Monster dilemma: Tiger cubs vs 9 percent GDP

By Janaki Lenin To tigers, humans are the monster of God. We kill and eat their food so they have to range farther and wider; run them out of their forest homes to advance civilization; snare, poison and shoot them for their fur and bones. Paradoxically, we also want to save tigers from ourselves. When there are a range of threats and financial resources are limited, the perils need to be prioritized so we can strategically deal with them. So what does the tiger-risk rating look like? Different scientists have different perspectives.  Some say the real cause of declining tiger numbers is starvation; they don’t have enough to eat. When fewer prey animals, such as sambhar, wild pig, chital and gaur are available, a mother tiger struggles to keep the bellies of her litter full. When this becomes a losing battle, cubs die. These biologists add that the best protected parks have the highest prey densities and consequently, the highest tiger densities. The corollary then, is that in reserves with fewer tigers, human residents are hunting herbivores to fill their own bellies or livestock compete with other hoofed animals for the available fodder. The standard prescription to rectify this situation is to remove people from the forest. Relieved of this pressure, the wild herbivores will go forth and multiply and soon tiger numbers will also climb. So goes the theory. However, as other biologists point out, wild animals will not starve to death if their territories fail to support them; they will range over larger areas to make up for the shortage of food. What then is the biggest threat facing the striped cat? The unrelenting poaching of tigers themselves, say this second group of tiger-biologists. But the cats are prolific breeders, so surely they should be able to recoup their numbers in time, counters the first group. For instance, the forester, Bertram Smythies writes that in 1935-36, 77 tigers were killed in Chitwan, Nepal. A mere three years later, 120 tigers were shot dead in the same area. This just goes to show that these predators are fecund enough to quickly colonize an empty forest. Biologically impossible, declare the “poaching” experts; it is more likely that tigers from neighbouring areas moved in when territory fell vacant on the deaths of the residents. In an ideal world of intact habitat, free of tiger slayers, it is a mathematical certainty that prey numbers will dictate how many tigers survive. Tigers are disappearing from some parks because of poaching, not because of a dearth of prey animals. Therefore, say these biologists, it is the number of surviving adult tigresses that keep the population going. While poaching poses an immediate threat to tigers, loss of prey cannot be dismissed as a minor concern. A combination of illegal hunting of tigers and their prey could be catastrophic. Mindful of this fact, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau was set up in 2007, but since it is yet to reach full capacity, the wild cats continue to fall victim to poachers, says Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. While illegal hunting of tigers and their prey are serious problems, if their habitat is provided security they will bounce back in time. Loss of forests is by far the worst of the threats to tigers. The dilemma is whether to focus on protecting reserves or the landscape in which these reserves are embedded. One group of researchers says that protection of a few parks has saved the tiger in many parts of India. For instance, the Malenad-Mysore landscape in Karnataka has more than 200 tigers because of the protection that Nagarhole Tiger Reserve enjoys. Securing finite islands of Tiger Reserves (of which India has 42) is a financially and pragmatically seductive idea and traditionally the lion’s share of conservation resources has gone to them. Contradicting the first group, a second group says Nagarhole’s tiger numbers are maintained by the surrounding forestscape. Unlike Chitwan of the 1930s, the predators were poached to extinction in Sariska and Panna Tiger Reserves and since these forests are not connected to other tiger havens, the cats could not re-colonize the vacant territories. They warn that if our goal is the long term survival of tigers, we need to look beyond reserves and make sure that they have access to the forests outside. Since tigers have a strong urge to wander long distances to interact with others of their kind, ensuring their safe passage through areas, where humans also live and earn a living, is vital for their survival. Our tiger reserves are too small and splintered to offer anything more than a limited future for them. A few years ago half of India’s tigers were estimated to live outside protected forests. Focusing too narrowly on parks gives the mistaken impression that the rest of the landscape is not important tiger habitat.  Roads, mines, power plants and other industrial projects are already eating away these forests. In just four years, tigers have lost almost 22 percent of their habitat outside reserves according to a recent report of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The large cats can never re-gain use of this space; this is a more realistic indication of our conservation performance than the 12 percent increase in tigers reported during the same period. In our zeal to do more for the beasts, we can’t afford to ignore their basic long term requirement: the habitat to support them. India’s aspiration for a nine percent GDP in the next five years is going to place more pressures and strains on the wild. If we cannot prevent these marginally protected forests from being increasingly diverted to other use, we run the fatal risk of imprisoning tigers in their forested islands, as they were in Sariska and Panna. The monster and the hero are at war within us and in the way we shape our world. The winner will determine if the beasts of the jungle can survive us. Janaki Lenin is fascinated by the intermingled destinies of people and wildlife. She lives with her Dude, dogs, geese and a pig on a farm on the edge of a jungle.