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MAN, MASK AND MANEATER

2011-05-07T10:55:00.001+05:30

Introduction

During a period of six years between 1860 and 1866 A.D., a total of 4,218 people lost their lives due to tiger attacks in the forests of the combined delta of the Ganges- Brahmputra river system. Indiscriminate hunting of the tiger population down to its threshold limit and the decimation of its habitat from about 20,000 sq. km. at the turn of the last century to less than 10,000 sq. km. in the recent years could not put a check on the tiger attacks. The Project Tiger authorities in Sunderban Tiger Reserve identified the control of the man-tiger conflict arising out of the tiger attacks as the key problem in the region. Over the past 14 years they have, through a chain of experimental innovations, succeeded in reducing the average annual toll of human life due to tiger attacks from about 60 in 1973 to less than 30 in the recent years. The ultimate goal is the complete stoppage of the loss of human life while maintaining a viable population of the endangered species in its pristine habitat. As another link in the chain of ongoing experiments for devising suitable methods and means to protect human lives, human face-masks were tried out on the principle of mimicry in nature during 1986-87.

The Hypothesis

When stalking its intended victim, the tiger takes care to choose the moment of its attack when its quarry is off-guard. Case studies of tiger attacks on human beings in Sunderbans indicated that almost all the attacks were made from behind, the unguarded side of the victims. An alert backward stare may, therefore, reduce the chances of attack by denying the tiger an opportunity to catch its human quarry off-guard. In nature, many organisms use false eye-spots for protection against their enemies. Human face-masks worn on the backside of the head create an illusion of watchfulness on the part of the wearer.

Materials and Methods

2500 human face masks made of lightweight rubberized plastic material were distributed among the people permitted to work in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve during a period of one year from November 1986 to October 1987. The yearlong experiment was divided into three phases, designed to cover one complete annual cycle of human activity and exposure to conditions under which tiger attacks take place. Phase I covered the activities of fishing and wood cutting in timber coupes between November 1986 and March 1987; Phase II covered mostly the activity of honey collection during the hot months of April and May 1987; and phase III covered the activity of fishing between the months of June 1987 and October 1987.

In Sunderbans, people live in boats when working in the forest areas. Fishermen confine their movements to estuarine channels and do not enter deep into the forest on foot. The woodcutters work primarily in the timber coupes in large groups and advance into the forest over land at the heads of the clearings made by coupe operations. Only the honey collectors penetrate the mangrove wilderness deep on foot. All parties camp in boats anchored away from the banks of the estuarine channels for fear of tiger attacks. The activity of honey collection places the workers in the most vulnerable situation for tiger attacks. The honey collectors virtually invite tiger attacks by crawling through dense tangle of mangrove vegetation, unarmed and visually separated from one another by thick screens of the under growth, till a honey comb is spotted; all caution is thrown to the winds and unmindful of where they step, their eyes riveted on the honey bee buzzing through the mangrove foliage overhead, they often fail to notice the presence of the tigers, and fall easy victims to their attacks. Whereas Phase I was the introductory phase of the experiment, Phase II subjected it to the severest possible test for its efficacy as a protective device. Phase III was designed to find out the impact of the experiment and its acceptability to the local people.

During the first phase masks were distributed only to the people who came forward for voluntary participation in the experiment, while in Phase II the use of masks was made compulsory for the honey collectors. The demand for masks was treated as an indicator of the interest of the people in the mask as a useful device in protection of human lives and therefore an indicator of the impact of the experiment on the local people. During Phase III masks were distributed only on demand.

All cases of tiger attacks were investigated by a team of officers of the Research Wing of the tiger reserve. The technique of investigation included verification of the evidences left behind on the spots of accidents, cross examination of the companions of the victims and sample cross-checks through informal discussions with the survivors of the attacks. The system of awarding compensation to tiger victims ensured reporting of all incidents of tiger attacks on human beings in Sunderban Tiger Reserve.

Results and Discussions

During Phase I, out of a total of 4,943 people permitted to work in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve, 877 workers – 410 coupe workers and 467 fishermen – volunteered to use the masks after the purpose and the method of use of the masks were explained to them. From among the volunteers, 1 coupe worker and 2 fishermen lost their lives due to tiger attacks; among the rest 5 were attacked by the tigers. None of the persons attacked were wearing masks at the time of attack. The coupe worker and the fishermen had been using the masks when working in the coupe or catching fish respectively i.e.., pursuing the activities for which permits had been taken. The coupe worker was attacked when during a lunch break he had taken off his mask and gone to catch fish for lunch 2 km. away in a nearby creek. The fishermen were attacked when they had taken a break from fishing and, leaving their masks in their boats, stepped into the nearby bank to collect firewood for cooking their meals. None of the mask wearers were attacked by the tigers, and the results obtained during Phase I encouraged the continuation of the experiment into the next phase.

During phase II 548 honey collectors and 373 fishermen worked in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve. In all 882 masks were issued to the honey collectors who often needed replacements for masks due to their strings getting entangled in the undergrowth as they crawled through the mangrove vegetation in search of honey combs. The fishermen took 137 masks. Seven honey collectors and four fishermen lost their lives due to tiger attacks. None of the victims were wearing masks at the time of attacks. During the first week of April 1987 two honey collectors lost their lives. Stricter enforcement of the use of masks by the honey collectors while working in the forest resulted in total stoppage of tiger attacks during the rest of the honey collection season; during the entire month of May 1987 no honey collector was attacked by the tigers. All the fishermen who lost their lives during Phase II were attacked when collecting firewood in the forest; none of them wore masks at the time of entering the forest.

During Phase III, 604 fishermen received masks on demand; all of them had also used masks on earlier occasions. There were no casualties among this section of fishermen, whereas 11 fishermen from among those who had not taken masks died between June 1987 and October 1987 due to tiger attacks.

An unusual phenomenon was observed during Phase II of the experiment. The permits for honey collection in the tiger reserve are issued from Bagna and Sajnekhali stations of Project Tiger only. Unless there is an accident, the permit holders do not surrender their permits before the honey collection season is officially closed down because their earnings depend on the quantum of honey collected by them. The permit holders from both the stations work in the same areas. The permit holders from villages around Bagna are more orthodox and were found to be reluctant to use the masks for the fear of incurring the wrath of their traditional protective forest deities. On the other hand the permit holder from Sajnekhali, who often get influenced by the radical ideas of visitors to Sajnekhali Tourism Complex and forest stations, needed little persuasion to use the masks in the forest. Consequently, not a single life was lost from among the permit holders from Sajnekhali. The permit holders from Bagna suffered all subsequent tiger attacks on honey collectors during this phase.

The permit holders from Sajnekhali complained of frequent sightings of tigers and reported being followed by tigers for periods ranging from half an hour to eight hours. Although, they were not attacked by the tigers the fear created by the sudden appearance of the tigers presently compelled them to surrender their permits when the honey collection season was at its peak. By 11the May, 1987 all but one of the permits were surrendered by the honey collectors from Sajnekhali; the last one was surrendered on 15 May, a fortnight before the scheduled time for closure of the operation.

In spite of the heavy casualties suffered by the honey collectors from Bagna, no one complained of similar encounters with tigers, nor did they surrender their permits till the end of the season.

During informal discussions with the honey collectors, it was revealed that the honey collectors from Sajnekhali were invariably alerted by the tiger itself as it disturbed the undergrowth behind them while following them. None of the Bagna people accompanying the ill-fated tiger victims knew of the presence of the tiger till their companions were attacked. The honey collectors from Sajnekhali also stated that after following them for some time, the tigers invariably came out in the open , sometimes compelling them to return to their boats, and went away after casting a baleful glance at them. No such incident was recalled by the Bagna people. None of the Bagna people held any faith in the utility of mask as a protective device, while a section of people from Sajnekhali felt that masks may be useful in the forest, but the majority of them expressed that the Sunderban Tiger is too clever to be deceived by the masks for long.

Conclusions

It was the first time ever that the principle of mimicry was tried out in wildlife management for the control of a serious hurdle in making conservation a mass movement. Although it is too early to arrive at an undisputed conclusion regarding the utility or otherwise of the mask, the preliminary results obtained during the yearlong experiment indicate the possibility of developing the mask as a protective device against tiger attacks on human being in Sunderbans. Phase II of the experiment has given important indications that call for replications of the experiment till the hurdles created in pursuit of the experiment because of the traditional beliefs are overcome, and the uninhibited participation by the local people yields concrete results.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the staff of Sunderban Tiger Reserve in general, and Shri N.R. Mandal and G. Tanti the Research Wing and Shri B.K. Sengupta, Asstt. Field Director of the Reserve, in particular, for following up the various aspects of the experiment all though its yearlong course with truly scientific zeal and ensuring the elimination of personal bias. The author is also grateful to the people of Sunderbans for their participation in the experiment.

MONITORING TIGERS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY INDIA

2011-03-31T22:07:00.003+05:30

Introduction

The indiscriminate hunting of tigers had greatly reduced their numbers in the country’s forests: from 40,000 at the beginning of the twentieth century, to 4,000 tigers in 1965 (Gee, 1964). The rapid disappearance of tiger populations was noticed first by some hunters, naturalists and foresters (Thapar, 2001). The Divisional Forest Officer of Palamau Division in Bihar carried out the first ever systematic survey in Garu Range of his division in 1934 (Nicholson, 1934). The exercise was repeated in Palamau in 1936 and 1938 (Chaudhuri, 1938). It marked the beginning of the monitoring of tiger populations in India.

Over the next 75 years, 1934 to 2010, the monitoring of tiger populations progressed through three distinct phases of development. The first phase covered the years from 1934 to 1971, and during this phase different field methodologies for counting tigers were tried out in some tiger habitats. Since 1953, monitoring of tiger populations became an annual feature in Kanha. Schaller, during his research study from 1962 to 1964 in a small part of the Park, (Schaller, 1967) identified 11 adult tigers from their facial markings (Panwar, 1979b). S.R. Choudhury developed Co-operation Tiger Census methodolgy in 1972 (Choudhari 1970, 1971, 1972). Mishra applied Stratified Sampling approached to his Track Counts in Palamau for four years (Mishra, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973).

The next phase, from 1972 to 2004, systematized State and National level monitoring of tiger populations. The first all India tiger census took place in 1972 using ‘Co-operation Tiger Census’ methodology, and the methodology employed by Project Tiger from 1973 to early 1980s (Choudhury, 1970a, 1970b, 1971, 1972a, 1972b, 1979); ‘Pugmark Census Technique’ (Panwar, 1979a), a highly simplified deviant of Co-operation Tiger Census replaced ‘Co-operation Tiger Census’ in mid 1980s and remained in use by Project Tiger till 2004. A new statistical estimation approach using Camera-Trap and Capture-Mark-Recapture model was suggested for monitoring tiger populations (Karanth, 1987, 1988, 1995, 1999, 2003; Karanth et al. 2000, 2002). Refinements in field methodologies were suggested by some (Rishi, 1997, Singh, 1999); analysis of pugmarks using computer software was introduced in West Bengal (Roy, Undated). A group of specialists recommended a judicious mix of both the modified field methods and statistical approaches for use in monitoring tiger populations (Singh, et al, 1997).

The third phase in the development of monitoring techniques started in 2005 by the newly constituted National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). Numerical census of tigers was replaced by Systems Analysis approach using a heirarchical model and statistical estimation techniques for determining the status of tiger populations (Jhala et al. 2005a, 2005b). Other methods using different indices, such as the Pugmark (Digital Image) Analysis technique (Sharma et al, 2001), and the estimation of tiger populations using DNA profiles (Goyal, et al., 2007) are being developed for monitoring tiger populations in India.

The paradigm shift in the approach for monitoring tigers – NTCA’s holistic approach

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) made a mention of the criticism faced by the pugmark based census methodology and the limitations of the alternative proposal to estimate tiger densities using camera traps as the reason for adopting their new approach.

In this approach NTCA applied a hierarchical model and statistical framework for monitoring tigers and other animals. The entire tiger range in India was converted to 6 Landscape Complexes and used Forest Beats or equivalent areas covering 15-20 sq km of wildlife habitat as the smallest sampling units. The units were categorized in terms of tiger sign abundance classes – high, medium, low and no density class – at Forest Beat sampling unit level and at 100 km2 area resolution level. Population densities for tigers were estimated in 5 – 13 replicates of the size of 100-200 km2 in each of the tiger sign abundance classes. Mark-Recapture sampling method using camera traps was used to find out tiger densities. Extrapolation of densities was carried out at landscape level, followed by conversion of densities/indices into numbers. Computer programs specially designed for the purpose were used for the analysis of the data. (Jhala, Y.V., et al., 2005a, 2005b, 2008).

The results of the holistic approach were declared in 2008. The estimated all India tiger population is reported to be between 1,165 and 1,657, with a mid value of 1,411 tigers in India. For public consumption the mid value is reported as the population of tigers in India. (Jhala, Y.V., et al., 2008).

Reliability of results from current approach for monitoring and conservation of tigers

A. National Level Monitoring:

1) The figure of 1,411 tigers is the arithmetical mid-value of a statistical range with a minimum value of 1,165 and a maximum of 1,657 – a margin of 492 numbers. A large population is in an indeterminate grey area; making the reported status of tigers in India vague.

2) The field data was collected in 2005-2006 over an extended period of time, which does not define a temporal reference point for comparison with later date estimates. Small populations of tigers can disappear in an extended time frame. There was no fixed date(s) common to all places from where the data was collected and the data does not lend itself for comparison with any other data for monitoring the status of tigers in India.

3) The results do not give the structure of tiger populations: the age, sex and breeding status of the tigers; and the methodology is not designed to provide information on juveniles, cubs and transient tigers.

4) The methodology could not generate reliable tiger habitat occupancy maps and other related records.

a. For instance, the map for northern West Bengal shows tiger occupancy in Gorumara National Park that had no record of resident tigers over the past more than five years; and it shows absence of tigers in tiger occupied areas like Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and the northern part of Buxa tiger reserve where one was recently photographed.

b. The sampling based statistical estimation of the extent of area under tiger occupation is erroneous for Sunderbans and many other tiger habitats. Therefore, the extrapolation of densities calculated from such erroneous base-line data cannot give accurate information.

B. State Level Monitoring

Estimated Tiger Populations In Some States

STATES                            MIN         MID-VALUE        MAX

BIHAR                              7                        10                   13
CHHATISGARH              23                      26                   28
ORISSA                            37                      45                  53
RAJASTHAN                    30                     32                   35
KERALA                           39                     46                   53
ARUNACHAL                  12                     14                   18
MIZORAM                        4                       6                     8
N. WEST BENGAL           8                       10                  12

*Source: Status of Tigers, Co-predators & Prey in India. NTCA.

At the State level, too, the results do not help in meaningful understanding of tiger populations:

a. The range of values in small populations is too wide to given any meaning to the status of tigers in the State.

b. So long as the local information places the figure for tigers anywhere within the range – arrived at by a more trusted scientific exercise by an authority no less than NTCA – there is no cause for any alarm even if poachers take a few tigers, as long as their presence or activity is not detected. The advantage goes to the poachers.

C. The Information Generated by the Approach

The conservation of tiger in India starts with the knowledge about some basic aspects. It is evident that even 5 years after the collection of field data the exercise failed to provide the crucial information the report was supposed to have given:

a) How Many Tigers? …Not precisely known at national or state levels!

b) Population Trends? …Cannot be known; structure of the populations is not known!

c) Areas where decreasing & why? …Cannot be known; tiger occupancy maps and records are defective!

d) Status of tiger’s wild prey? …Not yet available.

e) State of tiger habitat? …Not yet available.

f) Spacing & connectivity of Wildlife Populations? …Not yet available.

The Question of Monitoring Tigers for Tiger Conservation

The shift from field methods to statistical models made no improvement in the monitoring of tiger populations and habitats. The process has become tardy, time consuming, heavy on manpower, uneconomic, unverifiable, time warped and hence redundant and unsustainable; the choice is: take it or leave it!

(A). Application of Statistical and System Analysis Models

One has to understand that Statistics is a tool and not an end in itself; and that the statistical models create virtual reality. The reliability of the statistical models used in the systems analysis approach depends on what information is being fed to the model designer. A model is nothing more than “…an abstraction of the true experimental situation, representing all relevant features of reality. When used in population estimation, the model will be constructed in such a way that the unknown quantities are expressed in the terms of known or observed quantities” (Overton, 1971). “The first step to successful Systems Analysis is the careful identification of questions to which the model is to be addressed.” (Overton, 1977). But its acceptability depends on the confidence it can generate in the mind of the user – in this case the wildlife manager.

Systems, especially natural systems, are large and hierarchical, i.e., composed of complexes of systems within systems. There is intractability of very large systems for development of differential equations. “Moreover, the system properties emerge not only from their components but also from their linkages. As the systems become larger and more complex, our ability to predict system behaviour becomes less certain.” (Reed, 1995).

It follows that the enormous diversity of the tiger occupied ecosystems in India poses a formidable challenge for application of a hypothetical hierarchical model developed in one or two landscapes to the entire range of diverse ecosystems. Models for Satpura-Maikal landscape cannot be applied to the mangrove forests of Sunderbans or Terai grasslands, or tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen rain forests, or desert and scrub ecosystems.

Modeling is an art. The research work and refinement of Systems Analysis, and statistical sampling approaches is massive in the U.S.A. The adaptation of models developed in other countries does not obviate the need to develop further experience by working in other biogeographically and ecologically different landscapes. At present even the basic research in the Indian tiger habitats is patchy and inadequate for developing models one can confidently apply in India.

(B). Application of Field Methods in Census and Research Work

One of the two field methods, which the field officers had worked with under Project Tiger, used tiger pugmarks as an index for ascertaining individual tiger’s territorial occupancy; and the other, tiger’s identity for estimating tiger populations in a given area. Over the years the distinction between the two has been mislaid and many people think they are one and the same. A controversy was generated in a review of the field censuses in 1987. (Karanth, 1987, 2003; Day, Undated; Banks Undated).

The review of the data from field censuses (Karanth, 1987)

(a). Growth Rates, Density and Biomass of Tiger Populations

Table – 2

Tiger population over the years

Sites 1972 1979 1984 1989 1993 1995 1997 2001-02

Tiger Reserves 268 711 1,121 1,327 1,366 1,333 1,498 1,576

Outside Tiger Reserves 1,559 2,304 2,884 3,007 2,384 2,010 2,066

Total 1,827 3,015 4.005 4,334 3,750 3,508 3,642

Compilation based on the periodic reports of Project Tiger Directorate, Govt. of India.

1. After analyzing the data from the tiger census figures for 1972 and 1984, and using the information from the research work of some wildlife research scholars in and outside India, the review concluded:

i. Between 1972 and 1984, the census figures show phenomenal growth in tiger numbers over the years in almost all parts of the country. Even relatively poor tiger habitats like Bandipur showed high growth rate of 14%, per annum for over 12 years in succession. The research studies in Nepal and Kanha indicate that the growth rates of tiger populations in excess of 6% were abnormal.

ii. The 1984 census data indicated excessive densities and biomass reached by tigers in Indian tiger reserves. The census figures showed that 6 out of 18 tiger reserves, namely, Corbett, Bandhavgarh, Dudhwa, Sunderbans, Kanha, and Ranthambhore tiger reserves, had tiger densities that ranged between 10.89 and 5.79 km2 per tiger, which exceeded the stipulated range.

The tiger biomass in the above mentioned 6 tiger reserves exceeded 10 kg/ km2 whereas a really superior habitat can only support a tiger biomass of 7 to 10kg/km2. Overall, the tiger biomass in ranged between a low of 2.08 kg/ km2 in the Indravathi tiger reserve and a high of 19.58 kg/ km2 in the Corbett tiger reserve.

2. The experimental evaluation of field methods (Karanth, 1987).

With a hypothesis that the pugmark census method was invalid because it depended on the identification of individual tigers from their foot-prints, an experiment was conducted in a zoo to check for its validity: 33 pugmarks tracings were obtained on 2 different substrates from 4 captive tigers, and 6 wildlife managers, who were claimed to have 4 to 12 years of tiger census experience, were asked to give their census figures.

The participants made 72% statistically significant correct choices in distinguishing the pugmark impressions of left and right, front and hind feet, and of male and female tigers. But the participant with 12 years of tiger census experience declined to identify the tigers. The rest of the 5 participants could not identify a single tiger from the pugmarks, and their figures ranged between 6 and 24.

Based on the above, the Review concluded that the field methodology was unreliable. (Karanth, 1987).

Revisiting the Controversy

(1) Basic premises used for the experiment for validity of Field Censuses

Certain premises made in the text of the review were not based on literature research. Some of these erroneous statements in the review related to the field method developed by S. R. Choudhury which was used in the 1972 and 1979 tiger censuses in India:

(a) S.R. Choudhury had argued that every tiger could be individually identified from its pugmarks.

Facts in literature: S. R. Choudhury had cautioned against identifying tigers from their pugmarks. (Choudhury, 1972a). His used Co-operation Census Technique and not the pugmark census technique.

(b) The investigator asserted there was no validation carried out of the field method.

Facts in literature: The literature shows that the Co-operation Census Technique was validated by S.R. CHOUDHURY by carrying out field trials in tiger habitats in Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, and control trials in Delhi Zoo and Nandankanan Biological Park in 1970 and 1971; (Choudhury, 1970b, 1971).

Facts in literature: S.R. Choudhury’s Co-operation Tiger Census method (Choudhury, 1970a, 1970b. 1971, 1972a, 1979b) and Pugmark method (Panwar, 1979a) were two different techniques, as reflected from the protocols used for arriving at the estimates for tiger populations:

Co-operation Census Technique estimated the approximate size of tiger population in an area by converting field data to the territorial occupancy of tiger populations (Choudhury, 1970b), while the Pugmark Census technique used tiger pugmarks as the primary index for identifying individual tigers for estimating their populations in an area (Panwar, 1979a). The field data collected and the protocols for analysis of the field data were different in both cases, the only commonality was pugmarks traced by using a tiger tracer developed by Choudhury for his technique.

(2) Errors in the Evaluation of the Census Data of 1972 and 1984

i. Erroneous Bench Mark

a. In the census of 1972 tiger census could not be completed in 4/5th of Sunderbans in West Bengal; the Manas tiger reserve in Assam; the Simlipal tiger reserve in Orissa; and in north-eastern India (Srivastava, 1979).

b. After 1972 areas had been added to some tiger reserves (Panwar, 1979b). The numbers of tigers that happened to get added were not adjusted for calculation of densities and biomass to the earlier figure of 1972 for tiger reserves.

c. The 1984 census neither followed S.R. Choudhury’s method, nor did it have missing tigers in the estimate.

The use of 1972 census figures as a bench mark for calculation of growth rates from the complete census figures of 1984 was unscientific.

ii. Error in application of values of population parameters as a standard for ecologically different tiger habitats:

a. The comparison of densities and biomass using values from limited research carried out in ecologically different tiger conservation units was not scientifically valid because of the systemic differences in different landscapes and bio-geographical zones and biomes in other tiger habitats.

b. Cattle biomass is an indeterminate and significant addition to the prey base of tigers. Contrary to the assertion made in the review, that all cattle-kills are reported in India because compensation is paid for them, the facts are different. The carcasses of cattle killed are often not available to establish the claim for compensation, and quite a good number of kills miss getting recorded in the books.

c. The wide variation in tiger densities and tiger biomass shown in the census results of 1984 in India cannot simply be explained away by supposed difference in protection standards or errors in census methodology, without eliminating the effect of managed inputs in ecological productivity of resources and habitats affecting the growth of tigers.

d. Historical records also do not support the assumed rigor of densities a good habitat can attain. Tiger hunting bags recorded by different hunters, and tiger count by Maharaja of Bundi (Sankhala, 1978) indicate existence of higher tiger densities than those adopted from the research in a few other areas.

iii. Error in the Logic of the Analysis:

There was no logic in leading to a conclusion that census methodology was at fault because 6 out of 18 tiger reserves (33%) exceeded the presumed limits of tiger density and biomass, ignoring the 12 reserves where these were well within the stipulated limits.

(3) Errors in the experiment in the zoo:

i. Flaws in the concept and design of the experiment:

a. The design of the experiment did not simulate either the Co-operation Tiger method or the ‘Pugmark Census’ Technique. Co-operation technique used a network of impression pads to provide a single type of standard surface for tracing pugmarks. The experiment by design presented pugmarks from two non-standard surfaces for testing the participants and made a conclusion about the methodology.

b. The alleged length of experience of the participants was not established. In practice, Project Tiger organized tiger census once in four years at National level and once in two years at State level. Any participant to have acquired experience of 4 to 6 censuses would have had to spend a minimum of 7 to 11 years on postings in tiger conservation units. Similarly, for the experience of 12 years of census experience the said participant would need to spend 23-24 years on such posting(s). Such tenures are not allowed to an officer by the government. The reported length of experience with tiger census was not established beyond doubt. Some of the participants may have had tiger census experience on only one or two occasions!

ii. Flaws in the conduct of the experiment

a. The experiment asked the participants to identify tigers from a single parameter: the tiger pugmark. It offered inadequate data to the participants. The missing parameters were: location from where pugmarks were collected, the average stride and straddle of the tiger, and the placement of the tigers’ pugmarks with respect to the direction of their movement used in field census’ techniques for elimination of duplication in counting tigers.

b. In the experiment a serious anomaly was visible: if 70% of the participants had made statistically significant correct choices in distinguishing the sex and the pugmarks of tigers, but they had completely failed in identification of individual tigers and tiger counts, there was an imperative need to further investigate into the source of anomaly.

c. Scientific research protocol also demanded replication of experiment with different sets of participants since tiger census was being practiced in other States, too. It would have eliminated any chance of the participants having been exposed to a non-standard method.

But no replications of the experiment were carried out – the interpretation of results was made from a single sample survey.

(4) Evaluation of the Conclusion Derived in the Review

With defective bench-mark, lack of simulation of the field methodologies, inherent flaws in the design and conducting of the experiment, and only single sample survey, the only interpretations one can scientifically arrive at are:

1) That it is difficult to count tigers from only one parameter: pugmarks taken from two soil substrates; and

2) That the shortfall in the skills exhibited by participants in a single trial cannot be treated as the defect in the methodologies.

Pugmarks are a reliable tiger monitoring index – can be used in estimation of tiger populations and research – Other Views:

a. The Wildlife Institute of India tested the statements made in the follow-up of the Critical Review of Field Censuses by the investigator. These were:

(a) the pugmarks are not unique to individual tigers;

(b) they cannot be used for census, but can be used for estimates;

(d) the census method is not validated quantitatively on wild tigers;

(e) and the field method is vulnerable to extraneous factors (Karanth, 2003).

b. The findings by the Wildlife Institute of India conclusively disproved all these contentions in 2005 (Sharma et al, 2001, 2005).

(a) Their study established that the pugmarks are unique to individual tigers;

(b) pugmarks can be used for population estimation of tigers;

(d) pugmarks census technique had 100% classification accuracy in DFA & Logistic Regression models using only two variables - Length & Width of pugmarks; and that

(e) the use of protocols can help in avoiding influence of extraneous factors (Sharma et al, 2001, 2005).

c. A tiger pugmark-identity correlation field test was carried out by the scientists of the Smithsonian Tiger Conservation Project in Chitwan tiger habitat in Nepal. It involved identification of tigers from their tracks and verifying their identity from photographs of tigers. The team established the validity of pugmark identification in 1996, and extensively used data from tracks in their research work for over 15 years. (Smith et al, 1999).

d. Historically, if pugmarks could not identify individual tigers and leopards, how is it that Jim Corbett did not overkill tigers and leopards in his pursuit of man-eaters, at a time when for every tiger and leopard in India today there were many times more in his times to choose from?

Monitoring Tigers in the Twenty-First Century

The rejection of field methods for estimating the tiger populations was not based on any scientific experiment. There is science in the field methods, too. The reliability of pugmarks as an index for tiger count was questioned and answered over the past two decades. The statistical estimation approaches have also been tried out. The use of statistical modeling approaches in wildlife conservation also can not be ignored. Both the field methods and statistical models are vulnerable to human bias.

Systems Analysis and Ecological Modeling can become a significant component of wildlife management only if the results are verifiable and useful for the user. The problem lies in the lack of appreciation about when and where to use which approach. Blind promotion or rejection of any approach may have an adverse effect on tiger conservation.

It is not the academic excellence but the field staff that will save the tiger. The need of the day is to enable the field level manpower to monitor tigers with user-friendly methods and techniques. The right way(s) to monitor tiger populations and habitats in the 21st century will be the one(s) that ensure the tiger is benefited from our efforts. A fresh look at both the academic and the field approaches is needed. There is no harm in trying to REINVENT OR REPAIR THE WHEEL IF THE EXISTING ONE DOES NOT WORK.

References

(A list of 51 references given in the unabridged paper.)

***

Running For Life - A Leopard's Tale

2011-03-07T20:39:00.000+05:30

Fire in My Backyard Forest

Shafts of golden sunlight lit the green vault of sal forest behind my house. Summer was at its peak, and sal trees had been shedding their leaves. The forest floor wore a yellow-brown carpet of dried leaves. Through it snaked a vague deer path. Wary of making noise, I advanced, treading softly on the path. My ears caught faintest of the jungle sounds – the buzzing flight of a bee, the scrape of a lizard’s claws, and the faraway flutter of wings. Even more than my ears and eyes, I was alive to the spirit of the forest – I could feel the forest.

Suddenly, through the corner of my eye, I saw a small patch in the pattern of shade and light on the ground, fifty feet to my left, ruffle for a moment. I thought I might have imagined it, but I wanted to be sure; for one must not ignore small messages and little signs the forest gives to the one who wants to be there. I froze. I did not turn my head for a better look, waiting for it to happen again.

Moments, stretched out like minutes, beat past my heart. It happened again; a spot of light in the dappled leaf bed twitched. I slowly turned my head to have a better look. There she was: a leopard suckling her two cubs as she lay on her side with her back toward me. I could see her through the thin screen of a lantana bush in which she lay. Filtered down through the green canopy of leaves the rays of sun etched out her youthful form with a golden sheen. Her flank rose and fell rhythmically as she slowly drew in and let her breath out. The heads of her two cubs were just visible over the curve of her body. It was the little white spot at the end of her long tail that had caught my eye as she twitched the tip of her tail in contentment.

A wave of fear and surprise shook me. I did not expect this part of the forest to be inhabited by a leopard; there wasn’t enough prey in it to sustain a leopard. People had killed and eaten away most of the wild animals that a leopard hunts for food.

But there they were: a mother and her two cubs. I know a mother can fearlessly face any threat to her children; and here was a mother armed with razor sharp claws and dagger-like fangs. I feared that she would resent my intrusion. It is different when you watch a leopard in a zoo. You watch it from the safety of a viewers’ gallery. But if alone and unarmed you meet her on her ground with nothing to stop her charge, you do not want to catch the attention of a loving and caring mother leopard with her cubs. Pound for pound, a leopard is said to be the strongest of the big cats of the world. You would rather enjoy the sight of a beautiful spotted big cat playing with her cuddlesome babies in a zoo.

One of the cubs happened to peer over the reclining body of his mother. Its eyes locked on me. I might have made some movement that had caught his eye. It stopped feeding. The mother stood up and turned a reproachful eye toward me. For a fleeting moment she drew her ears back, flat against her head; and cast an appraising glance at me. Her mouth slightly ajar, a faint growl came out of it; but her eyes said she was not alarmed. Without wasting another look at me, she turned and led her cubs away from me; deeper into the lantana thickets, and was out of my sight.

I turned back; elated and content at the beautiful sight I had just witnessed in the forest behind my house. I felt I should take a chance to see them again early next morning.

But I did not get my chance. It had been one of the hottest and driest summers to have struck the forest in recent years. The forest was tinder dry. The hot day waned and sun shimmered down the western horizon. In the thickening dusk, tongues of fire leapt up the bank of a nullah, half a mile to the west of where I had seen the leopard family. Someone had set fire to the forest. The evening breeze fanned it; and it quickly gained in strength. In no time at all, the entire forest was on fire. Flames leapt high up into the leafy branches of the tall sal trees. Sparks flew, and bursts of crackling and exploding sounds of twigs and branches filled the air as they caught fire. The forest turned into a red and yellow wall of angry flames. Dark crying silhouettes of the dislodged and frightened roosting birds flitted across the wall of fire. Over the myriad sounds came the death cries of unseen dwellers of the forest.

The fire reached the edge of the forest. Crops were ready for the harvest. We rushed in to beat the fire out. A Forest Patrol arrived from the nearby Range Headquarters and tried to control the fire. But the blaze could not be contained. All that could be achieved was to check its advance at the narrow road that separated the fire from the crops.

The following day saw the forest smoldering in silence; thin wisps and ribbons of smoke arose from among the ashes and the burnt tangle of bushes that had covered the ground a day ago.

It was a heart-rending sight. Scorched skeletons of tall trees stood mourning their dead friends and young ones. In the deathly stillness of the forest, the charred bones and ribs of a small deer stood out parched white against the fire-blackened ground. The forest, which was alive with life and sound a day before, was sad. That evening I was told fire had killed more than a dozen monkeys, half a dozen peacocks, and many other birds that were roosting in the trees near the road. I wondered if the leopard family had also been killed in the fire. The thought was very depressing.

Two days later, a leopard was seen near a village a mile away from the burnt forest. The report in the news paper said people were in panic; the leopard had let loose a reign of terror; and no one ventured out after dusk. To me the lines seemed to be straight out of Jim Corbett’s ‘Man-eating Leopard of Rudrapryag’; the tale of a leopard that operated a hundred years ago, in an area four hours of drive from Dehradun. I visited the village, for it was not far from my house. People were amused: where else would a leopard live, if not in the forest? They asked. The leopard had caused them no harm. I did not find them in panic; they were used to the presence of wild animals in their neighborhood.

That night this patch of forest also was burnt down. The fire had caused extensive damage to the forest. A few days later, there was yet another sighting of a leopard; this time it was four miles away from the spot where a leopard had been last reported. As before, the report described people living in panic and suffering from the reign of terror caused by the leopard in the area. Once again the forest was burnt.

Then all of a sudden leopard sightings stopped; peace returned. But it was a lull before the storm. The world famous Wildlife Institute of India is just half a mile from my house. The land on which it stands was once a forest, linked with the forest behind my house. Over the years, the links were severed; clusters of houses mushroomed in the spaces along the edge of the forest. A high wall around the Institute now protects a small patch of forest on its estate. A small spring-fed stream flows in it through tall wild grasses, shrubs and trees. It is as a safe heaven for many wild animals of the erstwhile forest; monkeys, hares, jackals, peafowl, jungle fowl, partridges, snakes, tortoises, mongooses live in it; leopards are known to visit it, but they do not stay for long. The beleaguered leopardess arrived with her two cubs, and decided to stay in it for the time being.

The forest she had taken shelter in did not have enough prey in it to feed her family. She started picking up stray dogs and small animals at night from the villages around. One day a dog killed by her was found snagged on the sharp hooks of the boundary wall by the workers in the Institute. It made her presence on the campus known to everyone in the Institute. Now everyone was on the lookout for the leopard. It was not long before she was sighted by the people. She was seen accompanied with her two cubs in the forest behind the students’ hostel.

Safety of human life was a hot topic for discussion; but there was a difference. The discussions did not stop at human safety concerns; the protection for the leopard and her cubs also was a part of concern of the human minds. Opinions were split over how to deal with a leopard mother and her cubs. Some argued her presence was a normal event; for leopards had been seen on the campus even on earlier occasions. She would shift out in due course of time, they held. Others feared human backlash if any one was attacked or injured by the mother in defense of her cubs. They favored capture of the leopards and their release in a far-off forest.

Some workers on the campus tried to drive them away early one morning; and a boy was mauled by the leopard on the campus of the Institute. The news of the leopards living in their midst was unwelcome; nobody wished leopards to live near them. If the Director did not take any action and let people take the matter in their hands, the fate of the leopards was sealed. He decided to take the help of the forest department. Traps were set up at the leopards’ favorite haunts. The dense undergrowth of bushes was cleared for better safety of human life. But all efforts came to a futile end.

Providence intervened, and a light, pre-monsoon rain fell; the parched forest lapped up the rain drops thirstily. Sap rose in the dry grass-blades and comatose stems of bushes. Fresh green buds burst out on skeletal plants; the sparse tangles of lantana bushes became dense. The forest became a better place for the wild animals. The cubs had grown up, and were more mobile now. When the people in the Institute tried to drive away the leopards, they moved back to the forest where I had seen them earlier.

But they could not stay there: the prey was missing. The leopards moved on to an unknown part of the forest.

The mother was still on the run for life – hers as well as of her cubs’. Whether the mother found a safe heaven for her cubs or not, I do not know. But she left behind some questions for us to answer.

The fire that made the mother leopard with cubs run for her life and the life of her family was not a natural fire. There had been no thunder storm, or high wind that could have produced fire in the forest. A carelessly thrown butt of cigarette or bidi would have started fire, but at one point. The fire appeared all of a sudden as a long row of flickering flames. Someone had set forest on fire. The first question was: Who set her forest on fire, and why?

I did not know who they were, and why they did so. So, I tried to find the answer to her question. On the land abutting the forest the crops were nearing harvest time. No one would run the risk of wind blowing the fire into their standing crops. Young boys in my village had come out of their own to the help the forest department put out the raging fire. They could not have been the ones to set fire to the forest. Who else would commit such a horrific act?

A tall, slim, middle-aged man had hurriedly walked out of the forest just after the fire appeared on the rim of the nullah. He caught my attention because he was wearing a full sleeved striped shirt and a dirty white pyjama, a dress not worn by the local villagers. I thought he might have seen the leopard while collecting firewood and I did not pay him much attention. Was he the one who had set fire to the forest?

People in my village let their cattle loose to pasture in the grassy blanks in the forest. They also fetched back firewood and fodder from the forest for use at home. There were others around who had an innate dread of the jungle. For them it was a place for the spirits and the ferocious animals. Most of them never entered the forest, for they were not dependent on the forest for their livelihoods.

Yet there were those who did not live near the forest; but they regularly entered the forest. Small groups of old men and women went into the forest early in the morning, carrying sickles and axes and cords with them; where they cut up fallen trees and made bundles of firewood for sale in the town. All day they streamed out of the forest, carrying head-loads of firewood to the near by bakeries and low price tea and food stalls that line the road to Dehradun. They spent time in the forest and were not afraid of the wild animals. And they knew how to meet their livelihood needs.

During the rainy season old rotten branches fall to the ground; swollen watercourses bring down trees grown on their banks. There is ample supply of dead, dry and fallen firewood on the ground in the forest. But it soon declines as it is taken out and sold in the market. The axe seeks logs and the stumps of trees, which are converted into splits of firewood and sold in the town. But it, too, does not last long. The forest grows a new generation of trees and shrubs every year; the firewood cutters know how to convert them into firewood. They remove the bark of trees and young saplings, and leave them standing to die. Soon these are dry and ready for removal as dead wood. Naturally dead and fallen firewood is crooked in form, and varies in thickness and length; but very long and straight firewood comes from the young trees that were cut and left to dry in the forest. Each head load of eight to ten feet long sticks is made of fifteen to twenty future trees. With the advance of summer this supply, too, dwindles out. By the time summer advances to its peak the forest is exhausted of all dead and dry firewood. Forest is then set on fire to quickly dry out the green bushes and take out their thin branches for sale in the market.

This is also the time when the young of wild animals are at their most vulnerable age. Most of the wild animals bring their young into this world just before nature produces food for them; which is when spring meets summer. This is the time when mothers are bringing up their little ones. Peacocks, jungle fowl, partridges, pheasants, deer, wild boar, bears, leopards, tigers, and all other animals that live on the ground or in the trees are with their young. Fire displaces them, kills them, and destroys their food and shelters. Survivors try to seek shelter in less disturbed cover, and sometimes come close to the edge of the forests.

The woodcutters had set the forest on fire, only for earning their daily bread. These people are the poorest of the poor; but they are absolutely unconcerned about the death of animals in the forest; and they could not care less what happened to a mother and her babies. Poverty and hunger can not promote soft sentiments for wildlife in their minds; they have to face a harsh and ruthless world of human beings.

Food, space, mates and security are the basic needs of life; people as well as wild animals value them. No one is rich or poor in the jungle. Health means Life; Life feeds on Death; Death begets Life. There is no place for senseless killings in the Law of the Jungle. The deer knows when a tiger is satiated and will not attack it. There is no place in it for jealousy, ego, greed or anarchy.

The leopardess was forced to leave every forest where she had tried to take shelter. It was summer when the fire in the forest forced the mother leopard to shift her cubs and exposed her to the people. She did not try to come near human habitation during the rainy season or the winter months. She did not harm anyone, why did people become her enemies? Didn’t she have a right to raise her young ones in her natural home? The forest where she lived seemed to echo her questions. Who will answer mother leopard’s unanswered questions?

I struggled to answer the question; but could not. All I could think of was that we are too far removed from the ethics of life. Everyone of us – the professional forester, the media, the politician, the town planner, the local householder – has to revisit our notions about man and wildlife and work together in an enlightened manner. Otherwise, like the tiger, the leopard is also heading towards extinction, and we are jointly responsible for it.

2011-02-15T19:35:00.000+05:30

Sunderban Tiger Reserve is a part of the Sunderban delta mass in South 24 Pargana district of West Bengal. It is land-locked and tidal channels divide the entire tiger reserve into small and big islands. The green part is the forest area outside the tiger reserve and is known as the 24 Pargana Forest Division. The pink shaded area is Sajnekhali Sancturary, the blue part is the Sunderban National Park, and the rest of the islands between the sanctuary and the national park and east of the sanctuary together form the tiger reserve. The tiger reserve together with the 24 Pargana Forest Division and villages along their fringes form Sunderban Biosphere Reserve. Sunderban is a World Heritage Site.

Sunderban - The Mangrove Tigerland

2011-02-09T18:03:00.000+05:30

Sunderban Tiger Reserve is a 2,585 sq km of carpet of mangrove forest, with tidal channels cutting it up into numerous islands. There are no human habitation, roads, or railway network in this expanse of world's unique tigerland. The Bay of Bengal is about 80 km south from its northern edge, which is a channel that separates the forest from human habitation of the district of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal

Jogi Mahal - as it was then

2011-02-02T22:31:00.000+05:30

Just below the fort of Ranthambhor, inside Sawai Madhopur Wildlife Sanctuary (Now Ranthambhor National Park and Tiger Reserve) I stayed a week in the now famous Rest House. I was working on my dissertation titled "Bio-aesthetic Planning of National Parks and Wild Life Sanctuaries with a special reference to the Sawai Madhopur Wild Life Sanctuary". My guide was the legendary Late Saroj Raj Choudhary, the father of Wildlife Management Training in India. It was he who had trained remarkable people like H.S. Panwar and Fateh Singh Rathore and others well known in this field for their contributions. Jogi Mahal has undergone some changes, and so has the wildlife area surrounding it.

The Black Tiger

2011-01-27T12:56:00.000+05:30

Can there be a black tiger? The tiger skin from Orissa seems to suggest so. It was recovered from a poacher by the authorities of Orissa forest department in 1997.

Mid-day in a forest

2011-01-21T09:04:00.000+05:30

A lonesome small nullah, with cool, dark shadows of the brooding trees taking a midday siesta in the afternoon of a small section of the paradise of nature. It was 1964. Time stopped when I also took lunch and then rest under the shade of another tree at the edge of the pool of water. This was a section of a Protected Forest of Haridwar Forest Division, and a corridor for the movement of elephants and other wild animals from Chilla range in Rajaji National Park to the Ganges that flowed below the old ruins of the Gurukul Kangri University Building, near the village of Kangri, 9 km from Haridwar on Najibabad road. We have lost this nullah and many others of this kind, because of the axe of the woodcutters from Haridwar, and a road that cut across such nullahs so that our vehicles can move fast over the wild landscape. Such sites in this region have been lost permanently. Our future generations will miss them. They will never know what even non- Reserved Forests used to look like! They may be told only of the problems of wildlife conservation. Local people now complain about the crops raided by elephants who find nothing to satisfy their hunger with - the forest having become a virtual desert for them. The photograph brings back the nostalgic moments spent by me during my first ever visit to a real forest.

My first day in a real forest - Siddhsot of Hardwar Division: 2.7.1964

2011-01-18T20:14:00.000+05:30

The forest is no more as dense as it was in 1964. Bamboo and other trees have disappeard. The deer path I was treading are no more evident on the eroded soil. The forest is no more enthralling. People have invaded this land where I was absorbing the sounds and sights of the forest. The area had wild elephant, tiger, leopard, hyena, python, sambhar, cheetal, barking deer, wild boar, peafowl, partridges, and many other animals. Today, tiger, sambhar, hyena, python are not seen in this area. We see buffalos and peole living in treeless arid and eroded Shivalik hills.

Crossing Torsa River in Jaldapara

2011-01-11T06:59:00.000+05:30

One of my memorable experiences was the crossing of Torsa river on a rickety raft when patrolling the rhino habitat in Jaldapara wildlife sanctuary in north Bengal. Crossing a river in a wild area where no modern bridges exist is an experience of life-time. You enjoy nature when you are living in natural settings. On occasions like this, the clear water with fish following around your silently drifting raft, the crisp fresh breeze wafting over the river, the trepidation and the thrill arising out of the thoughts about the possibility of slipping down into the river, the muffled voices of the raftsmen, and the wide open horizon under a blue sky - all these had made indelible impressions in my mind when I was working to protect the rhinos of Jaldapara.

The failure of electric fence.

2010-12-30T20:39:00.000+05:30

How can man-elephant conflict be mitigated, when local people create openings in the elephant proof fences for their own access into the forest, damage them so that power supply is disrupted making the fence ineffective, and use them for tying up a watch dog to alert them if any deer or other poachable animal is within their reach? At night the dog is removed from the fence so that it is not attacked by an elephant or a leopard - Photo: An electric fence in disarear at the edge of the elephant habitat in Doon Valley.

THE LAST TIGER

2010-11-08T22:25:00.001+05:30

The last tiger of Laltong Forest Block, seven miles from Siliguri, in north Bengal died on the night of 26 June 1999.

Old age, failing vision and weakening limbs, and an intuition of approaching the final tryst in his life, made him decide to seek peace in human habitat. He had never harmed human beings. After having ruled the sal forest and the grasslands on the banks of Teesta River for several years, he dragged his feeble body to the nearest human dwelling just outside his forest, and lay down near it - exhausted.

That was how the early rays of sun spotted him the following morning; and that was how the cook from the army camp found him blocking his way into the cook-house – for he lay at the door of the cook-house. Soon a crowd of army men collected, watching him silently from a safe distance. The presence of the tiger in the cook-house drew hordes of people from the nearby Sarugarah village. The forest officer was informed. A few hours later, the tiger was transported to Sukna Wildlife Range headquarters in a cage. The tiger did not make any fuss – it lay totally surrendered to the fate at the hand of human beings.

I saw him at Sukna. Now a mere skeleton of a large tiger, draped in a fading pale and striped coat, he must have been an outsized powerful male in his better days. He raised his head and returned my gaze with a tinge of sadness in his eyes. With a sigh, he returned to his supine immobility. He had been put in a large cage, placed in an isolated part of the Range Complex, secluded from the curious visitors. For about a week he was fed and cared for. He passed away peacefully in his sleep.

The forest of Laltong was dense, and teeming with wildlife in early 1970s when I patrolled it as a Divisional Forest Officer. Spotted deer, sambhar, barking deer, wild boar, sloth bear, and tigers lived in it. The sandy expanses of Teesta River were replete with tiger pugmarks. Elephants found Laltong Block as an important site on their seasonal migration route.

By the end of the twentieth century, only elephants were reported to be passing through the forest on their migration days. Sloth bear had not been seen for decades. The forest floor had all its young trees cut and taken away by firewood sellers – it was now a desert under a green canopy of trees. Without browse and grass, the deer were rarely seen in the area. Teesta river bed had been encroached, and confrontations between wild elephants and human beings had become a recurring headache for the forest officers.

The death of the last tiger – who had seen all these changes – brought an end to the spirit of the forest – the spirit that made a forest out of a stand of tall trees; the spirit that said planting trees alone as compensation for diversion of wildlife habitats does not bring back a living forest; the spirit that said no forest is worth calling it a forest if it does not inspire awe and respect in human minds.

With just over 1,000 tigers left in India, isolated small populations of tigers will eventually die out, even if given full protection from poachers. Increasing the number of tiger reserves cannot help. Many tiger reserves have their tigers facing similar threat. In other areas tiger populations are too small to attract formation of new tiger reserves. Unless given special attention under tiger conservation movement – the spirit of India’s forests may not live long.

Mt Shivling - Oil on Board - 4.9.2010

2010-09-04T13:18:00.000+05:30

The majestic Shivling in Garhwal Himalayas, with Bhagirathi and Gangotri peaks in the background, represents the basis of the mythological event that describes the descent of the Ganges River from heavens onto the locks of Lord Shiva. The Ganges originates from the glacier hidden by the carpet of clouds in the painting. Except for the form of the peaks in the painting, the rest is all my imagination. My sister called it 'Manthan'.

TOMMY

2010-02-24T07:47:00.001+05:30

It was not Dr. Roy Choudhury to whom the dog belonged, rather it was the other way round: it was Tommy, the dog, who had laid a claim on Dr. Roy Choudhury.

One fine day at Darjeeling, Dr. Sukumar Roy Choudhury, zoo-vet and Deputy Director at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, noticed a badly wounded, non-descript, brown-eyed, pied dog of indistinct breed looking up at him with woebegone, sad eyes. The dog seemed to have suffered deep gashes and lacerations in a fight with another of his kind, and was at the verge of collapse. Being a very kind-hearted soul that he was, Dr. Roy Choudhury was deeply moved by the sight. He took charge of the injured dog, nursed him to good health, and named him Tommy. Tommy reciprocated by taking a vow not to let Dr. Roy Choudhury out of sight at any cost – an arrangement that resulted in mixed reactions in the kind-hearted doctor’s mind. Tommy would not let him out of sight even for a few seconds. Because of his attachment to the officer, Tommy’s appearance on the scene signaled to the zoo staff the arrival of their supervising officer. If you wanted to locate the whereabouts of the Deputy Director, the best way was to look for Tommy and you would be sure to find him somewhere nearby.

Those days Darjeeling was passing through a period of intense political activity by a local political party demanding autonomy for the hill region. Every evening, with the arrival of the dark, the town apprehensively waited for signs or sounds of any armed encounters between the activists and the police forces. At such times, it was Tommy’s presence that infused a sense of security in the Dr. Roy Choudhury’s heart on his way back from the zoo to his residence.

I could not help getting introduced to Tommy automatically on the day I landed at Darjeeling zoo to join my duty as Director, Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. It was the morning of December 8, 1987 when Dr.Roy Choudhury walked into my office to introduce me to my new work place. As he entered the chamber he very slowly and deliberately closed the door behind him, making sure that the tongue of the door-lock was properly secured in its slot. No sooner did he turn to face me than the plywood panel of the door received a violent assault from Tommy’s claws. The hollow panel acted as a wonderful sound-box and amplified the ear-splitting screeches Tommy’s nails produced on the plywood door, making it impossible for me to hear what Dr. Roy Choudhury was trying to say. Embarrassed and red in face, but still wearing a genial smile, Dr. Roy Choudhury excused himself, turned round, opened the door and commanded, “Ay, Tommy! Jaa, Jaa!!” Silence… Dr. Roy Choudhury carefully closed the door again, turned round, and took a step toward my table. Silence prevailed for precisely one moment and then the screeching door came alive once again. I was more worried about the permanent effect the claws were going to register on the door – it would not at all give a good signal to a visitor if the door to the Director’s chamber suggested that the new Director believed in clawing the door open. So I asked Dr. Roy Choudhury to let the dog in.

Tommy quietly entered the room, and just sat down beside Dr. Roy Choudhury. There he remained till our work was over and the Deputy Director rose to take me on a round of the zoo. Tommy led the way.

It was then Dr. Roy Choudhury gave me the details of Tommy’s entry into his life. He was now quite comfortable with the dog, despite the fact that the arrangement caused him a few problems, but these were of trivial nature. Tommy was averse to travel by motorized transport. So, he would not board the zoo vehicle, nor would he let Dr. Roy Choudhury out of his view. And for this reason the veterinarian had to walk Darjeeling roads instead of riding the zoo vehicle even when he wanted to procure medicines for the zoo animals.

Tommy would also not let any unfamiliar person get close to Dr. Roy Choudhury. No stranger dared step within a radius of ten feet from Dr. Roy Choudhury without getting a warning growl from Tommy. However, with Dr. Roy Choudhury’s friends Tommy was unmoved and reserved. He did not growl or physically demonstrate his concern if someone happened to come too near the Doctor: his way to send the required signal was by putting himself as a shield between the two, such that there was no further chance of getting closer. But Tommy did not make such moves if in his opinion the person was accompanying Dr. Roy Choudhury. I was never inconvenienced by his presence, nor to my mind any of the zoo staff ever felt inconvenienced by him.

When accompanying Dr. Roy Choudhury on his daily inspections. Tommy studiously ignored the animals in the zoo, as if they did not exist at all. However, the leopards in the zoo enclosures did show a very keen interest in Tommy as he accompanied Dr. Roy Choudhury on his usual rounds of inspection of zoo animals. As Tommy walked by the leopard enclosures, the inmates of the enclosures would silently pad along parallel to him, keeping pace with him and keeping their eyes hungrily riveted on him till he was out of their sight.

Tommy had remarkable qualities. And I presume all dog lovers will agree that dogs do exhibit such remarkable qualities – intelligence, affection, loyalty, emotion, discretion etc., – that make them so lovable friends. But Tommy revealed that dogs also are capable of consciously planning and taking actions based on deductive logic!

Tommy had grown old – only a few of his teeth had still remained loyal to him. When his jaw dropped as he panted dog-like with his mouth open one could see that he had lost his lower canines and a few pre-molars. He was unable to fight with other, younger dogs without coming out next best – not that he had any reason to do so. Yet, there are circumstances when one just cannot ignore the challenges in life.

One such challenge was the visit to the zoo dump. In an inconspicuous corner of the zoo, away from the animal enclosures and public view, a depression in the adjoining tree covered slope was used as a dumping ground for disposing off the leftovers of the previous day’s animal food. In importance the site ranked very high in the opinion of all the village dogs, cats, magpies, crows, rats and other scavenging job-holders of the neighboring animal world. The contents of the dump used to get replenished every morning and evening immediately after the animal shelters were cleaned by their respective keepers. Throughout the night, with the cessation of the movement of human beings in the zoo after its closure, I imagine, quite a crowd of denizens of the adjacent forest visited the dump. I had seen the evidences of their visitation. During the day, when human beings were active in the neighborhood of the dump, it was the turn of local dogs, cats and other bolder animals to visit the dump.

But here lay the challenge for Tommy, the hero of this tale. The alluring delicious odors wafting in the air tugged at his heart, beckoning him to visit the dump that offered a variety of exotic meals, but the intimidating memories of the last attempt which had compelled him to see the doctor and get treated by Dr. Roy Choudhury had not vanished from his mind. Further, he had been fast losing strength and teeth. Torn between the two opposite emotions, Tommy was unable to reach any plan of action for quite some time, and then…

One morning, just after Dr. Roy Choudhury and I had inspected the Siberian tiger enclosure and night shelters, I noticed Tommy was not in sight. This was quite intriguing to me in view of Tommy’s inseparability from Dr. Roy Choudhury. To my query, Dr. Roy Choudhury was non-committal. He replied that Tommy must be around somewhere. This was neither here nor there. A few days later, it became clear that Tommy had taken up the challenge of the younger generation and emerged victorious in his endeavors!

Those days, the zoo had four adult Siberian tigers. One of the pairs had borne two cute little cubs. The success in breeding of Siberian cubs had taken place after a gap of eighteen years. Therefore, we were taking no chances with the litter. Milaya, the tigress, was a very possessive mother. She had a hair-trigger temper: she only tolerated the presence of her keeper but was very demonstrative of her annoyance towards his assistant and would not let him clean her shelter, not to speak of tolerating his presence. This posed some problem, which was solved by introduction of a temporary change in the routine for management of the night shelters of the tigers.

The feeding time for the carnivores at the zoo was around 4.30 in the afternoon. This was a very convenient arrangement for drawing the tigers, wolves, leopards and other animals into their night shelters for the night, without having to force-drive them in. Darjeeling is affected by a moist cold climate and the precipitation of rain is quite unpredictable except in the months of October and November when the sky is clear blue and the rains do not threaten the outdoorsman, and which I consider are also the best months to visit the hill station. The winter days are pleasant and sunny but after sun-down the ambient temperature plummets all of a sudden, making the nights bitterly cold. The night shelters provide the zoo animals cozy and safe quarters.

Normally, there is no extra protection needed by the animals like the Siberian tigers and Tibetan wolves that belong to cold regions. But straw-beds, jute screens and, if required, hot-air blowers are also provided for further protection from cold. After the birth of the cubs the need to provide them with a straw bed for strengthening their protection from cold was recognized, and everyday, before the tigers were allowed their food and rest in their night shelters, beds of straw were prepared in their shelters. Milaya, the tigress, readily adjusted to this change in the routine and seemed to like it. After feeding, she would settle down for the night on the straw bed with her cubs. Some part of the straw bed would invariably get soiled overnight by the urine of the cubs necessitating a change. The following morning, after the tigers were let out of their rooms, the soiled straw was removed from the night shelters and dumped at a cemented platform from where it was later carried out of the zoo.

The inspection of the zoo enclosures and zoo animals before and after the zoo hours was a routine Dr. Roy Choudhury and I religiously performed twice a day. So, it did not take too many days for us to discover Tommy’s ingenuity in planning and executing his strategy to win the challenge. Everyday, Tommy would disappear for a few minutes after we reached the tiger enclosures. Every morning, I noticed, Tommy would keep us company till we entered the night shelter to inspect their condition after cleaning. And everyday, both of us were puzzled by the sudden disappearance of Tommy for a short while at that point of time.

The mystery was finally solved on the morning I had been slightly late in following Dr. Roy Choudhury to the Siberian tiger enclosures. When I reached the tiger house, Dr. Roy Choudhury had already entered the building. A thick mat of soiled straw had been taken out of the night shelters and it lay spread out on the cemented platform in front of the building. To my astonishment, I saw Tommy walking on to the straw bed and scraping his hind feet on the mat. The straw flew and a strong stench of tiger urine filled the air.

I was astonished because I thought the tiger smell is not something that should evoke a pleasurable emotion in the mind of a dog, and entice him into playing with it! The scene was such that I could not resist continuing to watch it for some time more till Tommy rose, smelt the spot where he had scraped out the straw from the mat and turned and headed for the dump where the left over bones and pieces of tigers’ meals had been disposed by the tiger keeper. The sight that greeted me was unforgettable.

At the foot of the steep hill slope behind the tiger enclosures a depression, about 18 feet across, was littered with the waste from the carnivorous-animal enclosures. Blue bottle-flies buzzed and a group of village pie-dogs bantered, scuffled, growled and yelped their resistance to getting pushed out of the melee for taking possession of choice morsels. The depression fairly bristled with pale, brown, pie-bald, black, furry, mangy, small, big, young and not-so-young, all types of canine competitors.

Toward that heaving, bustling mass of claw and tooth fighters, Tommy made a beeline with unflinching, determined gait. A brave weakling! The company at the dump took no heed of the hero’s approach till Tommy was within their smelling distance. And then pandemonium broke loose. There was a great churning of canine crowd, and the dogs shot off from the melee toward the safety of the forest cover, some with their hair standing like tooth-brush bristles, some with quickly drooping tails, and one or two with their eyes suddenly changing their expressions from that of bullying aggression to abject terror. A tiger had arrived!

Tommy, proud and composed, took his time to pick up a juicy bone with choicest morsel attached to it and retired to a corner to finish it before, he thought, Dr. Roy Choudhury would miss him.

The zoo at Darjeeling does not have a system of manning the senior positions on a long term basis. The posts of Director, Deputy Director and Assistant Director – cum – Veterinary Officer are manned by suitable officers selected from other government departments on short tenure basis. The tenures of such officers are initially for a period of four to five years and may be extended if the departments permit the extensions. Dr. Roy Choudhury served Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park till 1991. He had to be repatriated to his parent Department on completion of his tenure at the zoo. Everyone at the zoo waited to see if Tommy would leave Darjeeling when Dr. Roy Choudhury did. But Tommy was left behind, forlorn and confused at the sudden disappearance of Dr. Roy Choudhury. Dr. Roy Choudhury felt that Tommy would not survive the heat of the plains of southern Bengal. Tommy was already well advanced in years. Leaving him to the care of the zoo staff, Dr. Roy Choudhury left Darjeeling. Perhaps Tommy understood his dilemma and settled down after a few days of confusion. Or, perhaps, like all other guardians, Tommy accepted the departure of his ward as a natural phenomenon and reconciled with life without Dr. Roy Choudhury. He had many other things to do. I, too, left the zoo in 1992. Till that time Tommy was very much a part of the zoo people. I think he just faded away when his time came.

***

Mihail

2009-05-21T07:05:00.002+05:30

The elderly keeper of the tigers in the zoo, Kalu Singh Lama, stood facing the inebriated rowdies bravely. Almost at the verge of retirement from active zoo service, the wizened old man had cared for the Siberian tigers under his charge all his life like a father. He was pained at the behavior of human beings whom he had caught pelting stones at a sleeping tiger in his enclosure at Darjeeling zoo. Unable to stand the strong feelings of revulsion at the sample of ‘Civilized Society’, and oblivious of the odds against him in facing alone a group of young alcohol-primed visitors, he threw out a challenge, “Ay, don’t pelt stones at the tiger! Let him sleep!”

Finding a lone age-enfeebled figure challenging their combined might the four men swaggered down the set of steps, and one of them caught Kalu Singh by his collar. Pressing his face close to the keeper’s and glowering threateningly into his eyes, he snarled, “What do you mean? We have paid for the entrance ticket. Who are you to prevent us from having fun? Go away, old man, or else…!” and he shook his clenched fist in the keeper’s face.

For a fleeting second consternation rippled through the aged body of the old timer. He looked around for help, but there was none available in sight. His gaze fell on, Mihail, the huge Siberian tiger who had been disturbed in his rest under a birch tree in the enclosure. He was still sitting under the birch tree where he had been lying a few minutes ago. The tiger was watching them with his head raised high from a distance of about fifty yards inside the fenced enclosure.

“Mihail!...Mihail!!” shouted Kalu Singh. “Look, what these boys are doing!”

The tiger rose with a start. He turned his eyes toward the scene being enacted at the top of the stairs, and came out of the birch tree shade like a huge tawny projectile. In the twinkling of an eye he had covered the intervening distance and with the force of a cannon ball he hit the chain-link fence of the enclosure a couple of feet from the rowdies with a loud heart-pounding roar.

When a tiger roars, the volume of his roar is stupendous; and when a tiger roars his annoyance, it sounds as if his roar will blow the person away like a leaf in a gale. If one is the target of the tiger’s annoyance and the roar is let out a couple of feet away the chances are that it may weaken one’s knees and make one miss a few heart-beats. But, if the tiger is also charging on like an unstoppable juggernaut with its furious roars it is difficult to describe how one’s reflexes can react. Very few people have lived to describe what the charge of a full grown tiger is like. Perhaps, people like Jim Corbett know; Well, I don’t. The bullies harassing the poor zookeeper must be counted among those few who might be able to describe their experience.

The intervening fence had stopped the tiger. But the vision of a very large, angry tiger erupt roaring out of nowhere must have had its full impact on the four men. For a few moments they might not have even realized that the chain-link fence had just saved them from certain death.

The tiger does not know how weak and soft a human being is, and a mere blow from Mihail’s massive paws could have fatally smashed the bones of any one of them. Or, perhaps, they might not be able to describe the feelings and sensation caused by the tiger’s charging apparition, for they had not wasted a moment in making themselves scarce from the spot. I had just arrived at the bottom of the steep stairway that climbed up along the tiger enclosure when I saw the four blusterers tumbling, slipping and rolling down the set of stairs. They wobbled by and quickly disappeared in the crowds in the zoo. Kalu Singh Lama proudly narrated the incident that had just taken place, beaming at the most gentle of his charges, Mihail, the Siberian tiger who had come to his rescue, and who was now giving a peculiar purring tiger call expressing his affection and happiness at finding him unharmed.

Mihail, the Siberian Tiger at Darjeeling Zoo

I looked at the gentle giant with great admiration, who was walking down the path he had beaten hard in his enclosure during years of his regular perambulations. Dogs are known to have come to the rescue of their owners – they are known to be faithful to their masters; We have a grave of a faithful dog in the zoo who had fought off a wild leopard to save his master in the Birch Hill forest. Horses, elephants, bulls and many other domestic animals are also known to have come to the rescue of their masters or friends when in grave danger. But I had never heard of a tiger doing the same for his keeper.

The way we are brought up in our civilized society has made us peculiar animals. The impression carried by most of us who do not understand, or even care to understand, the world of animals is that all wild animals are dangerous: every tiger, leopard or other carnivore will kill or eat man on sight; every snake hiding in the bush or hanging from the trees in the forest is waiting death for any unfortunate man, and every wild elephant, rhinoceros, bison, or large herbivore will attack man. People cannot trust even harmless lizards and mice. People attack and try to kill even extremely harmless, small and less frequently seen animals in a false belief that they might be dangerous for human beings. How can one imagine that a full grown tiger can come to the rescue of a human being? Our difficulty in understanding wild animal behavior arises from our lack of appreciation of the nature of animals.

Our inability to believe in such cases is the product of our assumption that animals lack feelings for the other species of life. There is sufficient evidence that the higher life forms of the animal world harbor emotions and sentiments that human beings think are their own exclusive domain; and the animals are capable of rational thinking. The cases of friendship between Joy Adamson and Elsa, the lioness, and Joy and Pippa, the cheetah are well documented. The bond between Khairi, the Simplipal tigress of Orissa, and her foster father the late Mr. S.R. Chowdhury, and between Prince, the leopard, and Billy Arjan Singh of Tigerhaven near Dudhwa National Park is also well documented. And there are many other similar cases that either have not been recorded, or we have not read.

But if those who do not understand animal behavior commit such errors out of sheer ignorance, others who believe they understand wild animals might also call Mihail’s behavior in coming to the rescue of his keeper somewhat unusual. Perhaps, not many such cases have been documented.

Only in recent years startling visual records of the finer feelings and sentiments of wild animals have started appearing on the television channels like Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic.

One that I saw on 22.1.07 on the National Geographic Channel telecast on Indian Network showed in an episode titled Eye of the Leopard a female leopard perched up in a tree with a very young baboon baby and trying to save it from falling down. In another episode, in Samburu National Park, Kenya, a lioness was filmed adopting oryx gazelle fawns, five times, one after the other, in succession, and trying to bring the young fawns up as a foster mother. Every time her effort ended tragically as some male adult lion killed the fawns when they were not under her close protection. In yet another episode telecast by Animal Planet’s Natural World two wolves, one black and the other white, on the prowl, targeted a mother caribou with a day old fawn. The mother fled leaving the fawn behind at the mercy of the wolves. The black wolf picked up the fawn, but then gently put it back on the ground, unharmed, and the pair moved on to hunt larger animals. And I also remember having seen an episode where a hippo attacked a crocodile in Africa to rescue a small antelope fawn. The hippo drove the crocodile away, and then tried to help the injured fawn stand on its legs by gently lifting it by its head. How do you explain such behaviour? So what was strange if Mihail came to the rescue of Kalu Singh Lama from the attack of bullies?

Tigers vary in their temperament just as we do. Some are peaceable, some aggressive, some lordly, some coward, and some, like Mihail, large-hearted and ready to help those in distress. When treated with respect animals respond by giving respect. When sharing friendship animals respond with friendship. By no means do we spend as much time with the so-called ‘ferocious beasts’ as Kalu Singh did with his tigers. The concern for the safety of his keeper in the so-called ‘ferocious, blood-thirsty’ tiger surfaced in Mihail when it was most needed by his human friend.

Mihail’s bond of friendship with his human friend Kalu Singh Lama was a demonstration of the existence of selfless friendship in our little understood world of wild animals – a world meant for us all to share without unnecessary violence from the ‘civilised world’ of the human beings.