The lost glory of Rajasthan’s tigers can be restored

Bundi had 75 tigers in 1941. Rewilding the Ramgarh-Vishdhari Tiger Reserve is critical for restoring the lost glory of the tigers of Rajasthan. Photo: Narendra Patil

The ancient Aravalli range separates the arid Thar desert in the west of Rajasthan and the tiger habitat in the state’s semi-arid east. This tiger landscape is comprised of three physiographic regions — the Aravalli hills, the eastern plains and the Hadoti Plateau in the southeast. Drained by northeast-flowing rivers that have their origin in the Aravallis and Vindhyas, the area features fertile agricultural lands and productive scrub-cum-deciduous forests. The tigers in this region represent one of the three genetically distinct populations of tigers in India. While the other two populations are located in the south and central regions of India, this is the northwestern population.

Once home to thriving tiger populations, the region has seen a tragic decline in their numbers due to hunting, poaching, and habitat loss over the last two centuries. Distributed extensively in the region east of the Aravalis even as late as the 1930s, by the early 1970s, tigers were confined to the forests of Sariska, Sawai Madhopur, and Bundi.

History of hunting, poaching & habitat loss 

A historical account that traces the decline of tigers across the state of Rajasthan identifies hunting as the major reason for the reduction in tiger numbers from pre-colonial and colonial times. After the country’s independence, the loss of habitat became the major factor for further decline in tiger numbers.

The reasons for hunting itself have been changing with political changes in the Indian subcontinent. The report observes:

1.In the late 19th century, tigers were seen as ‘dangerous beasts’ and hunted for bounties.

2. By the early 20th century, tigers became ‘royal game’ and hunting became the symbol of ‘courage’. Also, hunting privileges of royalty were used strategically as diplomatic ‘negotiation’ between kings of princely states.

3. In post-independent India, it was the ease of hunting and the rise of ‘shikar’ companies promoting ‘trophy hunting’ that brought down the count of tigers.

The report prepared primarily from hunting records finds support from a genetic study for the extent of hunting done two centuries ago. It notes that the period of the early establishment of British Rule in India correlates with the genetic evidence of “an unnatural decline” in tiger populations around 200 years ago.

The compulsions of “feeding a growing population” and the need for infrastructure led to a large-scale change in land use in the early decades after the country’s independence. This alteration of tiger habitat for human use resulted in its shrinkage. The loss of area, in addition to hunting, caused a drastic decline in tiger numbers.

Compared with historical numbers, the tiger population was down to about 1.7 per cent and the tiger range was reduced to 7 per cent in the Indian subcontinent. By the time the country woke up to the crisis of dwindling tiger numbers and banned their hunting in 1972, the damage was already done.

East of Aravali: potential for rewilding northwestern tiger landscape. Sources of map elements: Rajasthan Forest Department for area boundaries, and the report Lost Tigers Plundered Forests for hunting records across historical tiger range. Map: Narendra Patil

Tiger reserves as ‘stepping stones’

The Government of India, to avert the possible risk of Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) extinction, initiated Project Tiger in 1973. The primary objective was to consolidate the breeding ‘source’ populations of tigers across India. In 1973, Ranthambore became one of the first areas in the country to get protection. Sariska got similar protection in 1978. There was some success in consolidating the breeding ‘source’ populations across India in the first three decades of Project Tiger.

But the loss of all tigers from Sariska by 2004 and from Panna by 2008 due to poaching and the genetic evidence that Ranthambore’s tigers face extinction risks due to inbreeding brought to light the hostile and fragmented nature of tiger landscapes.

Given the new challenges, the ‘park-centric’ tiger conservation strategy that focuses on protecting only the isolated ‘source’ populations was found to be simply inadequate.

An alternative approach with conservation outcomes at landscape scales was articulated. This is an essential strategy for the conservation of ‘landscape species’ like the Asian elephant, the tiger, the Asiatic wild dog (dhole) and vultures.

Within this novel conservation approach, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) emphasised the need for protecting tigers as a ‘meta-population’. The meta-population of tigers is basically inter-breeding, multiple populations in different reserves that are geographically connected — with the possibility of natural tiger migrations between ‘satellite populations’.

But the tiger landscape of Rajasthan is severely fragmented and the only source population of tigers in Ranthambore is isolated. Multiple attempts by Ranthambore tigers to disperse into new areas have either failed because of tiger-hostile barriers or have been unable to establish themselves in highly disturbed forests outside Ranthambore.

This bleak story is likely to change soon because of the new resolve in the government to make landscape-scale tiger conservation a success. Moving forward in this direction, Rajasthan already has five tiger reserves, with a combined area of 5,486 square kilometres.

As evidenced by the historical presence of tigers, the protected forests — from Sariska in the north, Madhav and Kuno in the east, through Ranthambore and Ramgarh-Vishdhari till Mukundara Hills in the south — make an arc of the northwestern tigers.

And therein lies the hope of restoring the lost glory of Rajasthan’s striped felines. However, this hope is accompanied by significant challenges.

At the scale of tiger reserves, these challenges primarily involve habitat restoration, countering poaching and striking a balance between the needs of local communities for livestock grazing and the extraction of forest produce. Lanscape-scale challenges arise from vast expanses of agricultural lands that are not ‘tiger permeable’, as well as threats to existing wildlife corridors from mining and infrastructure development projects. 

Narendra Patil is a freelance writer. He writes on wildlife, ecology, nature conservation

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

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