Astray?

Tigers attack people. People impatient, they are second priority. What is the way out?

July 24, 2007. Hungry and exhausted after fishing all day on the Bidyadhari river, Amirul Naiya, his two brothers and three other fishermen pulled up their country boat into a creek in the dense Sunderbans mangroves, to prepare their dinner. Suddenly, with a blood-curdling roar, a massive beast half-leapt on board and sunk its canines into Naiya's side. Beside him, Manirul, his petrified younger brother, crumpled to a dead faint. The tiger, unbalanced by the rocking boat, lost its hold and slid into the water, but pounced again, this time grabbing Naiya's arm.

By then, the other men had collected their wits. One beat on an empty diesel drum, another lit a torch and waved it at the tiger, which finally released its victim and slunk away. Naiya lay on the deck, bleeding from multiple wounds.His companions bandaged him with strips torn from their cotton lungis, and set out on a 12-hour journey to the nearest hospital. "I'm never going fishing again," said Naiya, at the government hospital in Basanti, now out of danger. But Naiya's relatives say the landless fisherman, who lives on a mudflat and has a family to support, has no other alternative.

Just three days later, Pratul Naskar, got grabbed by the throat and dragged into the Benipheli forest in the Sunderbans' Kultali area, while hunting for crabs in a creek. His body hasn't been found.

Unprecedented?
The attack on Naskar was the fifth tiger strike in the Sunderbans in less than a month. Since April 2007, tigers have killed at least nine fisherfolk; 16 times, they have strayed into villages near forests, say the state forest department records.

Widely reported by the local media, these incidents have raised fears of unprecedented tiger attacks in Sunderbans leaving state leaders scrambling for explanation. West Bengal forest minister Ananta Ray says the strays were mostly aging tigers, unable to hunt; he recommends goats and cows be released in the forest for feed. Sunderbans affairs minister Kanti Ganguly says the state government is planning pig and buffalo farming along river banks "to provide food to the tigers and check the rising number of attacks". "These things happen every year," says Simul Sardar, a farmer of Jharkhali village in South 24-Parganas, where the last episode of tiger-straying occurred in February (See table Tiger kills).

Adds Sardar "Last year, five Jharkali villagers were killed while out fishing." Earlier, people in cities didn't even know. "Now, with mobile phones, news travels faster and media picks it up." "An average 16 tiger killings are reported every year, but the actual number is much more," informs Sunderban Biosphere Reserve director Pradip Shukla. A dip, 2005-07, was probably because, after the tsunami, lots of fisherfolk went to the Andamans to work on reconstruction projects, lessening human interference in the mangroves. "Now they are coming back, hence numbers have gone up again." Villagers and local wildlife experts say the actual tally is closer to 50. Many killings go unrecorded; often, villagers don't report attacks in restricted forest areas for fear of being fined or having their fishing permits cancelled.

Almost all killings take place in forest areas. In the past decade, only one person has been killed by a straying tiger. "Our data shows there's no prey shortage in the Sunderbans. If it were so, all tigers would be hunting in the forest fringes," says Shukla. But numbers aside, it is clear the human-animal conflict here remains unresolved.

500-pound swimmer
Ironically, apart from inaccessibility (most islands can only be reached by boat), the big cat is why mangroves here still survive. Dwindling tiger numbers triggered conservation efforts here in the 1960s. By then, conversion of mangrove forests into paddy land and hunting and poaching had contributed to degradation, resulting in the disappearance of the leopard, wild water buffalo, Javan and one-horned rhinos, swamp and hog deer and several plant species.

But the canny Royal Bengal tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, survived. That this massive 500-pound terrestrial beast learnt to swim, walk alone with great stealth to hunt for fish, crabs, reptiles and humans, its varied diet giving it a distinct advantage over other tiger populations, continues to amaze ecologists.

Why eat humans?
Humans as prey are an aberration, but about 5 per cent of Sunderbans tigers are man-eaters. Their taste for human flesh isn't necessarily because they are old and humans are easy pickings. Perhaps these tigers have never learned to fear humans, given their virtually inaccessible habitat.

Pranabes Sanyal, former field director of Sunderbans Tiger Reserve and a renowned authority on the Royal Bengal Tiger, has another explanation. April and May, when the mangrove plants are in full bloom, is the honey-collecting season in the Sunderbans. But this is also littering season for tigresses; protective mothers often pounce on men near their hideouts. "In most cases they kill the man, but don't eat the body," says Sanyal. "But after repeated killings, when the tiger realizes humans don't have as much resistance as other prey like deer or wild boar, they include humans in their prey base. If a tigress turns man-eater, she will teach her cubs to be the same. That's how you find healthy tigers and tigresses turning man-eaters here."

Currently, much of the tiger strikes occur in the northern and north-western mangrove jungle. This, Sanyal believes, is because most of this area falls within the 1,255 sq km buffer zone of the tiger reserve, where permit holders are allowed to fish and collect forest produce. Every year, about 40,000 people--a population the forest department thinks can extract forest produce in a sustainable manner--enter the forest with permits.

But many more venture in without permits, driven largely by lack of alternative sources of income. "We go knowing our life is in danger, and we can get caught by forest guards, but the stomach doesn't listen to fear," says Kiran Chandra Mondol, a fisherman from Jharkhali village. "In any case you can create a reserve forest for the tiger, but you can't hold the tiger within it. It will go where it wishes."

Good point. In spite of a dense 1,330.12 sq km core mangrove area left inviolate and a sound prey base, Sunderbans tigers also routinely stray into transition zone areas like Kalitala, Kultali and Jharkhali. It will happily swim a few km against the tide to get across to a village. Indeed, in places like Shamshernagar village, on the north-eastern edge of the Sunderbans, where the distance between human habitat and jungle is, as range officer Debraj Sur says, "one long jump", it doesn't have to try too hard.

The terrain here has changed. Now, during low tide, the little creek separating forest and village runs dry and, despite netting on both sides, tigers often just walk across. In 2004, a debile tiger was caught here thrice within a month. The first time it killed a nine-year-old girl, the next time it slaughtered cattle in a neighbouring village. Twice, it was returned to the forest, but the third time it was packed off to Calcutta Zoo.

Why stray at all?
First, the Sunderbans tiger can't mark out its territory with its urine, as all cats do, because markings get washed away by the tides. So it roams around pretty much unrestricted. And when it spots a village across a waterway, especially those where the embankments have a mangrove buffer, it mistakes it for forest and crosses over. Once past the trees, it finds cattle and livestock, a perfect reason to repeat visits. An increase in human population has led to a corresponding increase in cattle and livestock today, the allure is greater. Second, a tiger strays due to age, injury or pregnancy which impairs its ability to hunt. Sanyal says this is "rare", but forest officials and villagers believe it to be a primary reason.

MAUREEN NANDINI MITRA

Easy to break Nylon net fences to prevent straying of tigers

New reason
Sanyal cites a third cause--global warming. Rapidly rising sea levels, a combined effect of climate change and subsidence, have increased the salinity of surface water near the coastal mangrove forests on the southern side of the Sunderbans. Kolkata-based oceanographer Sugata Hazra, who's studying change in salinity levels in the region, corroborates this fact through circumstantial evidence like a fall in the population of the freshwater-loving Sundari tree and dwindling freshwater sources. "Though Sunderbans tigers drink saline water, it's now become a little too salty for them," says Sanyal. "Hence the tigers are moving northwards, resulting in a higher density of tiger population in the northern Sunderbans, which, again, are closer to human habitations."

The northerly migration is also accentuated by loss of forest cover in core areas in the southern islands due to rising water and erosion. "Satellite images and topographic sheets show a 20 per cent decrease in mangrove cover in the last 40 years," explains Sanyal. "The southern islands were full of tigers; now we are not finding as many." Records of tiger sightings from forest department watchtowers are another proof. "During the 1980s there used to be maximum sightings at the southernmost tower--Haldibari. During the 1990s, most sightings were in central Sunderbans--at the Netidhopani watchtower. Now maximum sightings are near the northernmost watchtowers--Sajnekhali and Sudhanyakhali". Forest officials don't buy this explanation. "If straying takes place, it's indication the tiger population is on the rise," says Shukla.

What's the solution?
Can't the forest department patrol waterways? "Nearly 50 per cent forest guard positions are vacant here since there's a restriction on recruitment because of financial constraints," says Shukla. "At the ranger and deputy ranger level, one-third to one-fourth positions aren't filled. The sanctioned staff strength, too, has hardly changed since British times. The last increase was about 30 years ago. You have the firearms, but not the people to handle it."

To prevent straying, foresters have put up 64 km of nylon net fencing along forest-village interfaces. This has helped, says Anjan Guha, Sunderbans Tiger Reserve deputy field director, but it isn't foolproof. Nets serve mainly as a psychological deterrent for tigers, but they can easily bring them down. Also, receding tides bring dead leaves and branches that get stuck in nets and pull them down. "They need to be checked and fixed regularly but that's hard to do because we lack manpower," says range officer Sur.

From calming enraged villagers to trapping and tranquilizing--dealing with strays is an ordeal. "The key is to reach the trouble spot as fast as possible," says beat officer Dutta. "The first half hour is the most crucial." Things do get nasty, as in February when a pregnant tigress strayed into Deulbari village near Kultali in South-24 Parganas. The tigress, who climbed a palm tree to hide, suffered burns when villagers lit a fire underneath. Once forest officials trapped it, angry villagers threw stones and beat it with sticks. Four villagers helping forest officials received minor injuries. "The media criticized the forest department for its 'ham-handed' capture of the tigress, but people fail to realize there's not much a few officials can do when faced with a mob," says Dutta.

Co-operation
Over the past few years, the forest administration has realized it can't protect the tiger without cooperation from villagers. To curb exploitation of mangroves, it has to provide villagers alternative livelihood options. So, since 2003, the forest department began setting up village eco-development committees (edcs) and forest protection committees (fpcs) in all villages adjacent to reserve forests. Twenty-five per cent of tourism revenue is distributed to these committees. "Basically, we are doing rural development work," says Shukla.

fpcs, guided by forest officials, help create awareness about saving the mangroves and assist forest guards in patrolling. The edcs undertake basic development work, like making brick roads and irrigation canals, digging freshwater ponds, or vocational training and input in cottage industries. Villagers are encouraged to form self-help groups and start small businesses like rearing poultry, pigs and goats. To date, 52 fpcs and 14 edcs have been registered in the Sunderbans. "Our strategy is, villagers get to see our faces on a regular basis and we develop good relations with them," says Dutta.

These efforts seem to be paying off. 1994-2002, there were 25 recorded cases of tiger straying, and 10 were killed. But 2002-06, though there were 20 cases of straying, only one tiger was killed, in self-defence. "Now if villagers see any strays, any strays, they either contact us or trap the animal themselves and bring it to us for rehabilitation," says Dutta. "Initially, edc members were mistrusted," says Pratidan Doloi, Dulki edc convenor. "But when the tsunami happened our ponds overflowed and the low tide looked like high tide. That's when we first realized the importance of our mangroves. Now everyone knows about global warming. We know we are first in the line of danger. We know if the tiger and mangroves stay, we stay."

Nevertheless, animosity against the forest department runs deep. "edcs and fpcs are highly politicized. The work they do is nominal compared to the number of people depending on forests; it barely meets the financial requirements of people here," says Simul Sardar. Fisherfolk are especially unhappy. "We who go to fish in the jungles, into the mouth of tigers, obviously go because we need to make a livelihood, but the forest officials block us all the way," says Kiran Mondol, a member of the Jharkhali-Laskarpur fisherfolk committee. "Now everything is restricted area, from Sajnekhali to Haldibari. Even permits are limited. Only 960 boats, that is about 15,000 men, have permits to enter the reserve forest. Where will the rest of the 35,000 fishermen of Sundberbans catch fish? And what alternative source of income do they have?" Fines are another problem. "If fishermen purposely cut some firewood or some trees to make stakes for their nets, that's it. Their nets and ropes are taken away and they are fined Rs 3,000-12,000," says Mondol. "Even if a fisherman sells everything he owns, he still won't be able to raise the money to pay the fine. Many have been destroyed this way."

The forest department's efforts are a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. People of Sunderbans need more schools and hospitals. They need more jetties, road and bridges to improve access to the mainland. Ironically, these are exactly what the Sunderbans tiger doesn't need. For these will destroy its unique advantage inaccessibility.

Successful programme to conserve lions is beginning to implode on itself

The Asiatic lion is quite vulnerable. "The Gir population is insecure for two reasons," says A J T Johnsingh, a wildlife expert with the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore. Firstly, "the population has risen from a very low number leading to inbreeding and a genetically homozygous population. Reduced genetic diversity affects reproductive health of the species and increases mortality of the young".

Secondly, "an epidemic could wipe out the population", not only because inbreeding weakens the immune system, but, crucially, lions exist as a single population in India. This is precisely why the World Conservation Union- iucn continues to designate the Gir lion as 'critically endangered', and desires separate lion populations. Forest officials assert they are prepared for any outbreak.Further, justifies Bharat Pathak, Conservator of Forests-wildlife, Gir national park, any outbreak is unlikely to spread to all parts of the forest, so it will not affect the entire lion population at the same time. But he, too, does not rule out the threat.

Restless
Gir's lion population is, beyond the protected area's (pa's) carrying capacity. As far back as 1990, a census counted some 221 adults living within the pa, and a further 30-40 lions outside. Since 2002, wildlife scientist Y V Jhala has radio-collared 16-18 lions, to track their movement. "Radio collaring has shown," he says, "lions have set up 'meta-populations' outside Gir for want of space, or food." Adds Pathak "These are young males moving out in search of new territories." Kaushik Banerjee, a Wildlife Institute of India ( wii) researcher, terms it a 'dispersal' to earlier habitats. Fact is the ground reality of lion conservation has changed beyond recognition, placing it in far greater danger than ever before.

The land-use pattern around the park is completely different today. Farmers grow mango, groundnut and sugarcane. This has resulted in high private land values; grazing lands have been encroached and privatized, while excessive use of groundwater has depleted the water table to dark zone, placing, in all, more pressure on Gir forest--for supply of fuelwood, fodder, and ntfp collections to people and livestock--from 98 villages around Gir. A study of Talala taluka on the periphery reveals that even as sugarcane and mango cultivation here increased by over 85 per cent and over 100 per cent in the 1990s, straying of lions and leopards doubled. The study reported another effect twice as much livestock were killed here by lions and leopards than before.

Commercial agriculture has hit the lion hard, too. On an average, 25-30 lion deaths have been reported, every year, for the past three to four years. In 2002 and 2004, there were cases of lions being poisoned by farmers. In 2007, out of 32 lion deaths, over 20 died by falling in open irrigation wells. The same year, three lionesses and two cubs were electrocuted by the fence Durlabh Bardoliya, a farmer in Prempada village in Gir East, had built to protect crops. "The farmer is in jail for a crime he never intended; such incidents lead to dissent towards lions," says Kishore Kotecha. Electric fencing has become a common, and dangerous, practice in the pa's fringe.

In the 1980s the proportion of livestock killed was greater within the pa compared to outside. Now it's the opposite.Manish Bhai, a resident of Gadia village in Gir East, does not take compensation if wild animals kill his cattle; however, he says compensation takes about six months. Mumbai-based Vanishing Herds Foundation (vhf) has proposed an mou with state forest department as soon as the forest department surveys the kill, vhf will be given a copy of the order and the foundation will then settle claims within two-three days from their own fund, and be reimbursed by the government.

Temples and railway track within the protected area pose problems for lions and other wild animals

The larger number of kills outside also pose a question could lions be moving out still looking for cattle, a traditional prey, so transforming the re-settlement of Maldharis--100 nesses (small settlements) were relocated outside the pa; with them went livestock--into an ironic exercise? No, contends the Gir administration, the prey base is intact. Fifty four nesses are still inside; livestock there has grown to about 20,000. Also, the pa's herbivore population has increased from about 38,221 in 1995 to 49,965 in 2005.

But lions do follow the ungulates outside. So do leopards, bringing in yet another dimension to animal-human conflicts here in July 2008, for instance, a leopard picked up a five-year-old girl child from old Zakhiya village in Gir East at night. Poaching, too, was never a big issue in Gir. But today, people say incidents of claws missing from lion carcasses are common. In 2007, more than a dozen lions were killed by poachers. "Unlike the tiger, the lion's body parts did not have international market, a main driver for poaching. With so much focus on protecting tigers, poachers are turning to lions, passing off lion claws and bones as tiger parts," says Kishore Kotecha, of Rajkot-based Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Separate populations
These changes foreground the need for lion conservation to grow towards creating separate lion populations. Y V Jhala also believes if the Maldharis are given a responsible role in protection, the lions stand a better chance. But is it possible to reverse their alienation (see box Many want out)?

As a response to lion movement beyond the pa, the Gujarat forest department is working on the idea of 'Greater Gir'. The programme includes adding up more areas from outside Gir that can house lions. Since lions have already made Mitiala their home, it was accorded sanctuary status in 2004. In May 2008, the Gujarat government accepted the state forest department's proposal to accord sanctuary status to Girnar hills, a patch of forest connected to Gir through grasslands and agricultural fields. According to the forest department, notification will be issued shortly. "Girnar and Mitiala were historical lion ranges; as numbers increase, they are moving there," says R D Jhala, a retired police official from Gujarat living at the periphery of Gir pa. But this would only create a 'meta-population', a self-defeating strategy A meta-population consists of three to four populations that occupy a large habitat block each; each block is connected, allowing animals to interact. This does not address the issue of genetic bottleneck or threat from epidemics. "Lion populations need to be separated "physically" to ensure survival," explains the wildlife scientist. This could be "a natural barrier like a mountain range or conditions that do not allow populations to mingle". Moreover, as he asks in the context of Girnar's inclusion into Gir, "for how many areas can this be done?" In these new areas, mining is rampant.

The problem is, to create a separate population, lions need relocation, an idea that makes Gujarat see red. "The kind of opposition mounted to the idea of relocating a small population outside Gujarat makes it look like the people of Gujarat think all the lions will be moved to Kuno," says Y V Jhala. "Fact is you need about 10 lions."

A 1993 Population and Habitat Viability Assessment workshop held at Vadodra in Gujarat first identified this pa in Madhya Pradesh as the most viable home for a second lion population. In 1993-94, a wii survey recommended the site. Kuno was diverse a riparian habitat acting as a corridor, connecting a mosaic of plateau, valley and grasslands interspersed with woodland, the latter capable of providing coverage and support to both prey and predator. Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1981 with an area of over 340 sq km. The wii survey had recommended a 700 sq km national park, after resettling humans; so, the area was increased by adding 900 sq km as buffer. "The current population within the Gir pa can easily sustain removal of some adult lions. It will also help maintain the current population within the pa," says lion expert Ravi Chellam, director of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment who headed the1993-94 survey team.

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests accepted the proposal. In 1997, the Centre directed 200 lions be moved there. "Forget the lion, we will not even allow a cub to be shifted out of Gir," thundered (then) Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela thundered at a public meeting . In 1999, as the process continued, the (then) principal chief conservator of forests, Gujarat, (then) chief minister Keshubhai Patel and the bjp mla from Junagadh expressed opposition to the movement of lions outside the state.

On April 30, 2007, the Centre informed Parliament it was necessary to relocate Asiatic lions from Gir to save them from extinction. The immediate context was that more than a dozen lions were poached; behind lay a series of well-publicized mishaps. Said chief minister Narendra Modi "The lions are a symbol of Gujarat's uniqueness. Why should we share it when we are capable enough?"

Now, the Central Zoo Authority and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (ntca) have prepared a compromise blueprint that will not require Gujarat to release any of its lions. Pure-bred first generation Asiatic lions will be selected from different zoos. These will breed in a big natural enclosure at Kuno. Herbivores will be released so that second generation lions can develop hunting skills. "The third generation lions should be fit to be released in the wild outside the enclosure," says Rajesh Gopal, Member Secretary, ntca.

The root of the problem remains unsolved. Will the Asiatic lion ever go off the iucn critically endangered species list?