Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FORCE REPORTinclusive traditions of science that we need to buildupon in devising a system to foster a healthy growthof wildlife biology in the country.In this context, it is important to note that peerreview in refereed journals is a system that wasevolved in pre-ICT revolution times. It is a system thatconfers considerable power on a small number ofindividuals involved in making editorial decisionsand serving as referees. There are examples, too, ofmisuse of this power. There is, therefore, much meritin going beyond peer reviews. Today, public scrutinycan be made much more extensive and effective byposting on the Web all the data, the methodologyfollowed and the logic employed. Ideally, we shouldmake all this information available in all the Indianlanguages also. Indeed, such a Web-based scrutiny,exposing scientific activities to a wider public,would serve the vital function of demystifyingscience, and of checking vested interests thatscientists too may try to encourage. Such a Webbasedsystem could also help bring on boardinformation on ecological parameters available withlaypeople.Certainly, there is an abundance of evidencepointing to the fact that given the nature of complexecological systems, scientists too have a limitedunderstanding of their functioning, at the sametime that laypeople may have observations of value.The experience of a group of Bangalore-basedecologists investigating the fate of wild amlapopulations on the nearby BRT Hills provides aninteresting example. Their hypothesis was that theregeneration of the amla is governed by the amount offruit collected for commercial use, and that the lowlevels of regeneration in recent years were related toexcessive harvests of the fruit. So they laid outstatistically well-designed experiments to test theinfluence of different levels of harvests of fruit. Thelocal Solliga tribals told them that these experimentswould yield no results of interest, because, accordingto their understanding of the ecosystem based onmany years of first-hand observations, the levels ofregeneration were primarily influenced by forestfires. Amla seeds require fire to germinate well, andthe Solligas felt that the low levels of regenerationwere related to the suppression of forest fires inrecent years. The scientists did not initially givecredence to this view and continued with theirexperiments. Only later did they come to theconclusion that the Solligas had indeed been right.So it is highly appropriate for us to put in placea more inclusive system of obtaining inputs fromall people, especially in the context of wildlifebiology. In fact, even India’s famous ornithologistSalim Ali drew upon the knowledge of Mirshikars, atribe traditionally engaged in bird trapping, in hisown work.Hierarchy of scalesThe estimation of number of tigers over a total rangespanning many thousands of kilometres of parks,reserve forests and even non-forest areas calls for amassive effort. Such an effort cannot, obviously, beequally intensive throughout the tiger range. It is,therefore, best to go in for different levels and kindsof efforts at a hierarchy of spatial scales, focusing themore intensive effort in relatively limited selectedareas. The effort should not be confined to estimationof tiger numbers, but has to be broader covering at allscales:● State of tiger habitat● Abundance of tiger prey species● Abundance of tigers● Human impacts on tiger habitat● People-wildlife conflictsLow intensity, extensive effortThe most wide-ranging effort will have to span theentire tiger range. It will not be feasible to rigorouslyarrive at quantitative estimates at this scale. Instead,the most extensive effort will have to aim at aqualitative understanding of the points listed above.We simply do not have the adequate scientifichuman resources to undertake even qualitativeinvestigations on this scale. At the same time, it ishighly worthwhile to draw upon the practicalecological knowledge of local communities as well asgovernment employees working in the field. Thiswide-ranging effort must, therefore, engage theextensive network of forest guards and watchers, aswell as knowledgeable local residents. It would ofcourse be necessary for the scientists to participate inthe process, building the capacity of forest staff andlocal people, and at the same time, learning fromtheir field experiences.This grassroots-level involvement could comefrom two streams. Firstly, the wildlife managersorganising the surveys could engage forest guardsand watchers, as well as knowledgeable localresidents and amateur naturalists. Secondly, itwould be appropriate to take advantage ofpanchayat-level documentation of biodiversity in theform of ‘people’s biodiversity registers’ that is nowbeing initiated as a follow-up of the BiologicalDiversity Act. These registers will be periodicallyupdated as well. All the panchayats falling withinand on the periphery of the tiger range, whether inprotected areas, reserve forests, or non-forest areascould be asked to so focus their documentation as toprovide a continual monitoring of tiger populationsas well as of the health of the tiger habitat.Landscape level understandingSpatial information derived from satellite imagery72 The way ahead