Poaching,
not tourism, tripped Ranthambhore tiger reserve in the last decade. Again
teeming with cubs, its future depends not on the number of tourists on safari
vehicles but the level of security in this forest landscape.
Here is good news from Rajasthan. What
was common knowledge among wildlife enthusiasts has become official during a
recent census: the presence of 21 cubs in Ranthambhore tiger reserve. Given
that tigers have refused to breed in a highly disturbed Sariska since the
reintroduction drive was launched in 2007, the news that the state’s only other
reserve is teeming with cubs has brought cheer to many.
Ranthambhore suffered mass poaching and
routinely made national headlines during the last decade. The reserve has also
been cited as an example of messy wildlife tourism on many occasions. In these
contexts, the happily breeding tigers of Ranthambhore offer us an opportunity
for some introspection.
Tiger populations have high turnovers
and it is not unusual for Ranthambhore to throw up 21 cubs. In fact, recalls
wildlife photographer and hotelier Aditya Singh who shifted base to Sawai
Madhopur 13 years ago, the reserve has always produced about 20 cubs every
two-year cycle, amounting to more than 120 cubs during his association.
“Between 2000 and 2003, we were
filming with a BBC crew for over 450 days. I remember we shot 17 cubs belonging
to seven different tigresses. There were another four cubs in areas that we did
not cover,” says Singh.
All these years, tourism has been a
roaring business in Ranthambhore. But the only time the tiger population and
the number of cubs dipped alarmingly was during 2003-2005 when poaching was at
its peak. In 2005, Ranthambhore’s tiger population had dropped to 17 with only
five cubs and one adult male to report. Since there was just one male even
among the cubs, recovery took a while after the threats of poaching subsided.
By 2007, the numbers saw a marginal
improvement -- from 17 to 19, including 3 cubs -- but already four adult males
were walking the reserve. A rebound was on the cards and soon Ranthambhore’s
tiger population started showing a male-surplus trend. In 2009, the reserve
recorded 45 tigers, including 14 cubs and 11 sub-adults. Nearly half of the
population was male and six of them adults.
Three years on, the numbers seemed to
have stabilised at 46, including 21 cubs. But the sex ratio has got further
skewed with the presence of 11 adult male tigers. While dispersing males is
excellent news for adjoining forests, lack of safe dispersal grounds has
already resulted in infighting and death.
But before we get there, let us
exorcise a few popular theories that hold safari tourism as a potent threat to
tigers. Unlike Corbett, Ranthambhore is lucky to have all tourism properties in
a township that does not stand on any animal corridor. While many of these
resorts are party to a civic mess that makes Sawai Madhopur’s clogged sewers
stink and its groundwater table sink, they cannot inflict any direct harm on
wildlife. So the bulk of the criticism of tourism in Ranthambhore is directed
at rowdy safari tourism inside the reserve.
Unless tourists and guides have
malicious intent, their mere presence on safari vehicles does not seem to
bother tigers. There is no scientific evidence yet to suggest the contrary.
Even during the height of poaching in 2005, all five cubs of Ranthambhore were
inside the tourism zones, which cover only about one-third of the national park.
During the 2006-07 recovery, two of the reserve’s three cubs were born in
tourist areas. The trend did not change in 2009 when 12 of Ranthambhore’s 25
cubs and sub-adults flourished under the watch of tourists.
At present, the tourism zones inside the
national park harbour only five cubs. Blame an upheaval in the population
dynamics caused by airlifting five tigers from the reserve, four of them from
the tourism zone. This has resulted in areas such as Kachida and Guda still
lying unoccupied after the death of respective resident tigresses. But with so
many cubs around, these areas are bound to be filled up soon unless arbitrary
interventions continue.
Yet, authorities flaunt
quasi-scientific formulae to work out the so-called carrying capacity of a
reserve. What we really need is strict implementation of a set of practical dos
and don’ts on ground, failing which even one vehicle and a handful of tourists
occupying it are capable of harming the wild.
It is common sense that too many
vehicles cannot be allowed in a limited tourism zone. We need not tout fancy
equations but we still need to set that limit. But there is no justification
for not allowing expansion of tourism zones to ease pressure or allow more
tourists. If nothing else, more wildlife tourists mean stronger economic
incentive for local communities (provided they are the primary beneficiaries of
eco-tourism, an area of concern that demands legally-binding clauses for the
industry).
Meanwhile, the real good news from
Ranthambhore is that tigers have started occupying areas outside the national
park. Till 2009, few Ranthambhore tigers settled down in either Kela Devi or
SMS sanctuary areas of the reserve. Today, there are nine tigers including 3
cubs in SMS sanctuary and possibly one in Kela Devi. Again, out of the three
cubs in SMS sanctuary, two are in its tourism zone.
This positive trend is fraught with
obvious dangers. Two dispersing tigers were poisoned in Kela Devi sanctuary in
2010. Another cub was lost in SMS sanctuary last year. With poaching under
check now, thanks to joint efforts by the present park management and local
conservationists spearheaded by Dr Dharmendra Khandal of TigerWatch, the cubs
of Ranthambhore now have a far better chance to survive to adulthood. They have
a range of choices for dispersal. Beyond Kela Devi and SMS sanctuaries, they
can repopulate Ramgarh-Darra to the south, Dholpur to the north and Kuno-Madhav
national parks to the east. But protection level in all these areas remains
dismal.
Therefore, the future of Ranthambhore
tigers, and the subsequent fate of the entire landscape, depends on the success
of our authorities and activists to reclaim Kela Devi and SMS sanctuary areas
of the reserve for the big cat and secure the potential tiger forests beyond.
Local tourism, meanwhile, requires
weeding out of rowdy, insensitive elements. But across the country, the real
threat lies outside the protected areas, along the edges of our forests, where
mega properties block corridors, create sound and light pollution, deplete
natural resources by catering to non-wildlife tourists and dupe local
communities. We need sharp laws to clean up that mess.
Inside the reserves, however, day
tourists on safari vehicles bound by a set of common-sense regulations can only
help conservation. It is the citizen’s only access to the country’s best
wilderness, otherwise made impregnable by law and left to the forest
department’s absolute charge. Potentially, every safari tourist can demand
accountability. Closing that window is not democratic. Nor will it save the
tiger.
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