During
the many years in which I have served the cause of
Wildlife I have had to face antagonism from the Forest
Department because I have maintained that charge of
wildlife has been entrusted to them simply because
wildlife dwells mainly in forested areas. Otherwise
the disciplines are antagonistic. A "clean"
floor is the dream of a forester, it is the nightmare
of a wildlifer where the homes of nesting birds,
breeding mammals, homing reptiles, and parasites who
seek the shelter of trees are destroyed for profit.
Yet the sport killers of yesteryear are the supposed
champions of a dwindling resource, and I am vilified
by the very people whose jobs I am doing.
Though
the reintroduction project (of Tara the tigress) had
the approval of the Prime Minister in 1978, I was
denied permission by the Department to radio collar the
tigress who I was trying to return to free living,
merely because a new government which looked upon
wildlife conservation as a luxury, had taken over the
direction of administration in 1977/78. Two years and
ten months later, on 9th November 1980 the Park
Director shot a tigress which had turned a man killer,
and claimed that she was my rehabilitated tigress
which had not been tutored in the art of killing by
her mother and had therefore turned a man-eater . The
incongruity of the fact that, he had refused to permit
a radio-collaring, and that the shot tigress he had
called Tara existed for two years and ten months since
then, during which time she was alleged to have killed
five humans, and of whom she had only been allowed to
eat very small portions, did not occur to him.
The
distaste with which the Forest Department reacted to
my claim that I had returned a zoo bred tigress to
free living conditions, was compulsive, possibly
triggered by the fact that the confident assertion by
the self proclaimed wildlife pundits of the
Department, that it was humanly not possible to return
" super predators " to free living
conditions, had been disproved. The Director of
Project Tiger insisted that my claim to have returned
a cub tiger to the wild was " bogus ". He
submitted verbose reports in support of his thesis.
Muted promptings by prejudiced personnel to questions
in the Indian Parliament, elicited the information to
the enquirer that Tara had been naturally eliminated.
The Park Director persisted with the fraudulent claim
that he had shot Tara, "The Maneater".
Subordinate staff were encouraged to spread the canard
that a hand reared tiger had been taken from the
safety of a zoo only to lose life and liberty in the
misguided performance of impossible experimentation.
Biased personnel, who had never seen Tara refuted the
confident claim of someone who had lived with her for
a year and a half.
Beguiled
by the prejudices of people in authority, the Chairman
of the Cat Group agreed that no tiger had ever been
put back into the wild. It was a travesty that while
Tara existed as an occupant of the Tigerhaven Range,
and was frequently seen by tourists with her various
cubs, an insidious propaganda emanating from Park
Headquarters did not allow an acceptance of the
erstwhile hand reared tigress return to free living,
it was only after her disappearance from the Range in
1992, and the appearance in 1994 of a tiger as a
possible Siberian Mutant, for mutants can appear in
the subsequent generations, that I thought of a DNA
Test to establish whether the tiger which I suspected
to have Siberian antecedents, and as proclaimed by the
international scientists who had opposed the
intermingling of sub races over twenty years ago, was
indeed a descendent of Tara, a hybrid whose
integration would contaminate the local Indian
subspecies.
The context however was now
entirely different to that of twenty years ago. The
tiger was in imminent danger of extinction, and though
a majority of scientific opinion still maintained that
effective protection was sufficient to ensure survival
in perpetuity, conservationists felt that the "
Point of No Return " had been crossed and a
genetic diversity for constricted populations in
fragmented areas to prevent inbreeding was now
essential . Scientific dogma had also been modified of
necessity, by the examples of the invigorating effects
of hybridisation among plant life and humans.
It
was now sought to remedy the physical infirmities of
the genetically afflicted Florida Panther by an
integration with the Taxes Cougar, of a different
subspecies in the USA . A report by two scientists
from the Wildlife Institute of India stated that a
group of three tigers and eight tigresses in the
Rajaji National Park did not appear to have bred, and
though they, possibly wrongly, attributed this
condition to habitat disturbance, the probability of a
genetic failure due to inbreeding should be
investigated.
The
Chairman of the International Cat Specialist Group
however firmly repeated that there was no record of a
captive bred tiger being integrated into a wild
population, and moreover maintained there was no
necessity of adopting options for the diversifications
of genes among wild tigers by translocations,
reintroductions or artificial insemination, if
protection was ensured. But he had also upheld the
probability of extinction by the close of the century.
As far as my own feelings were concerned, I was of the
opinion that the mutant out of Tara was one of the
handsomest tigers I had ever seen, and the
contamination of the blood line was a load of eyewash.
Also the prospect of egg on the faces of bureaucrats
in officialdom, who had used their high offices to
denigrate the successful introduction, was an
enchanting one.
I
realised that the exhausted genes of the local
community had been revitalised , though it was
problematical how many of Tara's offspring survived
the onslaught of the bone trade. The Indo Nepal border
was an ideal heaven for the criminal elements of
either country. I converted my farm at tiger heaven to
a grain and sugarcane farm to be shared by ungulates,
humans and elephants alike, and attract prey species
to secure the presence of Tara's progeny.
I
taped a tiger call in 1995, and found that one
particular male would answer these calls at night.
Tigers use calls mainly as a means of communication,
whether it be spacing calls chiefly at kills, mating
calls, or contact calls within families . As the taped
call was that of a male, it seemed that the range male
was seeking to establish territory, and though there
were two tigresses in the vicinity, he appeared not to
associate with the females, which could indicate that
he was a sub adult, though his pugs were those of a
well grown tiger.
One
day during March some buffaloes were being grazed
along the bank of river in the buffer area of the Park
to the east of Tiger Haven. Among them was a
pregnant black cow. A tiger appeared from some
tall grass at midday and killed the cow , and started
to drag it across the river. Alarmed by the
yells of the grazers, he abandoned the kill in the
shallow river, where I saw it, as I passed on my way
into town. On my return a couple of hours later, he
had returned and tried to drag the carcass across the
river but one leg caught in a sapling, and he was
unable to take it up the river bank under cover. He
had a meal and then spent the afternoon sitting in the
river upstream. That night he dragged the kill along
the river for about fifty meters, and the third night
he repeated the manoeuvre for another hundred meters .
By this time the corpse was smelling considerably, but
a tigress who happened to pass by, did not pause to
investigate, and the tiger pulled the remains up the
bank and finished it on his own.
A few days later he was seen
sitting in the water at the Croc Pool bend further
upstream , besides what appeared to be the rumen sac
of an animal which we later discovered was that of a
large wild boar. I drove along the river bank in my
gypsy playing the roar, and saw the tiger appear to
contest what to him must have been a challenge to the
possession of his kill. We were all surprised, for the
pale pelage, the wide stripes, the large head and
white complexion had the characteristics of Siberian
stock. Was this a recessive mutant out of Tara for she
supposedly had Siberian genes? If so, at this advanced
stage when the species was faced with extinction, what
lessons, if any, did he hold for the future? And what
answer to the furore that the pure bread of the Indian
tiger was being contaminated by foreign genes? For
this was a young tiger, as was evident by the
whiteness of his canines, with the outstanding good
looks of his forbears.
Many
questions had to be answered by the scientist keepers
of the stud book. Was there a case for reappraisal for
the eight subspecies of tiger, four of whom were
extinct? The tiger had been in existence for a million
years, when habitat areas were contiguou , and
obviously subspecies only came into existence with a
fragmentation of habitat which is comparatively very
recent, and there is still possibly an overlap on the
Asian mainland. The compartmentalisation of subspecies
is possibly too dogmatic? It should be for
consideration that generic tiger which are recommended
for extinction should redeem their unfortunate
existence by repopulating selected habitat areas of
erstwhile Balinese, Javan and Caspian
occupation? For these tigers are already in
process of a genetic transition.
However
the dogma of purity of lineage continued. I wrote to
the Chairman of the Cat Group suggesting a DNA Test to
establish the possibility of a successful
reintroduction but he was not in favour. I then
approached the Chief Wildlife Warden of Uttar Pradesh
for permission to immobilise the tiger in question for
a blood sample test for Siberian Genes, but permission
was not granted by the senior Wildlife official in the
Ministry of Environment . I then wrote to Hashim
Tyabjee, an old wildlife colleague who had helped in
the original identification of Tara, when she returned
to the wild. Dr. Lalji Singh, a scientist with the
centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology in
Hyderabad performed a micro satellite test on a hair
sample which I had obtained after much search in the
forest. His verdict stated that there was a seventy
percent certainty that the hairs were from a hybrid of
Indo-Siberian origin but it would be require some hair
of another tiger of local origin to confirm the
remaining thirty percent. I also sent a hair sample to
John Aspinall asking for a DNA Test, but unfortunately
they were unable to arrange a test and had to refer
the possibility to the USA as the UK genetic
laboratories were only to work off blood samples.
My
efforts to establish that a hand reared tiger could be
returned to free living conditions remained as a
holding battle with the Forest Department who had
originally denied such a possibility, and had
maintained the criminality of hybridisation. But the
premises had now changed radically. Whereas
integration with other subraces would have been more
insidious, and defiant of perception considering the
Departmental negative attitudes, Siberian
hybridisation was not distinctive in a recessive
mutant as to invite further investigation of the
phenomena. The seventy percent probability verdict by
the centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology
shifted the venue of possibility from a majority and
loaded assertion in the favour of the Forest
Department to a scientific vindication of fact in
mine. It only remained to remove that thirty percent
of doubt by sending another hair sample to Dr. Lalji
Singh. However even this was not easy. The Forest
Department procrastinated over giving me hairs from
skins which I had been instrumental in capturing from
poachers, but were in their custody.
The
" BIG CAT COVER UP " has also now assumed
formidable proportions with the Forest Department
endeavoring to demonstrate the success of Project
Tiger and that tiger poaching is a figment. They
planned a Jubilee Celebration in 1993, but were
mortified to discover that it was more in the nature
of an Obituary, Ranthambhor, the erstwhile shooting
Preserve of the Rulers of Jaipur which had put the
success of the Project on the World map, plummeted
from a figure of 44 to a problematical low of 18.
Other less high profile Project Areas registered
equivalent slump , yet the Department maintained that
only one tiger had been poached during that fateful
year.
A
tigress was electrocuted by a wire stretched from an
Electric Transformer on the fringe of the Dudhwa
National Park in 1994. Names of the culprits were
supplied to the Field Director, but no action was
taken. Orders were issued by the Steering Committee,
Project Tiger calling for reports within a month after
the discovery of a casualty, but no reports were ever
made by the State Governments.
The Environmental Investigation
Agency, a U.K. based Study Group, after a year long
study expressed the opinion that one tiger a day was
being poached from habitat areas. The British Prime
Minister offered a donation of pounds 100,000 for
saving the tiger and the House of Commons tabled a
Resolution asking the Indian Prime Minister to
safeguard the tiger's chances of extinction, but the
Minister of Environment resented the gratuitous
interference of other nationalities in environmental
problems of India.
The Forest Department, while
resenting non governmental interference in census
operations agreed to individual participation, but in
the absence of a long term involvement in methodology
such a partnership served no purpose, and figures
continued to be inflated. It was claimed that two
thirds of the tiger population was outside protected
areas which was just not possible considering habitat
degradation, lack of protective staff, Timber Mafia
operations, tiger poaching and other adverse pressures
and influences, and if Forest Department claims
continue to be accepted, an unheralded population
crash is more than likely, as reports by unconnected,
yet concerned personnel indicate that such unprotected
areas have few, if any, tigers left.
A
further disappointing development was the
disappearance of the hybrid tiger of Siberian
antecedents from the Tiger Haven Range. After his
initial sojourn during which he killed the pregnant
black cow and a large wild boar, to my knowledge he
moved east to the vicinity of village Basantapur. By
the winter of 1997 he no longer visited his former
range and his great pugs were seen no more. He was now
a resident adjacent to a densely populated and
cultivated periphery of the Reserve, where domestic
stock intruded into the forest boundary. Much
antagonism was generated against tiger predation on
cattle, and though compensation was officially
permissible it was limited by a tardy and involved
system of payment, and also by the fact that if the
tiger killed an animal where they were not permitted
to graze, no compensation was allowable in all
fairness. Moreover pesticides were used to poison
kills, and in conjunction with the soaring prices of
skins, bones and all derivatives, the marketing of
Wildlife products continued as a lucrative business.
I therefore on the premise of
first things first, and not being restricted by
Departmental protocol, started paying compensation to
grazers regardless of the circumstances of killing. I
encouraged the herdsmen to keep me informed of
casualties, and was gratified by an informer reporting
to me in confidence that two tigers had been poisoned
and skinned in a village, Belakalan in early January
1997. Investigations elicited the names of the
culprits, but with my supplying this information to
the Forest Department further revelations dried. A
month later some high grass was burnt in the Rhino
enclosure, and the cadaver of a tiger with some
attached skin was found. An autopsy was not possible
and the bones were all intact and there was no
attached flesh or viscera, yet the Park Authority
issued a communiqué to say that a sub adult has been
killed in a sexually inspired contest. This was an
impossible statement with which I could not agree as
there was no ostensible injury and when a grown tiger
kills sub adult, the skull is invariably fractured.
Also, conjectural statements should be objective.
A tigress and two cubs of the
previous year had disappeared, and it is my suspicion
that they were all poisoned and one of the sub adults
died in the grass, and was not found immediately. Thus
the Big Cat Cover Up continues, and it is my hope that
immediate payment of compensation may keep the
Siberian mutant alive, for I hope some of Tara's nine
progeny still survive to invigorate the tiger
population. The Dudhwa Tiger Reserve has a favourable
tiger population of more tigresses than tigers and
cubs, for inbreeding also manifests itself in lack of
fecundity, and it needs to be investigated why the
Rajai National Park is short of tiger cubs.
A
favourable development is world concern to halt the
tiger's advance towards extinction. The tiger is a
competitor, and in a democratic set up, there is no
place for him in an expanding economy. Developed
countries with no predators and mesmerised by its
sheer magnificence say "Save the Tiger, but save
him in your country." Under their influence, and
the surmise that wildlife cannot exist without the
consent of peripheral inhabitants, but persuasion of
the public is a long term prospect, and saving the
tiger is NOW.
Meanwhile
the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology have
confirmed Tara's Siberian antecedents. My efforts to
safeguard the erstwhile glamour Tiger of the Tiger
Haven Range continue in his new abode. But the
thinking with regard to animals must change. The
Doctrine of Anthropomorphis is an evil one which has
separated humanity and bestiality.
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