The promise that tiger conservation will take care
of all species down the pyramid is flawed. Any little bird can tell us why
THE CENTRE has finally asked the bustard range
states to prepare species recovery action plans for the three critically
endangered birds following its guidelines. The population of Great Indian
Bustards (GIB) has fallen below 300 and the bird’s last stand is in a few pockets
of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The
terai of Uttar Pradesh, duars of West Bengal, parts of Assam and Arunachal
Pradesh foothills are critical for the survival of the remaining 350-odd Bengal
Floricans. Lesser Floricans are relatively better off and their range overlaps broadly
with that of the GIB’s.
It is perhaps already too late to revive the GIB
without conservation breeding programmes. The government watched silently for
over two decades as the endangered species reached the brink of extinction. The
stately GIB would have been anointed India’s national bird but for our first
prime minister’s not-entirely-unfounded scepticism about our spelling prowess.
The bird never fell off the radar and yet the decade-old demand for a Project
Bustard failed to move the government. When things finally moved in 2011, the
recovery plans of all three bustards, which require very different habitat
management, were eventually clubbed together to save funds.
Unless we are talking tigers, funding is a serious
constraint. The Centre’s Rs 800 crore Integrated Development of Wildlife
Habitat (IDWH) initiative earmarks only Rs 100 crore for the recovery of 16
critically endangered species. While the IDWH is supposed to look after the
protection of all wildlife outside protected forests across the country with
just Rs 250 crore, the allocation for India’s 600-odd protected areas is only
Rs 450 crore, which breaks down to a daily budget of less than Rs 100 per sq
km.
Project Tiger, of course, was allotted more than Rs
600 crore under the Eleventh Plan. Even Project Elephant, the only other
species recovery plan run in a project mode, did not merit more than Rs 82
crore during the same plan period. This lopsided funding would have made some
sense if the benefit of conserving tigers, an umbrella species, reached all
other species in its ecosystem. It has not.
Let’s consider birds. The GIB is not found in any
tiger reserve. Neither is the enigmatic Jerdon’s Courser. While Bombay Natural
History Society’s (BNHS) Project Bustard document has no takers, the Andhra
Pradesh government’s plan to recover Jerdon’s Courser is still awaiting funding
support from the Centre. Of the 15 critically endangered bird species of India,
points out BNHS director Asad Rahmani in his recent book Threatened Birds of
India, eight are not found in any tiger reserve. The poor quality of data on
birds from tiger reserves in itself highlights a blinkered conservation
approach.
Nevertheless, four species of vultures have
benefited substantially from Project Tiger as reserves provide diclofenac-free
wild carcasses ( just like species such as the Pallid Harrier benefits from
pesticide-free grassland areas inside reserves). Namdapha and Manas are good
habitat for the White-bellied Heron. Bengal Florican got lucky when much of its
grassland habitat came under protection in Dudhwa, Kaziranga, Manas,
Dibru-Saikhowa and Orang.
However, Project Tiger never factored in the needs
of Florican conservation. For example, the Ghola grassland in Lakhimpur-Kheri
district of Uttar Pradesh was not included in Dudhwa simply because the area
did not have any tree cover. Today, this important habitat of Bengal Florican
and many other bird species such as Swamp Francolin has become cropland.
Significantly, other than the GIB and the Jerdon’s
Courser, four bird species — Himalayan Quail, Pink-headed Duck, Sociable
Lapwing and Spoon-billed Sandpiper — near-extinct in India do not benefit from
Project Tiger. And let’s not even talk about the vagrant Christmas Frigatebird
or the migratory Siberian Crane.
The pattern holds when Rahmani examines the
distribution of the endangered bird species. Of the 16, only eight have been
spotted in tiger reserves. The only one to have truly benefited from Project
Tiger is the White-winged Duck, which is found in Manas, Nameri, Namdapha and
Pakke. Greater Adjutant mostly breeds outside protected areas but has small
breeding populations in Kaziranga and Manas.
Tiger reserves that have recorded other endangered
species are Kaziranga (Baer’s Pochard), Sunderbans (Baer’s Pochard, Masked
Finfoot and Spotted greenshank), Periyar and Kalakkad-Mundanthurai
(White-bellied Blue Robin) and Bhadra (Nilgiri Blue Robin). The Egyptian
Vulture is found in many tiger reserves but its primary habitat is in open
countryside.
Project Tiger has no impact on the fate of the
other eight endangered species. The Lesser Florican could have a good chance to
flourish in many tiger reserves if grassland areas were included or not
converted into woodlands. The Narcondam Hornbill is endemic to the Andamans and
the Green Peafowl is restricted to Myanmar borders. The other species absent
from tiger reserves are the Nilgiri Laughingthrush, the Red-breasted Goose, the
Oriental Stork, the White-headed Duck and the Barau’s Petrel.
These nearly-lost causes apart, 20 out of 54
vulnerable bird species cannot be revived under the tiger umbrella. The Sarus
Crane is found in 16 tiger reserves but breeds occasionally only in Dudhwa. As
their large nests in shallow waters are vulnerable to predation, most Sarus
birds are found in agricultural fields and small wetlands free of wild
predators. Similarly, the Indian Skimmer nests in mega rivers and does not
breed in any of the tiger reserves, such as Kaziranga, Nagarjunasagar, Valmiki,
Dudhwa, Ranthambore and Satkosia, where it is spotted.
ALL FOREST types are not covered under Project
Tiger, resulting in the exclusion of many bird species such as the White-naped
Tit (old-growth thorn forests) and the Yellow-throated Bulbul (peninsular
forests). The endemic Green Munia prefers dry scrub forests, breeding and
foraging mostly outside reserves. Occasionally found in a few tiger forests, the
Lesser Flamingo’s main breeding tract is the Great Rann of Kutch where a
proposed road may soon come up close to the grand Flamingo City, affecting the
water regime and the breeding of this magnificent species.
A number of small grassland birds such as the
Bristled Grassbird, the Broad-tailed Grassbird, the Marsh Babbler, the Jerdon’s
Babbler and the Slender-billed Babbler have benefited from the lowland
grassland habitat of Manas, Kaziranga, Corbett, Dudhwa and Namdapha. But these
species breed during summer when grassland is set afire as part of tiger
habitat management and to increase wildlife visibility for tourists.
Sums up renowned bird author Bikram Grewal: “With
all the focus on the tiger, nobody has time and money for birds. Even those who
care mostly talk about the GIB. Our obsession for size draws us towards the
mega fauna. In the process, too many critical bird species are disappearing too
fast.”
This does not mean Project Tiger can be compromised
with. “Tiger con servation has far-reaching benefits and anyway we cannot
financially weaken the existing projects. But there is a serious need for
additional funds and species-specific focus to cover non-tiger areas such as
deserts, grasslands, coasts, marine ecosystems, wetlands, high altitude areas
and islands,” says Rahmani. Or India can give up the pretension of pursuing the
zero-extinction goal by 2020.
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