Pyrrhic victory

Pyrrhic victory

Cover story special package

Croc can't go on | Tears for the crocodile | Pyrrhic victory | Where to live? | Lost manhood | Where to croc?

In 1982 a report by Antoon de Vos, a wildlife biologist, for the fao/undp pronounced Project Crocodile as one of the most successful conservation projects in the world. And in 1991, the Union ministry of environment and forests felt that the project had served its purpose, and stopped funds for its captive breeding programme. Funds were also withdrawn for the egg collection programme. The thousands of crocodiles seen in various rearing stations and captive breeding centres were testimony enough for success.

Others, however, were not that optimistic. The real litmus test for the project lay in increased sighting of the reptile in its natural habitats, they argued. And that was fraught terrain.

Bad census
De Vos had suggested stepping up the monitoring of released gharial to determine the continued effectiveness of Project Crocodile.In 1997-1998, monitoring exercises by the forest departments of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh located over 1,200 gharials and over 75 nests in ncs. But no survey was carried out between 1999 and 2003. And the 2003 survey showed catastophic results. Gharial numbers (including adults, subadults and juveniles) had plummetted to 514 -- a near 60 per cent decline from the status in 1998.

Experts immediately cast a doubt on the monitoring exercises. "Carrying out census surveys of endangered species like the gharial should be a routine function of wildlife departments. But scant attention is paid to species other than mammalian mega-fauna like the tiger, elephant and rhino," says Whitaker. H R Bustard, eminent reptile biologist and fao consultant to Project Crocodile, agrees. "It was lack of quantitative information on its status, and hence absence of any remedial action, that had brought the gharial to the verge of extinction in 1974," he says.

Crocs antagonise people
"In 2002, there were 302 adult gharials in India and Nepal. Their numbers have fallen to 145 in 2006," says Whitaker. What happened to the thousands of gharials that were bred and released in the wild? Whitaker says that conservation strategies conflicted with livelihood needs of local people. Designating large tracts of rivers as inviolate meant keeping local communities away from what used to be fishing grounds. Besides, gharial skin was an item of trade and the crocodile's eggs was food to many before wpa came into force. A lot of people felt shortcharged by the act.

Bustard had anticipated such trouble. To address this problem, Project Crocodile had suggested selective culling of crocodiles that would produce substantial revenue for local people. The project actually had provisions for people's participation. It had called for protecting the immediate and long-term interests of fisherfolk who live along pas by providing them an alternative source of income. Most importantly, it mandated commercial crocodile farming, so that people could earn from conserving crocodiles and their habitats.

The 1983 notification under wpa, however, closed all doors to this approach. Since the gharial was placed under schedule 1 of the act, all trade in crocodile skin was prohibited.

Crushed by tractors
In ncs, India's largest gharial protection reserve, officials are learning belatedly the pitfalls of conservation sans local participation. The sanctuary has been dogged by sand mining in recent times.

This activity provides livelihoods to many, especially after droughts in the last four years have made agriculture unviable in the region around ncs. Sand mining has official sanction in village Piprai in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district (see box A loophole). The district administration gives contracts for sand mining amounting to around Rs 8 crore every year. But operations have spread to 50 other villages, illegally. Forest officers in Morena, say on condition of anonymity that the annual turnover from illicit sand mining is more than Rs 20 crore and involves powerful mafias.

A loophole When the National Chambal Sanctuary was re-notified in 1983 (originally notified in 1979) to include a kilometre on either side of the river, one village, Piprai, falling in this range was left out. Divisional forest officer, Morena, M K Sharma says, “This was due to a mistake in mapping.” The revenue department of the district seized its opportunity and leased out land of about 108 hectare for sand mining. Since 2001, a case filed by Madhya Pradesh’s forest department to include Piprai village in the protected area has been pending before the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s Gwalior bench.

The operations begin in November/December and continue till the monsoons starts, usually in June/July next year. Gharials lay eggs in March/April and many of them are crushed underneath the miners' tractors. And it is monsoon time when the eggs hatch many a hapless juvenile is swept away by floodwaters.

Villagers operate about 500 tractors in the 50 villages that are the centre of sand mining. Those who don't have a cut in this line have their own avenues of making money. "We charge Rs 10 from each tractor that passes through our agricultural fields," says Sultan Singh, a resident of Barbasin village in Morena district. It's another matter that fields of people like him have no crops. The sandminers' tractors help them keep a pretence of ploughing and at the same time brings precious cash during times of drought.

Experts and even wildlife officials reason that matters could have been different had Chambal been declared a pa after giving due consideration to local people's needs. They say that the authorities could have done well to have adhered to the Guidelines for Wetland Management notified by Union government in 1992. The document offers a good roadmap for wetland conservation, with support of local people. Many also accept that given drought conditions, people have no option but to turn to sand mining.

Officials in ncs are today examining whether sand mining can be done sustainably. The pa administration also has a 10-year management plan (2003-2013) for the sanctuary. However, they say that insufficient staff makes it difficult for them to counter armed anti-social elements. Coordination between officials in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh is also a problem.

The management plan aims to increase the number of gharials in the sanctuary to 1,000. There is also a proposal to relocate villagers within 1 km of the sanctuary. This has incensed villagers. Janak Singh of Khandoli village in Morena district, for example, says, "We will have to give away almost all our land if this proposal is ratified. Why should we sacrifice our land for gharials." The forest department, however, disclaims that any move to relocate people is doing the rounds.

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