Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

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TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE DOTS ■and in other developmental projectsaround the park;f) tourist guides, trackers, intelligencegatherers, etc.The above list is indicative and notexhaustive. The management plan shouldinclude a detailed prescription forinvolving the local population in the parkmanagement, mitigating man-animalconflict with a view to improve theirquality of life.The existing provisions of the Wild Life(Protection) Act, 1972 provides for meeting allthe concerns and requirements of the local people.The only issue is its effective implementation,therefore, there is no need for any review/revision ofthe Act.The MoEF’s directions are in consonance and incompliance of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s orders andtherefore cannot/should not be withdrawn. It may bementioned that the Hon’ble Supreme Court in PradipKrishen v/s UOI (AIR 1996 SC 2040)+ has specificallydirected to complete settlement proceedingsexpeditiously.DISSENT NOTEANNEXURE -COBJECTION BY MR. VALMIK THAPAR – MEMBER TIGER TASK FORCE ON RESEARCH ANDSCIENCE TO BE INCORPORATED IN THE REPORTMr. Valmik Thapar Member of the Task Forcehas submitted the following note of decent inrelation to the recommendations on approaches to beadopted for monitoring tiger populations in thefuture.The past history of Project Tiger is strewn withfailures to reform the monitoring system due to a lackof attention to detail and ignoring of inputs formscientists seriously engaged with tiger conservationissues.Since then the proposed scheme has beenthoroughly examined and critiqued by leadingcarnivore ecologists who have specialized inpopulation survey methodologies for decades at thespecific request of the Task Force. These in putshave come from Dr. Ullhas Karanth, Dr. RaghuChundawath, Dr. M. D. Madhusudan, Dr. AJTJohnsingh, Dr. SP Goel, Dr. Yoganand (the lastthree are from the Wildlife Institute of India). Allthese analysis, have endorsed the broad idea ofProject Tiger taking up countrywide distributionsurveys of tiger under a new sampling-basedparadigm (instead of total count censuses). Butthey all have pointed out several flaws in theproposed scheme. Their critique covers the issue ofthe very design of the surveys in proposed stages,practical problems in implementing many of thesurvey methods in field conditions, problems ofanalysis as well as with the demonstrated examplefrom Satpura-Maikal Pilot Project which actually hasnot implemented the occupancy estimationapproach. Given this Valmik Thapar stronglybelieves that a technical panel of experts proposed bythe Task Force should examine all these aspects ofthe proposed methodology before it is implementedin order to resolve the problems that are admitted toexist with this protocol. This should be done withina time frame of just 3 months. Such a processwill ensure the removal of any flaws and errorswhich may be present and prevent costlyexpenditures from taking place before the methodhas been vetted. This safeguard will be vital to thisnew step we are taking.Therefore Valmik Thapar disagrees with theview that the protocol regarding tiger estimationshould be implemented immediately and even beforethe technical panel has a chance to examine andimprove it.Annexures 175
■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FORCE REPORTDISSENT NOTEANNEXURE- DSPECIAL NOTEFrom: Valmik ThaparMember – TIGER TASK FORCE (TTF)To: The Chairman and all other Members,for the meeting of the Task Force on 29 th April, 2005.Date: 28 th April, 2005The Tiger Task Force (TTF) was born from a crisisthat resulted in the extinction of the tigers in Sariskaand Kela Devi Sanctuaries. The Prime Ministerdescribed the state of affairs as the worst crisis ofwildlife since the inception of the Project Tiger.OBJECTIVEThe objective of this note is to spell out short termand long term measures that will help save wildtigers. I presume that is the objective of the TTF.SHORT TERM MEASURES(1) Deployment of additional Home Guards andArmed Police in different tiger reserves acrossIndia which are facing serious problems. This isan essential preventive measure pre-monsoon2005.(a) Manas Tiger Reserve, Assam(b) Namdapha Tiger Reserve, ArunachalPradesh(c) Simlipal Tiger Reserve, Orissa(d) Valmiki Tiger Reserve, Bihar(e) Palamau Tiger Reserve, Jharkhand(f) Nagarjuna Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh(g) Indravati Tiger Reserve, Chattisgarh(h) Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh(i) Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh(j) Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra(k) Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Uttar Pradesh(2) Ranthambhore and Sariska Tiger Reserve are noton this list as the Government of Rajasthan havealready taken essential steps of deploying morethan 300 Home Guards and armed Police on theperiphery as a precaution against armedintruders. All regular raids are being conductedagainst possible poachers and unwantedelements. A full infrastructure of vehicles hasalso been provided for patrolling (details of thiscan be made available from the State as anexample of what can be done as a preventive stepfor other States to follow).DISSEMINATE ALL INFORMATION. This isvital as a case study so that everyone realiseswhat happened and can learn a lesson from it toprevent repeats. This case study should be sentacross India as an example of what can happen.WHAT HAPPENED?Let’s not forget as far as Sariska is concerned theDirector of the Reserve provided an earlywarning in his census report on 25 th May, 2004.It remained unheeded to by the Chief WildlifeWarden of Rajasthan and he only communicatedit or part of it on August 17 th , 2004 to theDirectorate of Project Tiger who did not reacttill February 2005 after each tiger had beenwiped out. I quote below from it.On 25-4-2004 the Field Director of Sariskareported to the Chief Wildlife Warden ofRajasthan and stated “on the basis of theavailable evidence and on ocular analysis of thepugmarks and movement of tigers the teamreached a rough estimate that the number oftigers were between 16 and 18………..Since thisestimate is quite different from that of last year’scensus and could lead tocontroversy…………Experts should be called tocarry out examination of the evidence.”However, the Chief Wildlife Warden ignored thisletter and on the 17 th August, 2004 sent a letter tothe Director, Project Tiger stating for SariskaTiger Reserve has 16-18 tigers. There is then an‘asterix’ on this that says: “Due to bad weathermost of the Pugmark Impression Pads weredamaged and it obstructed effective trekkingand collection of evidence.”Why did Project Tiger in Delhi not reject thecensus and order a new one?(3) It is also understood that a Tiger AssessmentReport was submitted by the Wildlife Institute of176 Annexures
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THE REPORT OF THE TIGER TASK FORCEJ
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ContentsIntroductionExecutive summa
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Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

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