Scars and Stripes

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/153477/industry-prowl-brt-tiger-reserve.html

Just the other day, there came good news in the form of the Madras High Court having cleared the path for the TN govt. to notify the elephant corridor in the Nilgiris (http://flashnewstoday.com/index.php/hc-says-state-fully-empowered-to-notify-elephant-corridor/). As seems to be the game, Karnataka, which happens to hold land to the extent of 1527.4 km² in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site no less, has recently decided to hand over agricultural land that falls in the elephant corridor along this ancient migratory route. Although, these particular land tracts don’t belong to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, it neighbours the BR Tiger Reserve. As much as 400 acres of land has been allotted to a sugar company and this land is about a km away from the tiger sanctuary by way of radius and also part of the elephant corridor.

The question is, if one state allows a corridor to be made, does the other state block the corridor and therefore expect animals to know physical state boundaries? The ancient migratory routes have been far and long documented in that they are everlasting, and that any deviation on these routes comes with their fair share of troubles to man and animal. It sure seems that the intelligence on wildlife management across different states too depends on the receding hairline of the government.

Even to a layman, this is ridiculous, given that such a landmark and historical judgement by a high court appears to have had no bearing on the whole wildlife management scene as such and it bears home the fact that even with rapidly diminishing tiger numbers, we are still doing this state by state and department by department.

There is hope, however, in that the project needs to be approved by the National Wildlife Board (NWB) and with the esteemed officials on this board, we can hope to see the balance of power restored, at least a little.

The TV Conspiracy – Painting Cats Black

The much weathered controversy over the effects of television has died out with the passing of the century and television itself has evolved to become a darling of the masses, a beacon of light if you may. But in the fragile world of wildlife conservation, television has a very important role to play in the recognition of this very real and immediate worldwide event, the saving of flagship species from extinction.

Closer to home, the TV series “Man Eaters” aired on the National Geographic and Animal Planet channels raise some fundamental questions on how opinions should be shared. The series comes from the Westernized world where the understanding and awareness of conservation is much higher than it is here, in India. Many of the points or directions shared by renowned conservationists on this show are apparently ill-suited to India’s critical man-animal conflict situation. Let me tell you why.

Firstly, the show should be sensitized to bring about an acute change in the perception of the term “man-eater”, for such a term is used only when an animal begins killing and eating humans as a regular occurrence, rather than an off-on series of incidents where animals merely attack humans in both provoked and unprovoked circumstances. To break through to the largely uneducated and agrarian common man in India, local conservationists have been trying to bring the two species to co-exist, and even in the age of the internet and global media, there are people who live in fear of man-eaters in our own backyards. The show depicts these cats as man-eaters simply because they come into contact with man and a few attacks occur either on livestock or man. What this is doing is, creating a wrong line of thought and perception where viewers begin to view the animal as the culprit, having now selected humans as diet. In reality, these are a series of events leading up to change in animal behavior, which are usually omitted from the show as it does not make for nail-biting viewing.

Secondly, the educated and eminent conservationists who appear on this show should see this as an ideal platform to raise awareness on man-animal conflict rather than set a personal agenda. A select few are able to bring to the fore that the so called man-eaters are only isolated incidents and the very horror of living in fear of a tiger’s claw in your neck is not something we live with everyday. One of these eminent conservationists commented that all the tiger needs is space and that this is not asking for much. In India, space is probably the least available commodity, and comes at a high price. A very farfetched and insensitive comment to make, especially when the influence of such a show is felt far and wide.

Thirdly, with the cats now perceived as man eaters, every person who does not understand the intricate fabric that weaves wildlife conservation and human sustenance together in India will undoubtedly turn their views from conservation to building a fear of the big cats and move away from understanding what it takes to leave the wild, wild. In today’s world we need brave individuals who will attempt to build bridges between the two species rather than play blame games in the name of conservation. TV, especially responsible media channels such as these have a very important role in shaping the wildlife conservation effort in India as the TV is very much the preferred past time of the masses.

The truth is that these cats are not man-eaters at all. We cannot stop the world from turning, cannot stop the world from evolving, what we need to do is manage change and manage change in co-existence.

Another One Bites…

http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20100816/1416/tnl-youth-killed-by-big-cat-in-ranthambo_1.html

OK here we go again, another tiger attack! Well surely, we must be getting used to this by now…that is getting used to disturbing tigers in their habitat and of course placing the blame on them alone.

The problem of man-animal conflict pertaining to an endangered species makes the solution that much more time critical. How many more conflicts can we allow before this unfriendly situation turns violent? And then too, how much do we do for the animal in comparison to how much we do for the human being?

 

Reforms at the state and centre level are paperwork at best, what works is on the ground measures. Our forest officers are the ones who get mauled day in and day out by the press, government and other social agencies.

Awareness needs to play a massively important role in managing the healthy population of tigers, but in country where there are more people than trees, we need to start worrying about how effective our awareness campaigns are. More so, our awareness campaigns do not need to be directed to those in cities, rather to those whose settlements and work lines fringe and sometimes encroach crucial tiger habitat.

The newspaper is a slow poison…to a young child, a big cat attacking a man making national headlines means that the cat is seen as a danger and as the primary cause. Instead newspapers should embark on a nationwide project of understanding what the impact is of even newspapers surveying ground which is home to tigers. Not a good story isn’t it? Makes better reading to have something like “Man eaten by tiger mourned by villagers”…

An Accident Waiting To Happen (OK for now)

http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/10/stories/2010031054390500.htm

Finally, the ban on night traffic on in Bandipur meets with success. Not a bad start at all with a tremendous lobby to effect this.

It is a new dawn for India's wildlife and things like this may just be the shot in the arm that wildlife needs.

The wildlife death toll on the two national highways that run through Bandipur are astounding:

91 mammal deaths;

56 snakes and other reptiles;

19 bonnet macaques;

11 spotted deer.

It remains to be proven if territories of big cats will increase with the ban on traffic, as they've now been given the luxury of a larger range and not coming into contact with traffic. Again, if the animals have been long conditioned to night traffic then there is a chance that they might use caution and abstinence compared to curiosity and evolution.

At this point it's premature to estimate the potential success of the ban in terms of increasing territory. But one thing is for sure, the many animal deaths due to run overs will indeed slow down. However we still need to protect our big cats from poachers and the ban on night traffic also provides the forest department with a two edged sword: with one they are protecting life, on the other they've got to be doubly cautious now.

On the whole this is a huge win for conservation.

Who's The Culprit - Man or Beast?

Link: http://tinyurl.com/ygmpsnx

This so called man-eater (not man-killer) might just have to pay with his life for apparently having eaten a human being. The ever so familiar trend of a beast emerging as an expected man-eater, only to disappear from sight and then return to this world as a confirmed killer and man-eater is emerging. Very soon, we'll have only 1410 left and Aircell and Save Our Tigers would need to re-do their ads...

The Forest Department has almost shot itself in the foot with poor damage control by confirming that a tiger has to kill and eat 5 human beings before being confirmed as a man-eater. Say, this animal now disappears and in the course of a year, finds a mate and then the two of them begin hunting and killing men, 5 of us will be gone in no time...

However, the FD has actually been quite lethargic in wanting to capture this tiger, which is good. The problem is the lobby against this unfortunate incident (called accidental by the FD). It is in the tiger's best interests to remain a gentleman, as he undoubtedly is, and leave the scene for a while, or if he is indeed a man-eater, then to turn his attention to another locality-:).

As a practical observer of the situation, being an amateur conservationist, I'd say that it's a matter of time before pressure is put on the poor FD to do something about this killing. Albeit it was illegal of the victim to roam in the forest, the source of the problem has been attributed to the Government's non delivery of gas cylinders to the 2,000 families at the location. I'm afraid that the Government would rather have the tiger killed than deliver the cylinders, for it's easier on their time and looks good on the resume too...

This situation could turn out unpleasant for the tiger, but with the loss of human life weighing the scale on one side, how far do animal right activists go now to stop the killing of the striped one?, this one in particular.

It's unfortunate that a villager fell victim to this tiger and not a poacher.

Right now, the scales are even, we'll see which way they tip...and you know who I'm rooting for!

Stripe-d Down!!!

Since January this year, five big cats in Karnataka's flagship wildlife reserves have found their way to the happy hunting grounds. With tiger numbers constantly dwindling, it's heartbreaking to hear of these five deaths in Nagarahole, Bhadra and Bandipur. Poaching is likely causing such deaths, but causes such as poisioning, etc cannot be ruled out.

It is well documented that the moment a tiger sets its sights on village cattle, its days are numbered. A few of these cases have even resulted in attacks on man, which seals the cats ' fate.

It's time the authorities were seriously pulled up...if we've given them the task of keeping our tiger population in the prime of health, they'd better be answerable.

Read the latest article on tiger deaths at:

http://tinyurl.com/otv9fz

Leopard in UP: Catch Me If You Can

We're gonna have a problem here...will the real culprit please stand up? TOI reports that a leopard is on the prowl in a UP village (http://tinyurl.com/lqu6vw). Apparently the feline climbed a mango tree, which is typical feline behaviour, but "snapped at villagers" when someone threw stones at it. Oh sorry!, the leopard should have continued dozing or doing whatever it was happily doing on that tree whilst people pelted it with stones!

Humans! I believe the authorities are at their "wits end"...leads to the question of what is actually a wit? This appears to be some sort of sport wherein a leopard in a tree is pelted with stones. I think most of the brains involved in this dangerous sport are located in the rectum of the brave individual with a stone in hand.

The leopard has done nothing wrong apart from perhaps occupy a branch on a tree and piss on a passing villager, but that's no reason to label this animal as a danger. Of course, with people throwing stones at it, the only way its going to react is by attacking, and sooner or later, it will become a mauler. We hope that it doesn't turn man eater from mauler which will lead to it being shot.

The animal is supposed to be "pushed to its natural habitat"...oh! you do mean a 10 by 10 park with humans all around it, right?

The apathy of the human race continues unabated. Thankfully the DFO is uninterested in the matter, knowing fully well that this is just a people incident and not an incident of an animal attacking man with specific intent.

This leopard, like its bigger cousin from Faizabad, is running out of time...