Changing the stripes of conservation (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Environment
Prelims level: Avni issue
Mains level: Discuss the highlights and measures related to tiger conservation

Context

•  A few kilometres away, on the other side of this jungle, in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, is National Highway 44 (NH 44).
•  These fields are cultivated by the residents of Sarati village, where the Forest Department has set up a camp to search for a tigress cub.
•  The cub belongs to the litter of T1, or Avni, the tigress that was killed on November 2, 2018 and caused a huge national outcry.

Background

•  The killing of the tigress may have slipped from public memory. But for many villagers in Wedshi, Vihirgaon, Pimpalshinde, Borati, Ralegaon, Loni, and other villages in Yavatmal district, the terror of the tiger remains real.
•  The Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary as a hunting ground for the tigress, which had been declared a man-eater.
•  But the tigress, when it was killed, was several kilometres away, in a different forested tract.
•  How the tigress sought out new territory, found a mate, and had a litter in the small deciduous forest surrounded by agricultural fields and villages is still a matter of conjecture for conservationists.

More tigers than before

•  According to the records of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests based in Nagpur, the tigress killed three other people Gulab Mokashe of Wedshi village, Waghu Raut of Vihirgaon, and Nagorao Junghare of Pimpalshinde in a span of 24 days in August 2018.
•  The Pandharkawada Forest Department records the names of Avni’s other victims: Sonabai Bhosale of Borati, Lakshmi Rampuchrey of Jira, Shankar Atram, Jira, and Chanduk Phutki of Adni.
•  All these villages border the small forest which the tigress had made its territory.
•  A few months later, the tigress was shot dead by the son of a hunter tasked for the job by the Forest Department.
•  Missing from the discourse focussed on the ‘man-eating’ tigress is the story of how a rising tiger population is forcing the animal to seek out new hunting grounds, as tigers need a huge prey base.
•  There was a real fear of the big cat’s extinction. But things have changed since.
•  Aided by excellent conservation efforts, more awareness, and forest management and control over poaching, the overall tiger population in the country has gone up.
•  The 2006 tiger census by the National Tiger Conservation Authority had pegged the number of tigers at 1,411.
•  Officials involved with the 2018 tiger census operations say that the number is now closer to 2,600.
•  India began a quadrennial scientific tiger census, discarding the old pug mark counting method, from 2006. In 2010, there were 1,706 tigers, and in 2014, the number jumped to 2,226, raising expectations of optimistic numbers for the 2018 census as well.

Frequent accidents

•  The Field Director of Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra issued a statement: “A road-hit case of a tiger has been reported near Devalapar, Harnakund, on NH 7, this evening between 7 to 7.30 pm.
•  PTR teams, as well as the team of Nagpur division, have reached the spot. There is a trail of blood, and we have also identified the vehicle. Teams reported that the tiger is nearby, and they have heard growling too.
•  They are monitoring the situation, and a proper decision will be taken as per the local circumstances.
•  The rescue team has left for the spot.” Such reports of road accidents and electrocutions involving tigers are barely noticed beyond a small circle of tiger conservationists and observers.

Broken migration corridors

•  Wildlife conservationists have read the recent rise in the number of tigers as indicating the existence of a broad and long migration corridor a tongue of land in central India that is changing the tiger story.
•  This tiger corridor is criss-crossed by seasonal rivers such as the Godavari, Wainganga, Penganga, Dollara, and countless other smaller water channels and ravines.
•  According to officials of the Wildlife Conservation Trust, about 24,000 km of roads cut through these corridors, and they have a deadly impact on tigers.
•  About 16 tigers have been killed in road and train accidents over the past five years.
•  Forty-two leopards have also come under wheels.
•  No one has been keeping track of the number of smaller mammals such as foxes, rabbits, deer, wolves, snakes, peacocks and other wildlife that die on these roads.

Threat from big projects

•  The threat to tigers is not due to the man-animal conflict.
•  It is due to the large-scale projects that are coming up near the sanctuaries.
•  Forest Department officials have trans-located a village called Agarzari on the border of the Pench Tiger Reserve.
•  But the resorts that cropped up there after changes in land use continue to operate.
•  These use barbed wire and electrified fencing to keep animals at bay, leading to accidents.
•  Of the 50 designated tiger reserves in the country, the 16 in central India form a continuous tiger corridor.
•  The Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary has about 18 tigers.
•  Kawal, though designated as Kawal Tiger Reserve in 2012, has seen a tiger or two only in the last four years.
•  This year, a tiger got electrocuted after it came in contact with an electrified wire trap set up by poachers.
•  The Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary, on the other hand, is not a tiger reserve but is home to many tigers.
•  The Pench Tiger Reserve at present has 30 tigers.
•  While an adult tiger requires 25-40 sq km of forested area to enjoy sufficient quantity of prey, now there is one tiger for every 8-10 sq km, leading to spillage.
•  The tigers are moving out to other forests to find prey. This can be an opportunity to improve our record and practices in wildlife conservation.

Conclusion

•  The depredations of Avni may have grabbed the headlines.
•  But of far greater significance, though missing from the mainstream discourse, is the changing dynamic of tiger migration and movement.
•  It suggests that India needs to rework its conservation and forest settlement policies.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) The Central government aims to propose The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018 which seeks to amend which of the following with respect to Information Commissioners?
1. Tenure of Service
2. Salary and Allowances

Select the correct answer using the code given below:
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) How development projects in tiger habitats and the fragmentation of migration corridors call for a rethink of conservation policies? Critically examine.