inquiry commissions have been set up. It may be another six months before any of them actually submit any suggestions. Meanwhile most top park officials are on leave (as of June 05) during what is technically a Red Alert. Most of the blame is being put on harmless tourism that is already over regulated rather than on the real issues of poaching, woodcutting, grazing and illegal encroachment.

In the past few years, support from all over the world has helped provide jeeps, trucks, motorcycles, cycles, uniforms etc. to help the park authorities to deal with poachers and other wildlife crimes. Unfortunately there is no independent system of audit and accountability and therefore vehicles end up getting used for taking family and friends into the park instead of conducting anti-poaching patrols. Top park officials in charge of the critical core area do not live and work in the core but spend most of their time sitting in an office in town. Park officials try to divert all attention towards tourism as being the main reason for the missing tigers and therefore spend their entire time trying to control the 35 tourist vehicles allowed inside the park - counting tourists, checking passports and monitoring routes rather than conducting anti poaching patrols or monitoring tiger movement. Every tourist has to fill out a visit report stating whether they saw a tiger or not and yet this critical information that could become an indicator of tiger movement and numbers is not analysed and referred to. Even independent research is blocked.

Following the submission of the Tiger Watch Report in June 2004 and the subsequent news of the disappearance of all tigers from Sariska National Park in Rajasthan, a Central Tiger Task Force was formed at the express command of the Prime Minister of India to look into the grave crisis facing the tiger and its continued existence in the wild in India. It is 33 years since Mrs. Indira Gandhi launched Project Tiger in 1973 to help save the tiger. There is no doubt that without Project Tiger and the steadfast support of Mrs Gandhi the tiger would have long perished in India.

I am absolutely certain that when our Prime Minister selected Mrs. Sunita Narain as the Chairperson of the Central Task Force, as opposed to picking someone from a wildlife background, he was looking for someone who could think out of the box. Many committees with tiger experts on them had not been able to help safeguard this highly endangered predator and therefore it was only logical to try and find a solution from outside rather than from within.

Unfortunately Mrs Narain's total lack of any field experience (she had never seen a tiger in the wild before being made Chairperson) regarding tigers or wildlife in general has done more harm than good. This is especially true with regard to her report on Ranthambhore.

Every evidence in Ranthambhore pointed towards the totally inefficient and unaccountable park management as being the cause of the recent crisis in this famous tiger reserve and yet the Chairman was unable to see the truth. The only blame that she apportioned in Ranthambhore was regarding tourism. As I write this report, there are hundreds of pilgrims entering the park unchecked and on foot round the clock for 3 days. Today (7th Septemebr 05) the local paper quoted nearly 100,000 people as having entered the park for the annual Lord Ganesh Fair. This is equal to an entire year's worth of tourists inside Ranthambhore. Yet it is the 400 odd tourists a day that visit each year for just nine months that seem to be the cause of concern in the report.

The task force committee has ignored the research findings submitted by a local NGO. Tiger Watch is headed by Mr. Fateh Singh Rathore, considered by most people to be the founding father of Ranthambhore having spent nearly 4 decades helping to save its tigers. Their report was produced with photographic evidence of tigers that existed in Ranthambhore less than two years ago and were no longer being seen. It was this very report that was instrumental in highlighting the tiger crisis in Ranthambhore in June 2004. However the Chairman neither sought to authenticate this report nor did she try to meet anyone from Tiger Watch during her whirlwind tour of Ranthambhore.

While her report talks about ways to involve local people in conservation through initiating development projects, she completely ignored the work being done in Ranthambhore by a local NGO which is pioneering and unlike any such project anywhere else around India's Tiger Reserves.

The result is that the same inefficient management will continue in Ranthambhore and there is now no reason for them to change their ways. For the unwary tourists arriving in October (when the park opens for the new season) there is still no clear-cut policy. Even the existing policy of 60 days advance booking no longer exists as every one is awaiting new rules. Yet every hotel is booked out and no one is willing to tell their guests that they may not be allowed to enter the park if the rules have changed when the park reopens. No one wants to lose any business and therefore no one wants to rock the boat.

Without a system of accountability within the Park management the tiger in Ranthambhore will never be safe. For the moment no one seems to want to hold anyone accountable.

The State Task Force has still not published its report. With the Central Task Force being a disaster every one is eagerly awaiting for the State Task Force to submit its report on which rests the future of the tiger in Ranthambore.

The findings of the Central Task Force can be found at: www.cseindia.org (Joining the dots)

The critique on its report by Tigerwatch can be read here

We will keep you posted on the findings of the State Task Force as they are made known to us.