THE TIGER TRAGEDY

by Professor Jimmy Brindley.

Largely due to its unique deer the chital – in herds of hundreds and the chief prey species – India has always been the great predator’s main strongholds. In the last century there were notionally, 70,000 – 80,000 tigers spread over the animal’s vast Oriental range. Now, with numbers in the low thousands and poor prospects for survival even the short term, it must still be the key area in tiger conservation. Enormous profits made by commercial poachers are the cause of the present catastrophic decline. Realistically, it could be saved for there is now the scientific capability to do so – in the laboratory, anyway – and it will be most likely available in the field in a short time. But millions of pounds Sterling have already been devoted to tiger conservation, yet on cannot point to a single Reserve, which is really safe from poachers. There is a compelling case for a brand new approach.

The crucial facts, accepted generally except perhaps in India, is that big game animals will no longer survive in the wild unless the human population with which they share it wish them to. The tribal cultivators and stock raisers in the Reserve areas, though sympathetic to their natural associates, bear insufferable losses through perdition and this leaves them open to the blandishments of professional dealers in the animal parts. A single tiger may bring upwards of £20,000 at the top of the market, and for jungle people below the poverty level to pass up their small part of this – less than 1% of it but still equal to many year’s income – is quite unrealistic. Unless it will bring them an obviously better livelihood than what they now enjoy they cannot be expected to look favourably on the presence of a Wildlife Reserve.

East African countries have amply demonstrated that in game areas Wildlife Tourism, properly developed, will produce a better income for the human population than any other industry: one moreover which is totally sustainable and brings enormous kudos to all concerned. Unfortunately the problem has been that less than 1% of the handsome profits is found to reach those at ground level who deserve it most.

Indian people have a traditional tolerance for wild animals the Central Government policy respects this but at State level matters are very different. Exploitation of the jungle and its peoples is widespread, often with the connivance of local politicians and officials. The jungle inhabitants do not see themselves a single rupee better off from tourism. In fact, they actively resent the intrusion of troublesome outsiders.

It is odd that a small country such as Ireland may offer an analogy to their problems, yet just a century ago its dominant country population the farmers, newly feed by law from the tyranny of landlords, were without the capital essential to development of their properties. A private enterprise – Horace Plunkett’s Co-operative Movement – was set up by local investment to provide this, with the farmers as shareholders and centralised marketing facilities. Within a decade it has become a national enterprise and had co-operatives all over the country. Today one of these has international ramifications and is the largest institutes of its type in the world.

In the Mahatma’s thinking for the future of Indian country people the traditional panchyat or village council was a basic element. More than any others these folk have the ability to achieve wonders when the spirit moves them. One recalls the Chipka movement where the country woman of Himachal Pradesh set the pattern for such protests when they prevented deforestation of their woodlands by embracing the trees in the face of the loggers. In this approach to tiger conservation there is the opportunity for a Trust – locally operated – to collect funds from all sources, especially tourism, which would be applied to assist the agriculture of the inhabitants of the surroundings of the Reserve. It would, acting on the best professional advice for its programme, make cash advances to improve water supply, soil fertility, quality of crops and stock, and many other aspects: it would maximise profits by collective purchasing and marketing, its aim being the best attainable life-style for the local people, supported financially by the various conservation interests. It would have their whole-hearted co-operation in eliminating poaching.

In the past eastern Madhya Pradesh was probably the best and most typical tiger jungle and it still has sufficient natural forest to support a campaign aimed at securing a series of inter-linked Reserves for a viable tiger population. It has the established Bandhavgarh Tiger Trust based on the world-famous tiger sanctuary of that name. Can adequate support be obtained without delay to invigorate its work along these lines, so that a successful prototype for tiger conservation may be established before it is too late?