Dr. Debabrata Swain
Tigers were once roaming in almost all the forested areas of Orissa but have now
vanished from many places. If the present census results are to be trusted, their number is decreasing in the stateCommunity participation in protection and management of Similipal is a sine qua non for survival of the wild denizens and their habitat
Tiger population in the country showed a steep decline in the past century. While it is believed that they numbered between 20,000 and 40,000 at the turn of the 20th Century, the figure came down to 1,827 as per the first tiger census conducted in 1972. This prompted the Centre to launch the Project Tiger conservation programme. Even then, the decline in their number continued – so much so, in the 2006 Census, the number was seen to have gone down to 1411. The declining trend seems to have been reversed by now. As per the latest tiger census report, their number rose to 2,226. This is little comfort, and calls for more meaningful action on the Project Tiger front.
The latest report of National Tiger Conservation Authority has said India’s tiger population of 2,226 is spread across 18 states. Karnataka topped the list with 406 tigers followed by Uttarakhand’s 340, MP’s 308, Tamil Nadu’s 229, Maharashtra’s 190, Assam’s 167, Kerala’s 136, UP’s 117, Bengal’s 79, Andhra’s 68, Chhattisgarh’s 46, Rajasthan’s 45, Arunachal’s 28, Bihar’s 28, Orissa’s 28, Goa’s 5, Jharkhand’s 3 and Mizoram’s 3. Tiger population in Orissa is declining. They numbered 32 and 45 during 2010 and 2006 respectively.
The protocols for censusing of tigers involve interl alia use of satellite imagery to delineate tiger inhabiting areas, sign survey for tiger and co-predators, distance sampling for prey animals, and camera traps to capture unique stripe patterns of tiger. Two cameras are set facing each other to generate photographs of right and left flanks of a tiger and tiger numbers are determined using mark capture-recapture computer software. In the past, tigers were counted from identifying the tracks of tigers, which was popularly known as ‘pug-mark census’.
Two methods of counting tigers using the technique of ‘Pug-mark census’ and that of mark-capture/recapture framework by camera traps gave different results in case of dense forests and rolling hills of Similipal, as there were 101 tigers including cubs based on Pugmark census of 2004 and 20 (17-34) adult tigers based on camera trap exercise of 2006. The first step in the conservation of an extremely sensitive keystone species like tiger is to have a benchmark data that can serve as the basis for future management and to objectively evaluate the success or failure of management interventions, so as to react adaptively and solve problems. It is therefore necessary to count their numbers precisely adopting simultaneously the modern techniques of camera trap protocols and DNA analysis of tiger scat to identify individual tiger. There may be concurrent exercises of camera trap and pug mark census to arrive at a correlation between the two methods.
Besides establishing a baseline data, it is suggested that good practices followed in other tiger states may be introduced to enhance the tiger numbers in this state. Orissa has a forest area of 58,136 sq km and the area under sanctuary, while the national park (protected area) is 6552 sq km, which comes to only 11 per cent of the recorded forest area. The proportion of protected area to recorded forest area in the case of Orissa is far below the national average of 21 per cent.
Similipal is one of the nine tiger reserves initially constituted for tiger conservation in the country. Now there are 47 tiger reserves across the country. The area under tiger reserves has over the years increased fourfold from 16,007 sq km to 68,676 sq km. Orissa in between added one reserve, namely Sakosia tiger reserve, bringing the total area under tiger reserve from 2750 sq km to 3714 sq km. In fact, Orissa has the lowest proportion of tiger reserve area (6 per cent) to forest area in comparison to other tiger states of the country. It is necessary that tiger inhabiting sanctuaries like Kotgarh, Badrama, and such other potential areas are upgraded to the status of tiger reserves for better protection and management. The two sanctuaries adjoining Similipal, namely Hadgarh (192 sq km) and Kuldiha (273 sq km), should be included in the Similipal tiger reserve. Sunabeda should also be notified as a tiger reserve, but a pre-requisite to it is control over Maoist insurgency.
A tiger reserve is managed on the concept of ‘core’, the central portion, sanctum sanctorum of the reserve, and ‘buffer’, the area surrounding the core. Conservation practices proposed in the core are based on exclusive agenda to ensure protection and augmentation of inviolate space for tiger breeding. Conservation practices in the buffer are based on inclusive agenda to ensure eco-development and people’s participation for livelihood opportunities, besides management of existing forests in tune with species specific conservation approach. Generally, the entire protected area is designated as the core, and forests outside is designated as the buffer. But, in case of Similipal, both core and buffer are included in the sanctuary, and a vast area over 1200 sq km (buffer within sanctuary) under the administration of Baripada, Karanjia and Rairangpur divisions has been neglected since long.
Before 1990, when timber harvest was in vogue in Similipal, there was justification of this buffer to remain under territorial divisions. The nemesis of tiger in Similipal is wanton killing of prey animals, particularly in the form of Akhand Shikar – mass hunting by local community, forest fire and illegal tree felling. The divisional forest officers have be lax in protection of Similipal buffer as they have other issues to tackle outside Similipal like afforestation, forest diversion proposals, and human-elephant conflicts due to interstate migration of elephants.
The recent poaching of a tiger in the buffer is a living testimony. The state government had formed a committee under the chairmanship of Saroj Kumar Patnaik, retired chief wildlife warden of the state, to suggest administrative restructuring of Similipal tiger reserve and the committee submitted its report two years back. The report may be implemented without loss of time. Besides, community participation in protection and management of Similipal is a sine qua non for survival of the wild denizens and their habitat.
The wild fire during March this year shows local people have been alienated from the protection and management of Similipal. The Sabuja Vahinees (Green Brigades) consisting of youth members from joint forest management committees (VSS/EDC) engaged during 2002 – 2007 need to be rejuvenated. The youths were provided identity cards and empowered to nab the culprits setting fire and engaged in poaching. In one incident, a group of 272 Shikaries were arrested in December 2005 with the help of Green Brigade volunteers. Thereafter, there was no Akhand Shikar in 2006 and 2007. They also helped in fire protection and prevented felling of trees. As a result, the dense forest of Similipal increased from 1593 sq km in 2003 to 1941 sq km in 2006 as is evident from satellite imageries.
There are 18 sanctuaries, two national parks, two tiger reserves, three elephant reserves and one biosphere reserve in Orissa. Further, with escalating human-wild animal conflicts and conservation issues like organised poaching and smuggling of animals and animal parts, the wildlife administration in the state requires restructuring and strengthening. There are as many as six additional PCCFs in the office of the PCCF (Head of Forest Force), some of them could be relocated to wildlife wing to take charge of issues like tiger and elephant conservation with specific mandate.
The bamboo (Salia and Kanta baunsa) forest cover is diminishing in Orissa. There were about 17,000 sq km of bamboo bearing forests in the state about a decade back. The bamboo forests are depleting fast and there are about 10,000 sq km of such forests remaining in a degraded state as reported by Forest Survey of India. There was a scheme for bamboo harvest in Kuldiha Sanctuary in early 1960s. But, at present, bamboo is conspicuously absent in Kuldiha.
Besides over exploitation, forest fire during bamboo flowering has affected the regeneration. Few clumps of Salia bamboo at Barehipani and along the fringes of Similipal reserve show that bamboo flowering was once occurring in Similipal but, over the years, because of forest fire, they have been wiped out. Bamboo is the principal food plant for prey species like gaur, sambar and cheetal. Bamboo is also staple food plant for elephants. Due to shrinking of the bamboo forest, elephants are now coming out of the forest in search of food and there is increasing crop depredation by the pachyderms. Bamboo clumps help in hiding of tiger cubs when their mothers go for hunting.
Tigers are prolific breeders, but cub mortality is high. Cubs are killed by male tigers, and other co-predators like leopards, wild dogs, hyenas and even jackals. As a tigress has to travel long distance for hunting, bamboo clumps and even lantana bushes serve as hiding places for cubs. Therefore, bamboo forest being a right kind of habitat for tigers and elephants, the state government may increase the area under bamboo forest, and under-planting of bamboo in open and scrub forests will increase the dense forest cover of Orissa. Bamboo planting is to be resorted to in the sanctuaries like Similipal, Kuldiha and Hadgarh where bamboo was available earlier.
Similipal boasts of having melanistic tiger in the wild which is not seen anywhere else in the world. Studies in jaguars, jaguarondi, black bears, pocket mice, banana quit, deer mice, Arctic skua, and lesser snow geese show that melanism in these animals is a manifestation of dominant or semi-dominant genes. For that matter, Similipal occupies a unique position for tiger conservation. Sadly, no study has been made on the genetic cause of melanism in tiger. This should be done as soon as possible and melanistic tiger will be a precious possession for the State.
Tigers were once roaming in almost all forested areas of the state and have now vanished from many places. If the present census results are to be trusted, their number is decreasing. The primary causes of disappearance of tigers are prey depletion, habitat loss and degradation due to mining and other developmental activities. There are also instances of poaching and conflict with humans.
Modern technologies like e-surveillance in Corbett, unmanned aerial vehicles in Panna, radio-collar monitoring in Tadoba, crime cell with modern communication system and call data recorder software to track organised poachers in Melghat, as also the monitoring system for tigers like the intensive protection and ecological status (M-STrIPES) in Kanha and Srisailam, are increasingly in vogue in tiger reserves and they should be introduced in Orissa. Deployment of trained and dedicated officials for wildlife management is the need of the hour. The suggestions made above, if implemented, will help tigers not only to have a better life in future, but also increase their numbers.
The writer is the Inspector General of Forests, National Tiger Conservation Authority, Nagpur. He can be reached at dswain2008@gmail.com
