Wildlife Conservation: Threat Perception between Them and Us

One-Sided Story

In spite of periodic failures, the tiger population in recent times has begun to rise. This seems to be a continuing phenomenon despite many wild souls dying because of human apathy or natural causes. If the reports are to be believed, the leopard population in MP and a few other states seem to be on the rise. This rise is difficult to understand since the predator is constantly being killed at the hands of poachers and as a victim of man-animal conflict. Anyway, let's keep our fingers crossed.  

Poaching is purely a crime, and cannot be dragged under the banner of man-animal conflict. The killing of tigers and leopards by man and vice versa is perplexing since both subscribe to a food chain that is not directly in conflict if the ban on hunting wild animals is taken into consideration. 

While the death of a predator rarely causes much alarm, the death of a human being is reactive and often creates extreme upheaval within society. The browbeating that takes place often bends the system responsible for the protection and conservation, it is unfavorable towards the perpetrator and thus it is victimized to no end. It is either incarcerated or translocated to unfamiliar domains or at worst some trigger-happy elites are invited to shoot it down. This is an ongoing phenomenon, and the besieged animal is hardly able to comprehend the punishment accorded to it. Animals do not kill humans since for many we are not part of the food chain. They fear man and shun proximity. 

Threat Perception the Biggest Threat          

Threat perception is a natural phenomenon among the living akin to the response to external stimuli. Both are victims of the fear of the other and when this happens in extreme both kill. This is making wildlife conservation a difficult proposition, especially in a country like India. Heavily populated, extremely poor, and thrust closer to the wilderness by livelihood pursuits the man-animal conflict is much aggravated by biotic factors. Agriculture in the land that previously was part of the prevailing ecosystems and livestock incursions increase proximity between humans and predators. In spite of policies that make translocation possibly the ground reality has not changed much. This is due to the slow execution of translocation of the human population from vital core due to political infringements, court cases, and on many occasions overzealous NGOs?     

Translocation promises to eliminate human interference in the core while there is no policy to translocate population from immediate surroundings or the outer ring which we call the buffer. 

Creatures having lost their erstwhile homelands and food unwittingly transgress into what has become  human domains. They are killed, maimed or incarcerated brutely.     

This has become a regular tamasha in India with newsmakers worsening the situation with their greed and prejudice towards other life forms. Videos and images of predators being hounded out by lunatic hordes are propagating a wrong message among the people and making us subject to ridicule overseas. We nowhere can boast of the conservation ethos promoted by the ancient Vedas anymore.   

Clearing, wildlife corridors, thinning out the population in the buffer zones, and stopping linear infrastructure build-up which intersects our reserves is a near impossibility since the threat perception ails political dispensations too making them chicken out. Anyway, politicians in India have all to lose from unhappy voters but not from the predators as they have no right to vote. We are enamored by unbridled development as well and thus critics should not leave us out, especially the urban lot. 

Animals kill humans because of threat perception and most often proximity aggravates. Humans have all the comprehending power not to fall victim to a threat posed by a predator in proximity since that has been the case for ages.     

While we should not kill wild animals and do so only under extreme danger we have the ability to mitigate such instances. Wild animals on the other hand rarely cross over their domain but it does happen and at times humans are killed or maimed. Those who are in favor of extreme action against such killers are doing a disservice to mankind since all life forms are vital for an environmental balance upon which our well-being is maintained. 

Hence like automobiles kill people by accident so do animals in unavoidable circumstances. We cannot eliminate both. Hence answers have to be found beyond the ongoing rhetorics and the clash between the two should be mitigated. Translocation of populations that have ingressed is only one such answer another solution is to develop a code of conduct that will aid in minimizing conflicts. These are the imperatives that our planners have to incorporate and execute with sincerity if an environmental balance has to be maintained and our heritage wealth to be conserved. Legal laxity as regards wildlife crimes should be taken care of as well.       

The Youths Take Over

Rhetoric never works and there has to be an action on the ground. Thankfully in our country, the youth is taking interest in ecological matters, and a number of committees or societies have been formed pan India to discourage practices that go against nature conservation. The impact is visible in the interest shown in the conservation, the rising number of PILs, and write-ups against haste. This collective effort is certainly going to keep the establishment on its toes. This will force the policymakers to rethink as well. 

The next-gen is going to be much more nature aware but what do we leave for them?    

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Uday freelances as a naturalist and loves to write about tiger conservation and the environment.

He also provides SEO and Content and teaches  Digital Marketing in his hometown Jabalpur. 

Contact: 

pateluday90@hotmail.com

9755089323

Tiger Poaching is Not Man Animal Conflict. It is Crime

Poaching is a heinous crime that is not a man-animal conflict and, this misconception has to be correctly implanted in society. Snaring, electrocution, and poisoning, all are done on the pretext of poaching for the small game thus mitigating the enormity of the crime in the public view. I do not know if any possible leniency accrues from the legal framework as such. Or is it labeled as small game poaching to address the culpability of sentinel in a more acceptable manner?  What can we do?      

Tiger

The recent snaring of a young tigress in the buffer zone of Kanha National Park adds up to another heinous crime against the beleaguered predator. Snaring is unimaginably painful and gruesome. Poaching in the buffer zones is a regular occurrence albeit the span between is reassuring but at the same time, it lulls the setup into complacency. These incidents keep on happening infrequently and some may go unnoticed by the public eye. For the death of the tiger is sometimes kept in a veil of secrecy for reasons unknown or simply to ward off public pressure.  

After every tiger poaching, there is some noise but like every crime, the act is soon forgotten. We are famous for forgetting even gruesome crimes that belie human sensibility whence precious life is concerned. We suffer from a weak memory. Although every life and every life form is precious, nonreversible incidence like the killing of big cats means the extinction of the species. Our National Animal can be killed so easily is a startling fact.        

The vast spread of our jungles and the humanity that prevails in between is an excuse enough for those in charge of the protected areas to get away. And the legal provisions are so shallow that every murderer gets bail and the case drags on and on. Though punitive measures cannot come into consideration until the act is proven but there can be some prevalent signs or logic that can come into play of the possibility of crime weighing down on the person assumed to be the culprit. Something that prevents outright bail. 

In such instances, bail is a clear getaway or escape from the grip of the law. The legal lacunae and skillful advocacy and delayed criminal proceedings are further attenuated by corruption in the courts and the clog that is present regarding the humongous number of cases is an encouragement for die-hard criminals or in this context the poachers. This criminal indulgence in tiger killing in India does not instill fear of punitive measures and its repeated occurrence is assured.            

The punitive sentence awarded is also not enough...poaching a tiger leads to jail for eleven years or so. And the indictment is rare. Why do we not consider the killing of rare and endangered megafauna on par with the murder of humans? Are we so biased against other life forms?  Not only this we continue to damage our environment through irrational resource utilization and management. And then we complain of climate instability.  

If we can be so sagacious in legislating the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 then we can consider this as well. A strong punitive measure should be in place for killing endangered species.   

Indian Conservation Ethos

We are powered by the past in conservation our fabulous Vedic civilization outshines all global ethos in according sanctity to all life forms and nature as a whole. We consider vital elements of nature as holy or sanctimonious why not the tiger or the leopard or the elephant? Is it because of past abundance and hence the lack of importance of these species? This could be true and so is the truth that we fear changing Holy sanctions even if they are not rational anymore. Things need to change with time and the prevalence of facts in the contemporary without fear of Holy wrath. Every Indian carries the ethos of the Vedic civilization within, howsoever shallow in some instances.      

The killing of big cats in India will continue unmitigated unless strongly discouraging punitive measures are put into the act.            

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Uday Works as Freelance Naturalist and Blogs on conservation, tigers, and environmental issues.

He also provides SEO and Website Content in English. He teaches Digital Marketing in Jabalpur in the summer.

He can be contacted at:

Mail: pateluday90@hotmail.com
 Mob: 09755089323

             

Tiger Conservation: Story of Breeding Tigers and Territory Take Over

In all my years as a naturalist in India, I have realized that tigers are prolific breeders. Their life cycle is fine tuned to an extent reaching biological perfection only seen among the wild species and certainly not among humans and their livestock. 

Long time back in the forests of Kundam Range near Jabalpur in MP, I stayed awake listening to the mating cries of tiger pair from the Rest House at Kundwara. Aaaaaaaaaaoooooooooon!Aaaaaaaaaaaaooooooon!

Having seen them earlier it was a dream come true to hear this magical sound. The big cats were breeding in a badly denuded ecosystem outside a protected area.  

Working as a naturalist, I had learned to recognize some sounds emitted by the big cats few among a mind boggling repertoire. Sleep took over amidst feeling of extreme euphoria naturally!

I have not been to the forests of Kundam again and do not know the state of conservation of these big cats in an area not at all under strict protect and subject to poaching and pilferage. A visit will certainly enlighten you as regards the deprecation of forests on Central Indian Highlands.

The breeding pair would have certainly mated and given birth to young ones. Unfortunately no news percolates about the status of reserved forests outside the PA or the popular tiger reserves/National Parks.

This vast stretch of forests is home to a small prey base, few reptiles like the marsh crocodile and plenty of livestock. It does not form a perfect corridor anywhere since a large number of human settlements have creeped in since ages. Now the urbanization is taking a heavy toll and in few years perhaps only remnants would be found as evidence of once intact ecosystem.

The nightly incidence was an eyeopener how the big cats find each other for mating otherwise solitary. The other means of location is spraying of pheroharmone especially among dense populations like in some of our reserves. Sound is a greater facilitating factor among sparse populations. But these could be a giveaway to poachers.

Another meeting point among the cats separated by a large distance is search for water where they can congregate in summer. Unfortunately most of the water bodies are surrounded by human settlements and hence are completely out of reach or only accessible during the night. Hence all forests in India should comprise of an inviolate core however small out of reach of humans but this is wishful thinking. 

The big cats usually start breeding whence they become adults. Females are ready at the age of two and half years and the males whence nearing their fourth year. The males can breed easily by the time they reach their fourth year or earlier depending whence they have ousted the dominant male there. They are at their peak strength at four years and can manage to dislodge a ruling male. And this is usually a violent take over with the killing of cubs sired by the earlier male. This hence brings the cub survival rate down by fifty percent in the protected areas. 

In areas outside the PAs with few intruding males survival could be hundred percent but then we have to take into account lack of prey base, limited area and constant threats from humans as a limiting factor.  This can have a negative impact on breeding.

The worst threat for these predators in unprotected areas is due to man animal conflict whence the cattle killed by them is often poisoned. A livestock kill is also a giveaway as an evidence of presence of the big cats in the neighboring settlements. In modern times we have increased intolerance for the predators. The consternation leads to translocation or killing of the animal for example sometimes leopards are mauled by large gatherings out of fear. 

Mating is a noisy affair and rarely witnessed since the couple move into dense confines to avoid disturbance. The gestation period is of ninety days on the average.

The female during the estrous would mate with the dominant male but then she could be mating with intruders as well in order to achieve the best genes. Polygamy also insures greater safety for the progeny as other males take the cubs to be carrying their gene.

Even when the female is with growing cubs she can falsely lead the intruding male away or go in for false mating in forced circumstances where in conception does not take place.

But young cubs from a dominant male are usually killed on encounter with an intruder whence he manages to creep in. It is up to the capability of the mother to save as many as she can. Males are stronger and can overpower females on many occasions. They have been found to kill females not willing to mate or whence defending their cubs. The dead are consumed not because of being cannibals but due to the fact that in the wild no valuable protein is left to rot!

The litter size is of four cubs but two or more can also be the case but rarely. From three months onward the cubs start moving along with their mother as it is a learning phase. They have now started to eat meat and quickly learn the purpose of their existence at the top of the food chain.

Learning is in phases. They become familiar about the terrain as they move along and then the mock fighting begins eventually learning to hunt after one year as spectators. In very late stage they learn to kill a badly mauled fawn or a small wild boar etc. Following this they eventually learn to kill by the time they have to separate from their mother two year onwards.

After separation the cubs form a group as they have still not mastered the art of hunting hence kill together. They linger on in their mother's territory or adjacent forest protected by the male who has sired them. But as they become confident separation is evident.

Female make their territory with the mother's space on in nearby confines. The males move further and are constantly in process of creating their own space in areas with sparse population of their brethren. Using chemical signals they carve out a space with very little presence of a foreign intruder.

In Kanha empty spaces are filled by young males using chemical signals till they are about four years and at the peak of their strength. They rarely challenge their father and the conflict is usually with a male in the area they have been pushed into. 

Territory take over is a constant process but rarely based on impulse. An impulsive move usually leads to death at the hands of the dominant and experienced male. In order to avoid bloodshed, detrimental to healthy population, often males are seen in the same area avoiding conflict using their spacing instincts. Presence of many males in a given area assures conception perhaps with the best gene.

A new territory takeover is announced by extensive vocalization. A hold on territory is usually for four years or more but by this time sidelining of dominant aging males is evident.

An exceptional hold on territories was held by legendary Munna male who successfully moved to takeover adjoining areas whence dominated in erstwhile territory. He ruled over parts of Kanha core for perhaps sixteen years before being finally relegated to the buffer. He is now in Bhopal Zoo. He is perhaps the oldest living Bengal tiger in the wild in India.

Conflict is not deadly on the first instance but usually begins with a roaring match if that does not settle the matter a push and pull plus sparing has been observed. This will usually mark out who the boss is and if not the fight to death occurs usually by serious injuries or sometimes a straight kill.  A young male tiger was killed by a dominant upon intrusion. The fight was supposed to have raged over night and the young male was eventually killed and eaten. 

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Uday works as a naturalist in Central India and also loves to write on tiger reserves and conservation.
He also provides SEO Services and Website Content in English. He organizes summer classes in Digital Marketing in Jabalpur his hometown.
Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com
Mob: 09755089323

Man Animal Conflict: Wild Elephants & Habitat Loss

Unearthing the Earth!

{Governments do not look beyond the projects! When framing a developmental project please spell out the environmental concern first! We do not want a rail line or a highway passing from a land belonging to other life forms in our precious habitats!}

First it was the rapid expansion of agriculture and settlements that decimated vast habitats in India. Now we have this development thing going with a jingoistic fervor beyond comprehension. The agriculture lands rapidly converted...taken away from wild animals or other life forms... were primarily forests and to some extent grasslands, not forgetting aquatic ecosystems that were destroyed in the wake. 

While in case of tigers, they were completely wiped out from denuded forests all over the country, the elephants clung to the remains and inaccessible regions since being coarse grazers they are not specialized hunters like the big cats. But their population grew in time to come especially, from ban on hunting which was a must. 

What we fail to realize is that floral diversity is the prey base of the elephants like in case of many other herbivores. It is this floral diversity we are losing in the country. Please do not look from the perspective of protected areas they constitute a minuscule of land. Conservation has to be widespread pervasive constructively.     

The pillage has resulted in severe man animal conflict vis a vis the pachyderm and man. As the elephants venture back into what were their earlier feeding grounds they find the urban assemblage highways, rails, canals, dams, settlements, industries and mining grounds apart from acres of fields to their consternation. 

Umbrage as results is difficult to manage and men die too with the animal being blamed for it. Sadly as consequence!  Electrocution, poaching, hunting, accidents all are decimating the population of pachyderms in India. 

Wildlife encroaching upon the fields is not greed they are not especially fond of agricultural produce in the country of rapidly shrinking habitats it is a necessity an act of survival. Wildlife encroachment into human settlements is not an aberration or desire to kill it is simply trying to recover lost homelands or gain more space in order to survive. 

But unfortunately human fields and settlements are full stops the poor animals are incapable of understanding. Take the case of Asiatic Lion in India issues have stood in the way and they have not been trans-located to other grounds so far. This will certainly result in conflict in their present area and the predator will be put to blame. I hope better sense prevails!         

All this reeks of a bad land management for conservation output. Draw a straight line and excavate...projects take priority...the development imperative.  

Now this question should arise how much land should we vacate before we lose all our endangered species and endanger those that are not...but in time to come. Do we have a time bound solution? 

Encroachment into prime habitats is not a hidden factor it is right in the open and dispensations pay two hoots to it. But creating more PAs and increasing the dimensions of existing PAs is definitely the answer. Restricting agrarian practices, preventing commercialization and unchecked development is the answer! This cannot be done outright that is quite evident but a more circumstantial approach should in place. But who has the time and initiative? All we see is personal bickering in the media and formulation of policies only based on human welfare. There is hardly any thought accorded to environmental concerns and conservation. Just creating institutions and acts is not enough proper implementation and rationale has to be a proper ongoing activity which we expect from the people at helm. The people of India would like to witness more committed and sincere approach towards conservation and environmental concerns in totality.             

Under the Project Elephant the Government has issued directives to Elephant States to create barriers  (sic) and trackers will study the movement of these animals to minimize conflicts. Is this the root cause management? One way to minimize conflicts with animals living in our wilderness is to accord more space. Are we willing? To many the suggestion would appear as gross illogical. Where will the humans go?        

The World we live in reeks of human prerogative and prejudice other life forms are mere elements that evolved along with man but are now inconsequential. 

Who is to blame? 

Fairly and squarely humans are to be blamed...and the act most damaging has been unchecked population growth, which continues to grow. The development imperative may not necessarily have to be due to the population of India bursting over the seams. Every dispensation is interested in managing the countries huge population (Vote Bank) irrespective of ecological cost that the Nation has to bear. Population growth should be checked with full vigor. Then comes the development factor which is erroneously blamed on the massive population. This would have been there even if the population check was in picture. 

Look at some developed countries there is nothing left but this modern human assemblage. Have they stemmed the rot that is the environment imbalances? No! The climate change is effecting one and all and to worsen the unchecked fossil fuel consumption is nothing but disastrous. So we too emulate them!      

India differs from many other Nations in that our conservation ethos date back to thousands of years and the message is still intact. If we do not stem the rot there will be no places for wilderness in the country and the result is already warming thanks to the climate change which will take a noticeable toll in time to come.       

Role elephants play in conservation. 

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Uday works as naturalist at Kanha National Park.
He writes on conservation issues and wildlife.
Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com

Tiger Trouble - Live Stock Killings

It is quiet often that tigers come out of their hidings from dense forests in order to kill live stock. There are many instances of cattle kill by tigers in brought daylight right in front of the villagers.  This often calls for retaliation by the villagers during the kill or after it. The irate live stock owners often poison the carcass in order to seek revenge for the loss of their cattle. 

In many cases the tiger is at the kill with hundreds of villagers gawking at it. This is a dangerous act since there have been cases of people being killed by tigers on kill. This usually happens whence villagers venture too close to the big cat. These animals are intolerant whence eating and they charge in fear.  

The villagers encroach tiger habitats with impunity in periphery of many tiger reserves. This invites conflict with big cats inhabiting the area. Often the cattle are killed or the big cat chased away by the herdsmen.  This is an ongoing problem in tiger habitats and no solution has yet been found.