Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT1.2 The Sariska shockIn December 2004, the nation was shocked to knowthat tigers may have disappeared from the Sariskatiger reserve in Rajasthan. What had happened there?By March 2005, the Wildlife Institute of India(WII) confirmed in its interim report (which itfollowed up with detailed habitat monitoring) thatthere were indeed no tigers left in Sariska. The primeminister asked the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) to inquire into the disappearance: it reportedthat since July 2002, poachers had been killing tigersin the reserve and that the last six tigers were killedin the summer-monsoon of 2004. The CBI reportpointed to the involvement of local villagers. It alsosuggested the existence of a well-established networkof middlemen trading in tiger parts, with thenotorious Sansar Chand at its centre. 1But questions still remained: why did the systemfail to recognise the signs of the rot in Sariska till itwas too late? What could the country’s remainingtiger reserves learn from this episode?Sariska: a reviewThe Sariska tiger reserve is spread over about 881 sqkm, and has three core areas and a buffer zone. Theapproximately 400-sq km ‘Core-I’ is the key tigerhabitat and a proposed national park. But it is alsohome to 11 villages, earmarked for relocation sincelong. Core-I also includes pilgrimage sites and is thetourist zone.During 1995-2003, all census conducted in thepark estimated its tiger population at 24-25; this wasofficially reduced to 16-18 by the 2004 census. Infact, the number of tigers in the park has always beena matter of dispute. In the late 1980s, the then parkdirector had officially recorded that the tigerpopulation was not as previously estimated — 40-odd — but only 18-22. This had led to a furore; sincethen for over a decade, the park management hadchosen to stick steadfastly to an estimated 24-25tigers.The Task Force was told informally during itsvisit to Sariska that even the 2004 census hadreportedly counted only 12-14 tigers, but the numberwas modified to 16-18 to avoid controversy. What isnow known is that in May 2004, the then fielddirector had written to Rajasthan’s chief wildlifewarden that his census team had concluded therewere between 16 to 18 tigers; keeping in mind theearlier estimate, this could have led to a controversy.He, therefore, requested permission to conductanother census. This letter was not endorsed toProject Tiger directorate in Delhi. However, no suchcensus was ever conducted. But in August 2004, thechief wildlife warden wrote to Project Tiger sayingthat recurring bad weather had damaged most of theimpression pads of the pugmarks. He made nomention of the problems of falling numbers or thealarm it had created.But it is now evident that even this 2004 figuremay be a gross over-estimation. The WildlifeInstitute of India, investigating the tiger’sdisappearance in Sariska, verified the census bychecking the plaster casts of pugmarks: it founderrors in the estimate. According to an analysis theInstitute did in March 2005, the data park authoritiescollected about the number of tiger sightingsreported by tourists and forest staff from 1997 to mid-2004 shows a decline 1999 onwards, but parkauthorities continued to report there were 24-27tigers (see graph: Tiger population and sightings inSariska from January 1997 to July 2004). 2The analysis also says the core of the park, whichthe Wildlife Institute of India has taken to be 274 sqkm, can support only 15 tigers based on the tigerpreydensity. The population also has a highlyskewed sex ratio, bad news for breeding: theInstitute’s data shows no cubs were born in the parksince 2002, and interrogation of arrested poachershas confirmed only two out of the 10 poached tigerswere females.In other words, there has been a steady decline intiger numbers in Sariska over the years, which thecensus was unable to detect; remedial action,therefore, could not be taken. Sariska illustrates thecritical need for an efficient methodology to estimatetiger populations.The reserve has a staff strength of 305 (with fourvacancies). There has been no new recruitment since1987. The average age of the staff is between 45-50years, which makes on-foot deployment difficult. Butthe reserve has a good network of roads forpatrolling; it has 14 vehicles, wireless facilities andanti-poaching camps located in its remotest corners. 3The reserve has a state highway — the Alwar-Thanaghazi-Jaipur highway — passing through itscore. An alternative road constructed to bypass thereserve remains unused. The traffic into the reserve,especially pilgrims visiting a temple inside the park,has risen sharply over time. In 2003, 140,000pilgrims and 15,000 vehicles visited the temple,increasing to 2,00,000 pilgrims and 23,000 vehiclesin 2004-2005. During the annual festival in 2004-2005, as many as 30,000 pilgrims and 5,000 vehicles14 The assessment