TEHELKA, 22-28 August, 2010
Journalists who cover ‘sensitive’ sectors such as the Ministry of Defence or External Affairs are used to restricted access. These ministries often cite national interest to make it difficult to question some of the “stories” they dish out. One would not imagine the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to be so secretive. But the green ministry plays the same power game in protected forests off limits for the masses and the media.
No one would grudge the ministry its clout to quietly and quickly secure ecological interests in a squabbling, dithering democracy. But these secret machinations can be a dangerous game. Last month, one such move went horribly wrong, rubbishing credible science, betraying public trust and wasting crores of rupees in public money.
In a joint exercise, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Rajasthan Forest Department and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) shifted a fourth tiger to Sariska on 20 July. There has been a 17-month moratorium since the last tiger was shifted in February 2009. The media was told that the delay was due to a thorough scientific exercise that was necessary to ascertain genetic compatibility after the first three tigers shifted to Sariska turned out to be siblings and also failed to breed. When the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) finally cleared two tigers for relocation after matching the DNA of the Ranthambore tigers with the ones shifted to Sariska, the officials claimed, the operation was resumed.
A triumph for science and conservation, the media was told. Well, almost. If only the officials shifted the right tigers, the ones cleared by the NCBS.
DNA analysis is done either from blood or scat (droppings) samples. WII scientists have been involved in a radiocollaring exercise in Ranthambore for more than three years. Though it is mandatory to collect blood when a tiger is tranquilised for radio-collaring, and they have collared many, no blood sample was sent to NCBS. So the DNA tests were done with scats and two samples were found suitable.The next logical step was to find the two tigers whose scats were cleared. Since nobody saw any tiger defecating while collecting the samples, this was the tricky part. One collection point near Kamaldhar was frequented by five tigers — three males (T12, T28 and T38) and two females (T17 and T19). The other collection point was at the edge of the park, visited by a young male (T24) and also by T12.
The two females (T17 and T19) are known to be closely related to the females already in Sariska. So the officials knew that these DNA results would not come handy for identifying a suitable female and any selection would be random without further studies. For a male, they had four possibilities (T24, T12, T28 and T38) to check.
But within 48 hours of receiving the NCBS report, without even trying to ascertain which individual was actually cleared by the DNA test, the officials picked up the T12 male. Why? Because T12 had hunted a cow on 18 July and was the easiest target when the darting team arrived on 19 July.
It did not matter that T12 was six years old, had an established territory and was one of the four dominant males of Ranthambore. It did not matter that a 2008 NTCA directive prohibited shifting settled, territorial tigers and allowed relocation of young floaters still on the lookout for territories. It did not matter that a similar mature, settled tiger shifted from Pench to Panna started walking back home, risking its life and triggering panic among people. It did not matter that all the other three candidates were younger than T12 and two of them were floaters ideal for shifting.
On 28 July, days after shifting T12, officials sent a tigress to Sariska (T44) who was recently photographed while mating by many Ranthambore regulars. If she is indeed pregnant, her cubs will be doomed in Sariska in the absence of their father. So will be the cubs of the tigress that paired with T12 days before he was removed from Ranthambore.
ASOURCE IN WII revealed that the tiger reintroduction project was initially conceived as part of the ongoing WII research at Ranthambore. As the researchers kept collaring tigers, they were supposed to keep checking their blood samples for genetic compatibility and shift suitable candidates that met other criteria like age to Sariska as and when possible. Then, a sudden populist rush, he rued, hijacked the project.
But it is shocking that our officials would brazenly repeat the same mistakes that they were forced to own up to only recently. What was the point of the 17-month moratorium, sundry committees, repeated field surveys and DNA analyses if they were to again pick up whichever tiger they found easy to dart?
It may appear a fait accompli but the WII must make public how they identified the right tigers from the scat samples cleared by NCBS. The NTCA must spell out who is responsible for shifting resident and breeding tigers from the core population, violating its own guideline. The MoEF must send blood samples of the new Sariska tigers, collected in the presence of independent observers, to NCBS to confirm if the right individuals were selected.
Unfortunately, the only heads that ever roll in our forests belong to tigers.
The writer is an independent journalist and a filmmaker
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