JUNGLE DIARIES

A view and a thought...

2011-08-23T01:13:00.001+05:30

Monsoon clouds cloak Anamudi--India's highest peak south of the Himalayas--it rises above the Western Ghats, surrounded by rain forests of the Anamalai Hills. Photographed here from the Valparai Plateau in Tamil Nadu, the TN-Kerala state border passes somewhere through the forests in the valley below... Not that it makes a difference to the tigers, elephants or hornbills who are the custodians of such great wildernesses. It will do us good to protect them and keep their forests alive, for, if not for anything else, these forests make the Monsoon possible. They harvest its water so that we can have it all year round.

Next time you buy that bottle of Bisleri, which we so take for granted, spare a thought for where that water came from and see if your conscience agrees to what we do in the name of growth and development to the forests that keep our rivers alive. Forget conscience, I bet you that even your best logic will disagree with our actions.

Valparai, August 2010.

The difference between conflict and onslaught

2011-08-12T00:30:00.001+05:30

My standard morning begins with reading about an elephant getting electrocuted or a person being trampled to death in the morning papers. Hardly a day passes when there isn't news on human-elephant conflict. And this is just in local news, from just one state. As my day proceeds, of course, more biodiversity is usually added as more news pours in—typically of a leopard being pulped to death somewhere by a sadistic mob seeking an excuse for a thrill, or of a tiger getting mowed down on a highway that has cut through its forests. In this link is yet another scene from the alarming new routine across India's last remaining wildernesses, as mines drive away wild animals from their last asylums and highways come in the way of these refugees, on the run in their own home. All in the name of 'infrastructure' and 'development' to cater to a cancerously growing population of 1.2 billion people bent upon increasing their appetite for the planet (read GDP) at a minimum of 10 per cent per annum and in no seeming hurry to restrict their penchant for procreation.

Conflict is supposed to be two sided. A one-sided onslaught cannot be called conflict. I feel increasingly opposed to the use of this term in the context of humans and wildlife. I wonder why we call it human-tiger, human-elephant or human-leopard conflict, when the offensive is entirely ours. These animals, like the desperate elephants in the video in the link, just want the most basic of rights—the right of safe passage. They are as non-confrontational as non-confrontational can be. What we, as a race, are doing to the last remnants of our mega-fauna cannot, by any measure, be termed as mere conflict. It is plain and simple massacre—indiscriminate, brutal and criminal. And for all our 'humanitarian' values, we, as a race, have historically thrived on this massacre.

I am typically not the kind who gives up hope and rants in pessimism and am sometimes even ‘accused’ of choosing to see light in the most hopeless of conservation cases, or rather, gone-cases! The way things are, hope and optimism are the only weapons for those who battle for conservation. But after watching this video, for once, I can’t help yielding to that nagging feeling of helplessness despite which we must all fight on.

Dam, canal threaten Orissa's elephants

2010-09-11T20:18:00.006+05:30

River Brutanga is a tributary of the Mahanadi on its right bank in Nayagarh district in central Orissa.

A ~500 metre earthen dam has been proposed on the river. The dam will submerge over 1500 ha adjacent to the Baissipalli Wildlife Sanctuary, which is part of the Mahanadi Elephant Reserve and Satkosia Tiger Reserve. Apart from the large reservoir, a 12 km long canal will be dug to link the Brutanga reservoir with the Kuanria reservoir, 9 kms from the town of Daspalla.

Every summer, about 150 elephants migrate from the Mahanadi ER to forests that are part of the South Orissa (proposed) Elephant Reserve and return back to Mahanadi with the coming of the monsoons. Apart from providing the elephants with rich forage over a large area, this migration facilitates a vital genetic exchange between the central Orissa elephant population and the south Orissa elephant population. Elephants have been migrating since time immemorial along the Brutanga valley because it is the only available pass for them to cross over into south Orissa. The extremely hilly and steep terrain of this region makes it impossible for them to cross at any other point.

This narrow but extremely vital corridor will be lost if the reservoir and canal are allowed to come up. Apart from effectively islanding the central Orissan elephants, the implementation of the Brutanga project will lead to a severe escalation in human-elephant conflict in the region, as has been observed in Athgarh, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal and Angul regions after the Rengali canal was dug. When elephants find traditional corridors blocked, they are known to get persistent in finding a way across and the disoriented, frustrated animals often get into rage, damage crops, property and human life. This continues year after year during the migration period. As of now, conflict is minimal in this region and locals have learnt to live with the brief annual presence of these elephants.

There has been a suggestion to build overpasses on the canal, but these have failed in nearby Rengali, as they have elsewhere in India. There is no documented record of overpasses being successful alternatives to elephant corridors. In rare cases, lone bull elephants have been known to use them, but family herds with calves do not attempt to risk crossing over such a strange man made structure.

The Brutanga is a non perennial river. It shall not be wise to build a dam on it as this may cause water shortage in Baissipalli Wildlife Sanctuary. This would harmful to the local riparian forest ecology, the wildlife and even the people of villages like Padmatola.

The most important 'sink' available to the tigers of Satkosia is a massive, compact block of forests spanning several districts in the hills of south-central Orissa. Not only do tigers from Satkosia spill over into these forests, this connectivity is also the only hope for the large ranging, low density population of tigers that still inhabits these unprotected forests. The Satkosia link might be their only escape from a genetic dead end. The tiger too, is under threat from this project.

The works of renowned elephant experts like Dr DK Lahiri Choudhury and Dr CK Sar vindicates these facts and their papers have singularly highlighted the importance of this very vital corridor.

There is no option but to shelve this project if the elephants of Orissa are to be saved. Orissa accounts for nearly 60% of the East/Central Indian elephant population and close to 10% of Orissa's elephants actually physically use this corridor. The corridor genetically links together a population of around 600 elephants- a third of the state's entire elephant population.

It is sad to note that the Mahanadi Wildlife Division has not appropriately documented this migration. This migration would not have come to our knowledge had it not been for the field work carried out by Wild Orissa in 2002 and that by renowned elephant experts like Dr CK Sar and Dr DK Lahiri Choudhury, whose papers have stressed the importance of this corridor. We don't even know about the migration of other long ranging mega-fauna like gaur across this region. We just cannot afford to sign away this corridor.

Apart from shelving this project, the Government of Orissa must also expeditiously take the following steps to protect Orissa’s elephants:

Declare this corridor a Critical Wildlife Habitat under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act and Forest Rights Act.
Immediately notify the South Orissa Elephant Reserve and the Brahmani-Baitarani Elephant Reserve
Declare the Kapilas Reserved Forest a Wildlife Sanctuary
Shelve other proposed irrigation projects and canals, like the one in Manjhor, in and around elephant habitats

Further reference: 'Brutanga Campaign' by Wild Orissa

A report by C. K. SAR & D. K. LAHIRI-CHOUDHURY in PROJECT:ELEPHANT – HUMAN CONFLICT IN ASIA REPORT ON ORISSA – INDIA (PART – II – d) NAYAGARH FOREST DIVISION, NAYAGARH DISTRICT (1992 – JANUARY 1998) published in May 2001 has delved upon the above issue.

An article by D.K.Lahiri Choudhury & C.K.Sar in “The Indian Forester” Vol. 128 No. 2, February, 2002 has delved upon the sensitiveness of the afore-mentioned forests.

Letter to the MoEF for interventions in Similipal Tiger Reserve

2010-07-19T21:46:00.004+05:30

The Similipal Tiger Reserve is reeling under tremendous odds. Keeping its core issues in view and seeking a constructive revival strategy, I, on behalf of Wild Orissa, among other steps that we are taking for Similipal, wrote to the Ministry of Environment and Forests seeking interventions. A press release to that effect has also been made. Following is a copy of the letter:

Ref. No.: WO/HQRS/SCP/2010

6, July 2010

To,

Shri Jairam Ramesh

Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge)

Ministry of Environment and Forests

Paryavaran Bhavan

New Delhi

Sub: Appeal for interventions into management of the Similipal Tiger Reserve

Sir,

We are a proactive nature and wildlife conservation group associated in the conservation efforts in Similipal forests in Orissa. It is to state that the extremist onslaught on the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in

Orissa last year, has raised a lot of problems for its administration. With its devastated infrastructure and enhanced insecurity atmosphere, the institutional capacity of the STR to protect and enforce the

provisions of our wildlife related statues had taken a beating.

However of late, dedicated efforts by the park administration have resulted in improvements in staff presence inside the STR. This is a crucial improvement from a stage last year when the whole park was

devoid of any staff/personnel for many months. The period after the March-April 2009 attacks saw poachers and timber smugglers having a field day in the reserve.

Similipal has always been facing the brunt of large scale poaching, sometimes referred to as ‘akhand shikar’. This sort of ritualistic hunting is aimed at ungulates and other small animals and birds that are meant

for local consumption and has been tradition in practice for most of the Central Indian tribes. These poachers are known to enter the reserve in bands numbering as high as 300 and attack anything that moves

with arrows, crude guns, etc. We have gathered that over the past few years they have adopted a far more lethal means of poaching i.e. poisoning. Exploiting the weakness of ungulates towards salt, poachers

have been creating artificial saltlicks- shallow beds dug into the earth and filled with salt, rice gruel, etc- and are lacing them with pesticides. Ungulates find this concoction irresistible and fall victim.

Unfortunately, elephants too are succumbing. In such cases, if the poacher happens to chance upon the elephant, he usually makes off with the tusks, however miserably sized they may be. Sometimes,

especially when patrolling is very lax, the poachers are known to make hides near the elephant carcass to shoot wild boar that turn up to scavenge on the carcass. The elephants that have died in Similipal this

year appear to be victims to this sort of poaching. The large proportion of females and calves among the victims suggests that they are victims of such indiscriminate poisoning and most probably not that of

organised commercial ivory poaching.

It is to state that there have been efforts both from the governmental and non-governmental sectors to counter ‘akhand shikar’ during the past years, but somehow success has been eluding.

After considering the present context of the STR, the following issues are being highlighted for priority actions at your end:

1. Inappropriate Administrative set-up: As per the Guidelines of the Project Tiger, now National Tiger Conservation Authority, the jurisdiction of the buffer areas of the tiger reserves are to be vested

with the Field Director. In the case of the STR, as late as last year the Karanjia, Rairangpur and Baripada Forest Division were reporting to the Field Director STR. This enabled the park administration to

provide appropriate focus on the whole tiger reserve. However this has undergone a change with these divisions now reporting to the recently created Regional Chief Conservator of Forests (RCCF) at

Baripada in Mayurbhanj. It has been gathered that in view of the division of work in the Orissa Forest Department between the PCCF (General) and the PCCF (Wildlife), the line hierarchy now being

practiced in the case of the STR is highly detrimental to tiger conservation.

2. Inadequate resources:

a. Manpower: The STR suffers from a chronic staff shortage. Close to 50 per cent of field staff posts, including forest guards and foresters remain vacant. Three posts of Range Officer and a post of

Deputy Director are currently vacant. Further a lot of the forest guards and foresters are close to retirement age after having put in over three decades of service in the reserve without a single promotion. This

is scenario is disastrous for a tiger reserve like Similipal (2750 sq kms), especially considering that this staff is expected to take on armed gangs of poachers numbering in the hundreds on a frequent basis.

b. Finances: It has been gathered that the reserve does not receive adequate funds and funds allocated do not reach the STR administration on time.

c. Infrastructure: The March-April 2009 attacks have caused considerable damage to the park’s infrastructure. Staff is being forced to make do with semi-repaired housing in the absence of basic

facilities and sanitation.

3. Low staff morale: The morale of the reserve’s frontline staff suffered during the armed attacks in 2009. After being physically abused, looted and threatened with murder last year they had

abandoned their posts. It was after many months of dedicated efforts by the park administration that they returned to their posts and taken charge despite a police advisory warning against such a move. The

physically and mentally agonising conditions under which they are made to live and are expected to serve their duties in the remote posts of STR get further aggravated by delayed salaries and lack of

promotions. Several of these staffers have served their entire careers- upto 35 years in many cases- in this reserve and haven’t received a single promotion. To address this there is a vital necessity to

incentivise postings within the tiger reserve’s remote stations. Additional financial allowances, medical support, food and rations support, communications support, etc must be provided to staff serving in STR.

Staff security also needs to be looked into under the current circumstances.

4. Reserve and staff security: To address the need of securing the reserve from mass poaching and extremism and to secure conditions for the staff to work, it is important that the state government

expedites the creation of the Special Tiger Protection Force with funds available with the NTCA. In the time it takes to prepare the force, the state must deploy a paramilitary force around the reserve.

5. Expediting voluntary relocations: The district and park administration has exhibited tremendous competence in the manner in which it managed to carry out the smooth relocation of the largest

village viz. Jenabil from inside the ‘core’ of the STR. This had been pending since the past three decades. It has been learnt two of the three remaining villages have also voluntarily agreed to relocate. The

relocation of the remaining three villages must be expedited by the state by facilitating all necessities required. It is to be mentioned this was the first instance of any relocation having been carried in the state of

Orissa for wildlife conservation.

6. Interdepartmental coordination: The mass poaching and breakdown of the law and order situation in the reserve calls for enhanced coordination between the police, revenue and the forest

departments.

7. Poaching: Reports suggested that large congregations of local poachers had a free run immediately after the attacks. Inadequate intelligence gathering has been the root cause in the past too. Unless

checked it will wipe out the prey base and ensure the disappearance of the tiger in Similipal.

8. Encroachment and grazing: Encroachment by villagers, illegal livestock grazing, illegal felling and other such actions resulting from law and order failure need to be arrested by strengthening the park

administration, boosting its administrative and magistrial powers, interdepartmental cooperation, increased backing of staff by senior officers and decentralisation of power in the reserve by enhancing the field

director’s authority.

9. ‘Similipal Appraisal Report’: Following the March-April 2009 attacks on Similipal, the NTCA had sent a team of experts led by Dr Bivash Pandav to appraise it about the ground situation in the

reserve. The team compiled a very exhaustive report and listed very constructive recommendations. However, the state is yet to enact these and there has been little follow up in this matter both from the state

and the centre.

10. Buffer devoid of wildlife: The buffer zone of the reserve has over the past decades deteriorated tremendously, including in the quality of vegetative cover and wildlife occupation. This is purely

because of poor management of the buffer (administered by three Territorial Divisions of the Forest Department viz. Baripada, Rairangpur and Karanjia) from the wildlife conservation perspective. Stringent

protection measures need to be put in place and these divisions should ideally be converted into Wildlife Divisions and placed under the charge of the Field Director STR.

The Similipal Tiger Reserve needs to be revived back to its former glory. It is one of the largest and richest tracts of tiger habitat anywhere in the world and has the potential to sustain one of the single largest

tiger and elephant populations in India. It is requested to intervene in this matter and issue necessary instructions on the issues stated above.

Yours faithfully,

(ADITYA CHANDRA PANDA)

Program Head

Similipal Conservation Program

Wild Orissa

Copy submitted for information and necessary action:-

1. Chief Minister Orissa, Bhubaneswar

2. Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India, Delhi

3. Chief Secretary, Government of Orissa, Bhubaneswar

4. Director General of Forests Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India, Delhi

5. Additional Director General, Wildlife Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India, Delhi

6. Member Secretary National Tiger Conservation Authority Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India, Delhi

7. Director General of Police Orissa, Cuttack

8. Secretary, Department of Forests Government of Orissa, Bhubaneswar

9. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (General), Orissa, Bhubaneswar

10. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Orissa, Bhubaneswar

(ADITYA CHANDRA PANDA)

Program Head

Similipal Conservation Program

Wild Orissa

Tigerlink, April 2010

2010-06-24T01:46:00.006+05:30

For extensive tiger related news from across India and the world please go through the April 2010 issue of Tigerlink here:

Front Cover: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32166822/Cover-Front
Inside Cover: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32166446/Tigerlink-May-2010-Inside-Cover
Tigerlink Magazine: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32166499/Tigerlink-May-2010-Issue

Tigerlink is published by the Ranthambhore Foundation and is edited by Prerna Singh Bindra and me.

Cheers,
Aditya

Concerns for Satkosia Tiger Reserve as tusker poaching resurfaces

2010-05-04T13:58:00.011+05:30

The poaching of a tusker in the Narsinghpur forest under Aathgarh Division adjoining the Satkosia Tiger Reserve’s eastern boundary and the seizure of tusks from Rairakhol, also in the vicinity of the reserve, in February, have raised concerns.

Narsinghpur range has been a notorious stronghold of a highly organised poaching and timber mafia. There have been repeated appeals to transfer the administration of the Narsinghpur (West) Range from the territorial division of the forest department to the Satkosia Wildlife Division in order to facilitate wildlife oriented administration of the forest and help in containing poaching. Similalrly, on the western boundary of the reserve, Aathmallik serves as a base for organised wildlife crime syndicates.

On 23^rd April the carcass of a male elephant was found in the Hathidhara Reserved Forest near Aathmallik- the third reported case of elephant poaching in the vicinity of Satkosia in just the first four months of 2010.

Wild Orissa, an organisation which was instrumental in getting Satkosia declared a tiger reserve, has since the beginning of its campaign been recommending the inclusion of the Narsinghpur range and the Hathidhara Reserved Forest of the Aathmallik division as part of the tiger reserve, but to little avail.

These rich reserved forests form a contiguous habitat with the tiger reserve and frequently report tiger presence. There is an urgent need to merge these ranges with the reserve and increase its area.

Wild Orissa had suggested that the core area of Satkosia be expanded to at least 800-1000 sq kms from its current area of about 600 sq kms by adding parts of the buffer and the said reserved forests. There is also an urgent necessity to relocate villages from prime wildlife areas like Tulka, Labangi, Chotkei, Majhipada, Raigoda, etc. in order to reclaim the valleys of the reserve for wildlife. Almost all valleys in the reserve have been encroached upon for agriculture, resulting in the vanishing of meadows, which are essential to support much needed prey base to help tigers make a comeback in Satkosia. Cattle from these villages graze the remaining fodder, competing directly with wild prey.

Raigoda, incidentally, has since long sent in petitions to voluntarily relocate, but action is yet to be taken on this front. There are 65 villages in the 963 sq km Satkosia Tiger Reserve, four of which lie in its core and many more are situated on the boundary of the core, putting tremendous pressure on its low density tiger population that is struggling to revive.

The Resurrection of Similipal?

2010-03-14T21:36:00.005+05:30

News has come in that the largest village in the core area of Similipal Tiger Reserve, Jenabil, shifted out of the reserve voluntarily on 9th March 2010.

61 families shifted out from Jenabil in Similipal's core area to the 'model village' created for them at Ambdiha, outside the reserve. Keeping with the NTCA's guidelines, every male over the age of 18 was considered a single family unit and was compensated with Rs. 10 lakhs, apart from being provided accommodation, land, access to health facilities, education (the Forest Dept. itself has admitted 33 kids into school), and above all, a better life- far from conflict with wildlife and one that is part of the fast developing India you and I enjoy the benefits of. Hopefully, the three remaining villages and two remaining Khadia hamlets in the core, and perhaps even the villages in buffer, will want to move out of this remote wilderness and get themselves a new lease of life.

Meanwhile, it certainly is a brand new lease of life for Similipal's wildlife! The huge valley which Jenabil had encroached upon will soon heal back into perhaps Similipal's most expansive meadow and chital, sambar, gaur and other herbivores will thrive there. The magnificent congregations of elephants and unbelievably large herds of sambar deer that one saw in meadows like Devasthali and Upper Barhakamuda, especially prior to the March '09 attacks on the reserve, will hopefully be back. Needless to say, Jenabil will soon turn into prime real estate for Similipal's tigers!

The credit of this achievement goes out almost entirely to the strong dedication of Similipal's field staff. The leadership of a determined Field Director, HS Upadhyay, his ex-deputy, Manoj Nair, and their insufficient, ill-equipped, underpaid, overworked, unsung yet, terrifically motivated team of staff, like range officers Prabir Palei (RBS-Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award, 2009), B Mohanty and the other foresters, guards, etc. have been instrumental in getting Similipal back on its feet, despite unbelievable odds and a genuine threat to their life from left wing extremists. The district collector and SP must also be credited for facilitating the entire process and providing the necessary security as the staff rebuild damage infrastructure, re-occupy beat houses and get back to patrolling.

This is the sort of dedication we need to protect India's wildernesses. Similipal has been brought back from what was surely a death knell. Our fears, a year ago to date, that Similipal might be lost like Indravati or Palamau have thankfully been proven wrong. One hopes and prays that those reserves too unergo such revival.

I, for one, can't wait to get back into Similipal! Will do so at the earliest and bring you a first hand report.

Cheers,

Aditya

Charred remains of the century old, double storied wooden FRH cum Deputy Director's camp office, Jenabil, Similipal Tiger Reserve

Remains of the Upper Barhakamuda Range Office, Similipal Tiger Reserve

Staff of Upper Barhakamuda regaining control of their range and discussing strategies post the March 2009 attack by left wing extremists. At the time of the picture, there was no wireless connectivity for them and nearest 'civilisation' is 3 hrs' drive away, much longer on bicycle or foot!

Paradise Lost? A Similipal Story

2009-07-06T23:51:00.008+05:30

This article of mine was originally published in the Sanctuary Asia magazine's June 2009 issue

A majestic tusker walks down the Devasthali meadow, Upper Barhakamuda Range, Similipal Tiger Reserve

I sat huddled over the dying embers, listening to the trumpeting of irate elephants and hooves of jittery sambar deer. Within an hour, I knew, the moonlit forest would be swept by a dense shroud of fog. Suddenly, barely 200 m. away, I heard a noise that warmed me to the core, despite the 4 ºC chill- the roar of a tiger. As I watched, the elephants responded by bunching even tighter together to keep their young safe from attack. It was magical. For over 30 minutes, I listened quietly to the hypnotic calls of the tigress. I felt no fear, just awe. Such were the sounds that dominated the Earth before humans came to dominate all else.

That was January 2009 and I was in the Devasthali Beat House in the Upper Barhakamuda range of the Simlipal Tiger Reserve, as part of a tiger estimation being conducted by the Forest Department involving NGOs like Wild Orissa, NEWS, Angul and the North Orissa University, Baripada. A report by the Wildlife Institute of India had suggested a worrying figure of less than 30 tigers, and we wanted to verify this.

We walked through the best parts of Simlipal for a week, starting early each morning to traverse paths known to be frequented by tigers. At strategic spots, ‘Pugmark Impression Pads’ or ‘PIPs’ had been laid, and we would stop at each such point to look for animal tracks. If we saw tiger or leopard tracks we traced it and made a plaster cast. We would average around 20 km. a day, returning to the beat house, mine overlooking a meadow, for lunch. There were a few saltlicks in the meadows and these encouraged wild animals to concentrate near the Devasthali beat house throughout the night. I could get used to this. Morning walks to estimate the frequency of predator movement and evening ‘tea with wildlife’ sessions to estimate the abundance of prey species. What a wonderful life!

The Similipal landscape

A view of the high altitude sal forest landscape near Devasthali, Similipal

Similipal is a rolling expanse of endless sal Shorea robusta forests interspersed with a blend of Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats and sub-Himalayan trees. The tiger reserve encompasses 2,750 sq. km. (core area 1,195 sq. km.) and is part of the Mayurbhanj Elephant Reserve (7,043.04 sq. km.) and the Simlipal Biosphere Reserve (5,569 sq. km.). Parts of the park, especially in south Similipal, experience frost and this causes the sal to be stunted and appear conifer-like- a phenomenon called ‘sal die-back’. These ‘frost valleys’ – Devasthali is one such – with their expansive meadows are a sight for sore eyes, especially in winter. The abundance of fodder and water sources holds great potential for supporting abundant prey base and makes Similipal an ideal large carnivore habitat.

Apart from tigers, the park supports a multitude of life forms, including a substantial elephant population (said to number over 500), leopards, sloth bears, chital, sambar, gaur, muntjac, mouse deer and chousingha, plus lesser carnivores such as fishing cats, leopard cats, (possibly) caracals, the endemic Joranda civet Paradoxurus jorandensisand stripe-necked mongoose (one of Orissa’s only two known populations). Similipal’s varied birdlife includes rarities such as the Collared Falconet. An endemic frog Phillautus simlipalensis, mugger crocodiles, mahseer fish populating the many streams, and as many as 3,000 plant species including 94 orchids, rare wild rice and aquatic grasses are found in this botanical wonderland.

That was the good news. Sadly, however, the park is deteriorating. There are as many as 65 villages in its buffer, four in the core. Extremist groups take full advantage of these villagers and have a free run of a park that was once considered a jewel in Project Tiger’s crown. A combination of poorly-managed tourism and resource-constrained park management hardly helps. Those of us who know how unsupported they are, take issue with people who automatically point fingers at the Forest Department and look forward to the day when field forest staff receive the respect and support of a nation whose very future depends on protecting our threatened forest ecosystems.

On Foot in South Similipal

Pugmark of a tigress near Devasthali, Similipal

To the north – in the tourism zone, much of it lying in the buffer – the prey base has been decimated and consequently carnivores are few and far between. Little wonder then that a tourist visiting Simlipal today must remain content with waterfalls, paddy fields and livestock, rather than the wildlife that once regaled visitors.

South Simlipal is another matter altogether, particularly the Upper Barhakamuda range. With the ever increasing anthropogenic pressure of 65 villages in the buffer zone, four in the core and free reigning extremists, tiger occupancy has been squeezed into this, the most remote part of the inner core. This is a great shame and it should be the objective of all who seek to prevent the extinction of tigers to help this population spread over the rest of the park and to return tigers to the northern aspects of Simlipal where habitats like the famous Chahala meadow used to report regular sightings all the way to the mid-1990s.

Walking daily with Barik, the forest guard of Devasthali and with Dasmat, a watcher, I covered Nuagaon, Mahabirsal, Golkund meadow, Bachhurichara meadow, Sulmundi, Dhudram Kachha and nearby areas. We frequently came across pugmarks, scats, scrapes and other evidences left behind by the resident Devasthali tigress, whose territory around the beat house sported large herbivore concentrations. Apart from her, we came across pugmarks of at least two other tigers, far from Devasthali. One of them, possibly a male, had huge, broad pugmarks, easily twice the size of the ones we usually saw around Devasthali. The other, narrower and longer was that of a female. Barik had previously informed me that three tigers occupied his beat and it looked like we had found them all.

Surprisingly, we didn’t come across even one leopard track and we hoped that it was tigers that were responsible, not poachers. We saw no sloth bears, hyena or jackal spoor. Could this be because the hilly areas (970 msl., frost valleys, stunted sal trees) was not favoured by them? Fruiting trees, I observed, were few and far between, and consequently birds and langur were also relatively rare, compared to the lower elevations. Wild dogs, we had been informed, went extinct (unmourned) in the ‘90s and I came across only two gaur tracks in the entire period.

Evening congregation of Sambar begins at Devasthali saltlick. Decent ungulate densities in the less disturbed parts of the reserve support its last tigers.

The saltlicks at Devasthali and Upper Barhakamuda, however, attract large congregations of herbivores. Sambar herds of 300 plus individuals have been seen in Upper Barhakamuda and I often saw over 100 sambar grazing at Devasthali. Elephants visited Devasthali each evening and their tracks and dung were ubiquitous, as were those of chital and barking deer. The habitat here doesn’t support as many chital as it does sambar and it is common to see sambar herds far outnumbering chital herds. I was able to see considerable evidence of porcupine and ratel movement.

I found this freshly made tiger kill on my last morning in the reserve.

On my last morning in the park, I came across a freshly killed sambar stag not far the beat house. I guessed it had been ambushed while retreating to the forest from the meadow at dawn. I positioned myself near the kill for the rest of the day, but saw neither hair nor hide of its attacker. As luck would have it I was informed the very next day, January 11, 2009, that Barik and a forester saw the Devasthali tigress sprawled beside the half-eaten carcass! She turned out to be one of the dark striped individuals peculiar to Simlipal.

Forest Wrongs

Clearly Devasthali and its surrounds hold a substantial density of tigers that comprise a source population for Simlipal. This is not surprising, because the area supports a decent prey base, which in turn is because south Simlipal has fewer villages and, consequently, less human disturbance such as livestock grazing and encroachment of meadows for agriculture. If the villagers in the core area – Jenabil, Jamuna, Bakua and Kabataghai – could be convinced to move, an ailing Simlipal would be given a new lease on life.

Though admittedly I did see signs of an abundance of wildlife in this section of the reserve, what worried me was that the movement was almost completely nocturnal. It seemed that no mammal, including elephants, ventured out before late evening. In any event, we did not come across any elephants during our walks in the area and we sighted just two barking deer and four chital during walks through the entire week. The evidence was clear as day -- human persecution was at work. It is vital that this peace and solitude be restored to this sanctum sanctorum and the only way to do this is to create a physical separation between the human and wildlife communities.

The next time anyone thinks of criticising the field staff of the Simlipal Tiger Reserve, I would suggest they first consider the fact that more than half the posts remain unfilled. This is like Sanctuary trying to bring out the magazine, with half its staff missing. The job may get done, but can it be done well?

Simlipal is the pride of Orissa. These vast forests play a role in moderating climate and actually impact the Indian monsoon through transpiration and convection. Yet its officials are overage, underpaid, overworked, underpowered and hence, under-motivated. Local villagers, largely tribal, have ancient hunting traditions and they have of late discovered that commercial poachers pay better wages than officials who at best distribute marginal daily wages for ad hoc forest works. The meagre 40 guards or less that patrol the huge 3,000 sq. km. reserve, find themselves overwhelmed by locals who often enter the park en masse to loot timber, poach, or light fires to make it easier to find fallen fruit a week later.

Forest Departments across India inevitably fall prey to the short-term benefits that accrue to the political system and to profiteers from ‘development’. This must change, as the Department is entrusted with the greatest resources any nation can have -- far more important than our political boundaries and GDP are the sources of our air, water, climate and storehouses of our carbon. We must treat the department that protects these sources with far more respect and far more importance than we do now.

Finally, the fuse blows

The shoddy treatment of Simlipal at the hands of the State Government – staff shortages, delay in relocating villages, poor intelligence gathering and non-existent implementation of law was directly responsible for a brutal attack on the Forest Department in March 2009. Extremists, presumed to be Maoists, stormed the park, burning Forest Department buildings and threatening personnel and tourists alike (see box on page ). The attack was supported by locals who – unlike their ancestors – no longer wish to protect either the forest, or wildlife. Poachers, timber mafia and local land encroachers enjoyed a field day following the invasion as all forest personnel were forced to flee their positions. Ominously, dark parallels can be drawn to Manas when extremists created havoc and in their wake, poachers mopped up over 100 rhinos.

Simlipal will suffer a similar fate because the park continues to reel under the impact of the attack and if the state government does not quickly wake to its abdication of duty, the forest will be emptied of its endangered wildlife. What a tragedy that would be when Simlipal in fact cries out for the nation to recognise its value and work unitedly to revive it, a task that could be accomplished within a short span of five years, provided it is protected assiduously.

Regaining paradise lost

Me and Balu Nagrajan, a fellow wildlifer from Wild Orissa, spend a typical evening at the Devasthali Beat House.

With a core area larger than most reserves, a diverse and flourishing prey base, Simlipal could easily hold the largest source population of tigers in India. But this would only be possible if a holistic, long-term revival plan involving the swift relocation of villages, filling up vacant posts and beefing up anti-poaching and conservation activities is undertaken. Towards this end, the creation of an armed Tiger Protection Force is long overdue, though a flushing operation to rid the park of extremists who are working with poaching mafias may now be unavoidable.

Quite separately, there is a great need to improve tiger monitoring at the chowki or beat level in the park. The field staff requires much better training and sensitising on tiger monitoring as well as dealing with local communities. They also need able leadership that understands and is able to implement modern wildlife conservation strategies.

Clearly however, Similipal cannot be treated as ‘yet another conservation problem’ to be dealt with through ineffective ‘eco-development’ solutions. The four villages in the core will need to be shifted with a package that motivates people to ask for relocation. This will necessarily involve land for land and generous financial compensation. Tourism too will need a mind shift away from ‘waterfalls and picnics’ to true wildlife tourism along the lines of Corbett and Kanha, but without the dangerous tendency to overload the park. Rather than use the park's captive elephants for joy rides, they need to be devoted to patrol difficult terrain and monitor the nucleus tiger population. And yes, the tourism complexes, like the one at Gudgudia inside the park, must be moved out. Simlipal needs to be inviolate.

While their service rules may not permit them to express opinions as strongly as I have done, I know that the officers, senior and junior, in the Simlipal Forest Department agree with the prescriptions listed above.

A peacock in the reserve, shortly after the extremist attack- an apparent gesture of hope.

Returning Similipal and other vast forests like it across the country to health, in my view is not a matter of choice. It is an imperative if India is to escape destruction at the hands of an ecological meltdown of the subcontinent.

________________________________________________________________

Well known journalist, author and wildlife conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra had written a piece on the shameful take over of Similipal Tiger Reserve by extremists, which appeared in a box with the above article. Prerna and I had visited the park a few weeks after the attacks to make a first hand note of the state of affairs there... here's her article:

Under attack

by Prerna Singh Bindra

At 8:30 p.m. on March 28, 2009, the VHF tower at Meghasani, Simlipal’s highest peak was destroyed. The first strike was a masterstroke, effectively cutting off all communication. Over the next few hours, extremists systematically pillaged and burned leaving in their wake the shattered dreams of conservationists and an uncertain future. Forestchowkis, vehicles, rest houses were ransacked and set aflame and rangers, forest guards and tourists were bound and beaten. A department tusker whose last ‘job’ had been to chase away some timber smugglers and crush their bike was shot and left to die. Posters demanding the “death of Project Tiger” and threats to destroy the entire forest were put up. While the attacks were all across the 3,000 sq. km. reserve, they were concentrated at its most vulnerable points in the core area -- Chahala, Upper Barhakamuda, Devasthali, Gudgudia, Patbil, Jenabil, Joranda – where much of the wildlife is concentrated. The motive was clear -- the carnage was aimed to break the back of forest administration and thereby ‘free’ the forest of any control whatsoever. Police sources confirmed that the Naxals had the tacit support of local forest dwellers and tribals, who regarded the Forest Department as an impediment to their activities be it ritual hunting, or tree felling, a sentiment exploited by the Naxals. The timing of the attack is suspicious too, on the eve of the akhand shikar -- a month-long annual ritual of the local tribals who go on a mass hunting spree.

Simlipal was a tragedy waiting to happen. The Mayurbhanj district has long been a haven for left-wing extremists, given its contiguity to Saranda -- once the finest salforest in Asia, and the largest-in Jharkhand – which has been relentlessly ravaged. If intelligence sources are to be believed, they are attempting to create a red corridor that connects Jharkhand with Keonjhar and Jajpur, where the Naxals are well-established.

It’ doesn’t look like the problem will be curbed since the left wing activists enjoy the covert support of the current government in power. In the last decade, roughly the time the BJD government has been in power, the number of Naxal-affected districts in Orissa has grown from three to 20. We have already lost Indravati (in Chattisgarh) and Palamau in Jharkhand to Naxals, and Nagarjunasagar are largely under their control too. Valmiki and Udanti-Sitanadi, a newly-declared tiger reserve in Chahatisgarh have also been infiltrated and some estimates suggest that we have a third of our reserves to the red cancer.

Prerna blogs at www.indianaturally.blogspot.com

________________________________________________________________

Images © Aditya Chandra Panda, 2009

PROMISE KEEPERS

2009-03-03T11:42:00.011+05:30

Protectors of antelopes, Ganjam's people need help

A legend goes that well over a century ago, a long drought hit a few villages in the Ganjam district of Orissa. When the drought was at its worst and all hope was given up, a herd of blackbuck (Antelope cervicapara) appeared out of nowhere — and soon after their arrival came life-giving rains. The locals have since worshipped and protected these antelopes with their lives. Such was their love that when a Maharaja came to shoot them, he was stripped and paraded. Lesser mortals would have had to give up much more than just their clothes and self-esteem.

This gratitude towards the animals, which are called 'Krushnasara Mruga', continues to this day. The Blackbuck Protection Committee, led by Honorary Wildlife Warden Amulya Upadhyaya, was felicitated by the state government with the first Biju Patnaik Wildlife Conservation Award, in 2005. The number of blackbucks in the area has now crossed 1,600, and the animals are distributed over 60 to 70 villages.

Except in the monsoons, the area bears a semi-arid look and consists of low, rocky hills with scrub jungles that harbour wild boar, barking deer, hare, hyenas, a few wolves, jackals, foxes, etc. The blackbucks, being animals of the plains, avoid the hills and graze in the fields. They have little fear of humans. One can watch the bucks clashing in short, fierce bouts over their harems. Sometimes the immature bucks, still brown and looking more like chinkaras, try challenging the seasoned adults, and it is amusing to watch them change their minds and flee after an incomplete start! The does, on the other hand, are placid and frequently seen in large herds. Their fawns can be found hidden in the crops, perfectly camouflaged. Then there are the bachelor herds of young bucks. As the day heats up, they start resting in the shade.

In the monsoons the area is bathed in hues of green and the antelopes congregate in impressive numbers — mating being the order of the day. Since they are under strict protection and in the near absence of natural predators, their numbers continue growing.

Save feral dogs, jackals and the occasional wolf, the blackbucks have no worthy predator. Although the canines manage to kill a few fawns now and then, the real blackbuck hunter — the cheetah — is long-extinct, and the wolf is following. The locals usually ‘rescue’ the few fawns that are attacked, and even the males that are sometimes fatally wounded after fights.

But this increasing population is now leading to new, inevitable problems. Their numbers are beginning to tell in crop losses and farmers, who earlier believed that the ‘holy’ antelopes’ grazing on their fields ensured bumper crops, are beginning to now feel the pinch. The crop raiding nocturnal wild boars in the area don’t help either. Some people have begun urging that the antelopes be relocated elsewhere.

But how? Such attempts have failed elsewhere, and where else will they get such protection? In most places, they will only be looked upon as easy protein. Should some be culled instead? However, crop losses notwithstanding, the people of Ganjam will never allow that.

Upadhyaya urges that the government should, instead, expedite the passing of proposals to give this area Community Reserve status. These files have been gathering dust in government offices for the last five years. This will not only let the government compensate the farmers for crop losses, but also provide funding for creating watering holes; planting fallow land with fodder to lessen the antelopes’ dependence on cultivation; and bring in organized tourism, which will, in turn, bring in revenue and employment, etc.

But, to achieve this, competent and devoted officers need to become serious and make sure that red tape and bureaucracy do not get in the way, like they have been over the past five years. They need to realise that this is the least that the people of the rest of India can do to thank the people of Ganjam for protecting such a legacy.

As published in the Tehelka, 20, December 2008
Text and image © Aditya Chandra Panda, 2009. All rights reserved.

Summer 2008: TADOBA ANDHARI TIGER RESERVE, MAHARASHTRA

2008-11-04T01:00:00.014+05:30

The Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve is situated in the Satpuda landscape in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra. It is a 625 sq km Project Tiger Reserve which includes the Tadoba National Park (declared in 1955) and Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary (declared in 1986).

'Jabbaar', my first wild tiger ever.

I first visited Tadoba in November 2007 and was blessed to see my first wild tiger there. It was the 4th that day. We had hired a rickety Tata Sumo which refused to start once it was turned off. And we had to realise this problem only while entering the Mohurli gate after collecting our entry permits. The morning was perfect, with a nip in the air, November mist and the thrill of being in tigerland. We saw gaur, the usual chital, sambar, peafowl and saw the fresh scat of dhole, or the Indian wild dog just before the Khatodi Gate. We had missed them by minutes, may be seconds.

We drove on to Pandarpauni meadow and then down towards the '97' water hole. On the road we noticed the very fresh pugmarks of a tiger, those of the very same morning! Then started thrill of the chase! The mist was lifting and the dawn sunshine was pleasantly warm. We tracked the pugs on a path that took us around a patch of forest on to its other side. There we saw a couple of Gypsies parked with some excited tourists in them. We had missed the tiger by seconds. But the chase didn't end there! Sanjay Munde, a guide in another Gypsy, skillfully predicted the direction the tiger would take from the very bush he had vanished into and we went back towards 97 and waited at the expected point from which he (we knew it was a male by then) would walk out onto the road. The wait was just as exciting as the chase. 4-5 vehicles, pin drop silence, and the tense wait. Then the guide in our vehicle suddenly blurted out in a hushed but urgent tone "arrey, yeh raha tiger!" and pointed somewhere to the left of our Sumo.

That was my near side (I was seated on the front passenger side) and I noticed a pattern of black and gold in the bamboo some distance away and was iimmediately raised to seventh heaven! My first glimpse of a tiger in the jungle! But then what was this- suddenly I saw a great head with lots of white on it hardly 6-7 feet away! I was staring at a patch of sunlight and shadow created by the thin bamboo all this while, some 20 feet away while the real tiger was right next to me! He was bothered by so many vehicles having discovered him and wanted to get away fast. He walked behind the tree line as long as he could and then came on to the road, giving us a splendid view! He smelt a few bushes, sprayed them and settled down in the grass, only to be disturbed by a bus coming from the opposite direction. I didn't know whether to watch or to photograph. When I tried photographing my hands shook like leaves with the amount of adrenalin that was pumped into them. So I gave up and enjoyed the moment.

Truly, nothing in the world captures the moment and your senses like a tiger in the wild... it’s like a phantom... so huge and so striking and absolutely silent when it walks, incredibly fast paced, but never in a hurry. And then it disappears, as soon as it had arrived, leaving you wondering if it was really there at all! That tiger, I was later told, was called 'Jabbaar'. An impressive big male he was. With this, my first wild tiger, by seeing whom I had thought I'd satisfy a long overdue hunger, I realised that I had just managed to make that hunger terribly insatiable. I had to come back. There's nothing in the world like tracking wild tigers and, with skill and luck, being rewarded with even a glimpse of them.

When I got another opportunity to visit Tadoba in April 2008, I grabbed it. I remembered Sanjay's words from my last winter visit- "Sahib, dhupkali mein aao, sab se badhiya tiger sighting milenge." He had asked me to come in the summer, when water would be scarce, to have my best tiger sightings in Tadoba. I couldn't wait for the train to reach Nagpur on 18th April '08. The next three days were to be spent in Tadoba and the three days following that in Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh.

Day 1, 19, April 2008:

Morning drive
The first morning we drove in with Bubloo Katkar, our driver who had stayed all his life here and who had just bought a used Gypsy. The first place we visited after entering the Mohurli gate was the Telia meadow, which had been recently created after a village by the same name was relocated. Instead of people and cattle, there were a herd of sambar, some peafowl and one of the handsomest wild boars I've ever seen. Bubloo told me that the place was especially known for its sloth bear sightings. We then drove on, the summer morning beginning to heat up, checking waterhole after waterhole and intently listening to catch even the faintest alarm call.

A herd of smabar, Cervus unicolor, at Telia meadow

After checking Jamunbodi hilltop, I wanted to visit the Tadoba's erstwhile canteen area, near the lake, to see what changes it had undergone after being shut off to tourists 20 days earlier. We were driving around the now abandoned buildings, Bubloo and the guide nostalgically remembering many years spent there, and I remembering my last trip and the canteen's lovely omeletes! Just as we rounded a curve after the canteen at the base of a hill, the hill to our right and the lake to our left, the guide shouted "wagh, wagh!" 'Wagh' is Marathi for tiger! Bubloo stopped, the Gypsy stalled. But we were positioned nicely. After about two minutes of searching, I could locate the tiger's white belly. It was resting in the shade of a fallen tree in the lake's cool water. He lifted his head to look at us, the dappled sunlight shining right on his face. It was good old Jabbaar! What a start to the trip!

'Jabbaar' again, cooling off in the Talao

We decided to leave him alone, to rest peacefully through the hot Vidharbha summer day and were keen for other tourists to not know of him and cause a typical 'tiger traffic jam' there, preferring to let Jabbar enjoy his siesta instead. But now there was a problem. Our Gypsy wouldn't start. Bubloo had found a good deal on the Gypsy alright, but that didn't hold true for its battery! When four or five goes at the starter refused to fire the engine, the tiger became a little wary. Finally, there was no other option left but for Bubloo and the guide to get down and push-start the Gypsy while I took the wheel. The Gypsy heaved to a start but poor Jabbaar was scared silly by this whole drama and got up and raced up to the road, right in front of our Gypsy, tail held high, and then up the hill. After climbing up, he slowed down, turned back and gave us a look which asked us to just forget everthing that just happened and that big male tigers like him could never possibly be scared! He then ambled up lazily as if nothing had ever happened!

We drove on to Pandarpauni meadow, the place where all the action takes place in Tadoba. There were over a hundred heads of chital and innumerable wild boar grazing and moving towards the Pandarpauni 2 waterhole. Some sambar were also there, along with most of the morning's visitors. We parked and enjoyed observing the animals at the waterhole. The congregation was impressive. A party in another Gypsy decided to leave and we had to make way for them. Our Gypsy refused to start, again. No amount of pushing would make it start now. A white Gypsy arrived, and offered to give us a lift. In it was a friend, Ravi Naidu, from Hyderabad. Ravi and I had known each other online and had exchanged notes on Tadoba and other wildlife issues earlier. He knows Tadoba like the clichéd back of his hand. He has had extensive experience working for several years in Kanha and in his home forests in Andhra Pradesh. Fate had arranged and excellent way for us to meet! We abandoned Bubloo with his Gypsy and boarded Ravi's. He hadn't had any chances with big cats that morning. No one had, except us. He was delighted when we informed him about Jabbar and we started towards the Tadoba Talao (lake) again, after checking out the Kala Amba waterhole.

The Kala Amba waterhole has an interesting story. A few months ago, a group of 2 or 3 Gypsies were at the waterhole, watching a tigress and her cubs. There were some bee hives on the trees above (these were still there when we visited) and a drongo sat on a bamboo shoot, catching the bees as they flew in and out of the hives. Suddenly, the drongo had a bright idea and it put it to action. Instead of sitting there and catching one bee after the other as they flew around in ones and twos, the drongo did a WWII Japanese Air Force suicide bomber and dived into the hive with full force! The number of bees that swarmed out after that were too many for it to catch and it vanished. So did the tigress and her cubs, and the tourists in the Gypsies, who reversed at full speed and then drove straight to Chandrapur hospital forgetting tigers and forests for a long time!

Oriental Honey Buzzard

With that note we went towards the Talao hoping Jabbaar would have come back after we had left. Jabbaar wasn't there. He must have found some other waterhole away from the disturbing road. We saw instead three Oriental Honey Buzzards drinking from the lake. A mugger crocodile was lying under the surface with its nostrils and eyes sticking above the surface. I was glad to be back in Tadoba!

Afternoon drive
In the afternoon Bubloo was back with a new battery, ready to pick us up at 3 pm. I took the wheels, as I love driving in the forests and I love Gypsies. It was a lovely drive, with lots of sambar, chital and gaur sightings. Wild boars were there everywhere. We missed a leopard by minutes. Ravi and most other Gypsies had seen it, near Kala Amba. When we arrived at the scene, the others, who had all missed the tiger that day (our was the only sighting) had evened scores with us through that one leopard!

A herd chital, or Spotted Deer, at Pandarpauni 1 waterhole

Splitting up from the Gypsy 'herd' we continued our safari and chose to go back to Pandarpauni to enjoy watching the ungulates that would line up at he waterholes and come to graze on the lush grass of the meadow as the day cooled down. Fingers were also crossed for the Pandarpauni sub adult cubs, who had managed to survive even after their famous mother, called Katrina, had vanished under mysterious circumstances. Soon, it was sundown, and with no luck with the tigers but an excellent, near spiritual time watching the ungulates come one after the other, in huge herds to drink and then graze in the golden twilight, we turned back towards Mohurli. This excellent density of prey base was a sure sign of a healthy tiger population and a healthy forest.

Sambar in the Tadoba Talao

Driving to the gate we chanced upon some sambar that had entered the Tadoba Talao, a scene made famous by the better known Ranthmbhore's Padam Talao on many a BBC and NGC documentary. Shooting some quick pictures, we made our way to the gate in the fast failing light.

Mother and fawn in perfect symmetry, Tadoba Talao

Between the Khatodi and Mohurli gates, we saw a white Gypsy stranded on the road, refusing to start. It was now our turn to give Ravi a lift!

Day 2, 20, April 2008:

Morning drive
On our second morning Ravi and we decided to go together, in two Gypsies. Even before we reached Khatodi Gate, the entrance to the Tadoba National Park from the Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary, we had heard a barking deer giving alarm calls and went to investigate, without result. The rest of the morning was spent in search of the King as it was Ravi's last day and he would leave the same evening. He was desperate as he had never come to Tadoba and not seen a tiger.

Wild boar at '97' waterhole

The chase continued. Fresh pugmarks here, an alarm call there. No results after waiting at Pandarpauni 1, coming under the territory of a huge tiger called Sultan, for over an hour. Soon it was time to leave. We had to be out by 11am. We had been amused by wild boars wallowing in the water, a monitor lizard, a pair of mating Indian Rollers, aka Blue Jays and numerous ungulates, but still no tiger.

Blue Jays or Indian Rollers mating, Pandarpauni

As a last try, we just wanted to check the Vasantbanjara stream. I asked Ravi to wait on the tar road while I went in to check the densely shaded stream. I found no signs of tiger. As we were backing out to the road I could see Ravi wildly waving to us from his Gypsy. We hurried. "Just keep watching the clearing between those two bushes" he whispered and pointed to the left. I watched with baited breath, camera at the ready. A tiger appeared out of a bush, crouching and moving as if he were a lot shorter than he really was. He looked at us with an unpleasant expression on his face and hurried behind the other bush and disappeared towards the stream in less than five seconds. He was an old tiger with a pale coat and Ravi had been lucky enough to see him on the road at close quarters before he vanished behind a bush!

Day #2, Tiger #2!

This is what I love about Tadoba. The tigers here behave absolutely naturally, wary of humans, very unlike the nearly semi-tame ones of Madhya Pradesh. Of course, it takes just as much skill to track the Madhya Pradesh tigers and they are just as beautiful, but the Tadoba tigers have not been adulterated by the constant presence of tourists. Some do tolerate them, but only up to a certain limit. They won’t fall asleep in front of tourists, for example! At least they don't now! I don't mean to criticize Ranthambhore or Bandhavgarh, as the behaviour of their tigers is bare proof of their effective conservation, but the behaviour of Tadoba tigers is that of a truly 'wild' tiger, of a remote forest, untouched by humans. It’s just pleasantly different. This might not appeal to the die hard photographer, but, to an Indian wildlifer, this is the essence of the jungle.

Just after exiting the Mohurli gate, we were witness to yet another spectacle. Two of the Forest Department's elephants were being retired from active service and were being sent off to a 'retirement home'. It was interesting to watch them being coaxed onto trucks.

Tusker on a truck

Afternoon drive
Pictures were shared over glasses of chilled lemonade and our terrific luck discussed. Two tigers in two consecutive mornings! I couldn't ask for more! Old friends from the Tiger Research and Conservation Trust (TRACT) Vinod and Rundan had come to visit us.

Langurs at late afternoon

Post lunch, we started for the evening drive, this time, in one Gypsy. After having some great gaur sightings, we went to the '97' waterhole. We saw some sambar there, looking down into the water, which had shrunk down below our view in the summer heat. We couldn't see what the sambar were looking at, but they were very tense, their tails raised and eyes wide, a tense hoof stamping hard from time to time. Then, a small, bright orange head appeared, looking at us inquisitively. A few others followed. Dholes! We had chanced upon a pack of India's Wild Dogs (Cuon alpinus) which had cornered a small herd of sambar!

Wild dog cornering sambar, 97 waterhole

This is a rarely witnessed drama of the Indian jungle and we were extremely fortunate to be witnessing it. Soon, about ten or more pups and sub adults leaped out from behind. Two stags were trying to defend a hind and a fawn from the dogs. The fraction of moment for which we had distracted the dholes had given the sambar a chance to escape. They gradually began retreating. The dhole suddenly took their eyes off us and realising their prey was slipping, followed them cautiously. We had spoiled their hunt... but were still grateful for the moment. Ravi left that evening, his record unbroken.

Day 3, 21, April 2008:

Morning drive
Dinner table talks at the MTDC Resort the previous night revolved around our exceptional tiger luck. Everyone was sure we'd see one on our last day, and have a 'hattrick'! We kept our fingers crossed!

It was a Monday and there were almost no other visitors except 2-3 Gypsies including ours. The others went towards Kolsa and we were the only Gypsy in the Tadoba side. As we left the Talao area that morning and drove towards Pandarpauni, from a distance we noticed hundreds of chital running together- a scene reminiscent of Africa's famous wildebeest and zebra herds migrating. We rushed to see what the commotion was all about. The chital were running as fast as they could, wasting time for nothing, not even alarm calls. They were running in circles and we noticed that a pack of wild dogs were right inside the herd, a feast in the offing for them. There was more than a single kill that morning. The dogs were whistling maniacally.

Dhole with chital kill

As we watched the nearest dog grabbed a fawn by the throat, deviating from typical canine style and behaving more like a big cat. After the fawn was dead in its grip, the dog used all its strength to drag the kill to a nearby bush where it began to eat it. Strangely, no other dogs joined. There surely were more kills.

Dragging the kill

A herd of sambar chanced upon the scene just then, and vanished with equal suddenness, belling out their alarm calls. A pup, which didn't know which way to go, which whistle to answer to, jumped around in agitation and excitement for a few seconds before diving into Pandarpauni 1 and swimming to the other bank, the ten inches of his height enough to send a sounder of wild boar fleeing! This was some action! Pandarpauni bore a strange, eerie look, not an animal on its otherwise teaming meadows!

A dhole pup swims

We drove towards Katejhari, and on our way, chanced into another Gypsy with an elderly couple. They asked us if we had seen our third consecutive tiger yet, and hearing we hadn't, reassured us of our ‘hattrick’. In Katejhari we came across our first nilgai. Shortly after, we saw a lone sambar. It was getting late and we decided to head back. But Bubloo said, since we had come that far, why not check a waterhole that was only a few metres away. Just as we reached, a big male tiger turned to look towards us! He was cooling off in the water.

Day #3, tiger #3

Seeing us, he got up and climbed onto the bank, turned to give us another look and vanished! A chital called in alarm to tell us where he headed. Unbelievable good luck!

Afternoon drive
That evening we enjoyed a bit more a Tadoba, especially the gaur in the magical late evening light on top of Jamunbodi. There were over twenty of them scattered around, calling and grazing. Their reddish brown bodies, stockinged legs and the beautiful yellow grass looked fantastic in that light.

A bull gaur at Jamunbodi

A particularly cooperative one horned bull, whom I had seen before, gave some good photo opportunities. The next morning we were to head back to Nagpur, and then to the forests of Kipling's 'Jungle Book'- Pench National Park.

To view more images from this trip, CLICK HERE

All rights reserved.
Text and images © Aditya C. Panda, 2008

SATKOSIA'S TIGERS – a new ray of hope

2008-07-10T21:49:00.028+05:30

As published in the Sanctuary Asia magazine, Vol. No. XXVIII, No.2, April 2008*

A Sanctuary ABN AMRO Young Naturalist of the Year Award winner for, 2007, the author is still a college student, but has nevertheless managed to pack in a remarkable amount of experience into his life. Working with Wild Orissa, his documentation of predator-prey status in the Satkosia-Gorge Wildlife Sanctuary helped get this vital forest declared a tiger reserve. He writes here about his experiences during his visits to a forest he knows, loves and seeks to protect.

Text and images by Aditya C. Panda

A mugger crocodile basks on the sands of the river Mahanadi in the Satkosia Gorge

On its incessant course toward the Bay of Bengal, the mighty Mahanadi crashes through the hills of Central Orissa, carving a stunning, 22 km.-long gorge. The Eastern Ghats biotic province lies to the south of this gorge and the Chhota Nagpur plateau to its north. Here, in the forest of the Satkosia Gorge, the tiger's roar is still heard and the mugger or marsh crocodile still fishes in the crystal waters of the Mahanadi. This is also the southernmost range of the highly-endangered gharial, though only three or four still survive here. Ever since the Hirakud Dam was constructed upstream, the fortunes of the gharial have dwindled, partly because the freshwater ecology changed and also because of competition from mugger crocodiles. The forests that clothe both banks of the river are a stronghold of elephant, gaur, leopard, sambar, chital, barking deer, mouse deer, chousingha and wild pig. And of course, one of Orissa's last remaining viable tiger populations. Sloth bears are still common here and the occasional dhole or wild dog pack can be sighted, though not as often as before. The rich sal forests mixed with luxuriant bamboo, teak and fruiting trees like Asan (Terminalia tomentosa) and Kochila (Strychnos nuxvomica) cater to varied birds including Alexandrine, Rose-ringed and Plum-headed Parakeets, lorikeets, Verditer, Monarch, Fantail and other flycatchers, nuthatches, mynahs, tits, Brown Cheeked Fulvettas… the list is endless. This is a good place to sight giant and flying squirrels too and the forests harbour populations of endangered Hill Mynah and Malabar Pied Hornbills.

I first visited Satkosia, in May 2007, as part of an elephant census team from Wild Orissa (a Bhubaneswar-based organisation with whom I have been volunteering for almost five years or more). I have been smitten ever since and have lost no opportunity to visit the park to help monitor and document its wildlife.

Counting elephants

Diptiranjan Patra, a friend and Wild Orissa member, and I reached the rustic, century-old bungalow at Labangi from Pampasar, Satkosia's main entry point, well past midnight. A chital alarm from the hills to our right reminded us that we were in the striped predator's domain and I hoped that a tiger sighting was in my destiny this trip, but the real joy was to be out on foot in the forest as an observer.

A young tusker beats the May heat in the Kantarsingha Game Tank

A wild animal census is not an exact affair that can throw up definitive numbers of any species, but it does give managers an idea of the density, diversity and spread of animal populations. For obvious reasons, there is a focus on waterholes and salt licks, which are frequently visited by animals. As instructed by the officers in charge of the census, we headed out on foot early in the morning towards the Kantarsingha Game Tank. The path was strewn with ungulate spoor – fresh and old – chital, sambar, barking deer, mouse deer and the occasional gaur. We unwittingly disturbed a herd of chital at the tank. The saltlicks around the tank were replete with activity, we even saw elephant tracks.

A small herd of chital or spotted deer at Kantarsingha Game Tank

Sambar at the salt lick in Kantarsingha (image scanned from older film archive)

The rich birdlife and the presence of giant squirrels indicated a healthy canopy, an increasingly rare occurrence in this era of monoculture plantation forests. That afternoon, we trekked for around 20 km. through dense forests toward Talsera village. En route, we saw leopard pugmarks, but missed seeing elephants by a just few minutes on two occasions and had to be content with the heavy scent they left in the still, sweltering air of a May afternoon. While pugmarks may not accurately help in identifying specific animals, they are certainly vital in indicating carnivore movements and all such data had to be meticulously recorded by all those engaged in the census operation.

The moment we entered the village, we were informed that a tusker was gorging on mangoes in the village grove, half a kilometre away. We hurried to the spot, only to discover that the village kids had scared him away. It had not been a particularly exciting day, but in a sense the very ‘slowness’ of everything was attractive. Unlike the image of forests painted by dramatic documentaries, real life here is slow, somnambulant almost. The drama is, of course, always present (a carnivore kill, the movement of an elephant herd), waiting to burst into the open, after which long periods of stasis are again the order of the day.

Day two was decidedly more rewarding. We were on the Labangi-Tulka road in the Pampasar Range, where we were informed that three tuskers were still in the vicinity. Walking in the safety of a dry nullah, with good visibility around it, we came across the first tusker in less than 10 minutes. He was on a three metre-high embankment and we could barely get a glimpse of him before he turned around and disappeared into the forest. We missed the other two tuskers, but could tell they were there from the rumbling infrasound they made.

We returned in the afternoon with Palia, the game watcher. There was a muntjac at the saltlick, but it bolted on our approach. Clearly, the Satkosia forest could do with more isolation and protection from humans. We did, nevertheless, manage to get in a decent afternoon of birding and saw a giant squirrel intently watching us as we waited for elephants. A herd of sambar – four does and a fawn arrived at the saltlick before where they spent some quiet time till they were alarmed by something a little to our left and behind. Their tails were up and forefeet stamped the ground with exaggerated deliberation to the accompaniment of loud alarms. They all looked fixed in the direction of the threat (a big cat?) before walking back in the direction they had emerged. A minute later, a muntjac called from the direction of the 'threat' and left us guessing. Did the two different species of deer merely scare each other, or was there indeed a predator on the prowl? As always, watching the forest come to life at sundown was a breathtaking experience. As darkness crept in and night sounds replaced the more familiar sounds of day, we walked back to camp, following the fresh tracks of a lone elephant that had visited the area while we were at the game tank.

That evening I made careful notes in my field diary, which I would later transcribe into a standard format for the authorities. I was glad to play a small role in helping protect and manage this wilderness and knew that this is what I was destined to do for the rest of my life.

The next day, the final day of the census, we were asked to take the morning watch atop the watchtower. The first two hours yielded 11 barking deer and miscellaneous bird life, but no elephants! In the afternoon, Palia and I went to the nearby game tank and stopped some metres away listening to the low rumbling typical of an elephant. The sight we saw was enough to gladden any heart. It was a particularly content elephant vocally splashing about the pool, literally playing in its own private, natural spa, wet mud and all. We crept up the tower and watched, completely mesmerised, as the young tusker celebrated his existence. I doubt that that memory of Satkosia will ever be lost to me. If at all there was any doubt that Satkosia was a vital elephant habitat that was dispelled the next morning as we watched yet another young tusker gorge on the fruit of a village orchard, downing mangoes and jack fruit at will for over an hour. .(Add one or two sentences on the result of the census)

A few days later, as I read the census figures in the newspapers back home, I was content to note that Satkosia Wildlife Division alone had close to 200 elephants. Combined with Baissipalli Wildlife Sanctuary and other forests of Mahanadi Wildlife Division and surrounding territorial forests that constituted the Mahanadi Elephant Reserve, the number of elephants in these forests was said to exceed 500

A Panthera tigris stronghold

A couple of months before this trip to Satkosia, a young tigress, said to be between two and four years old, was sprayed with 11 rounds of buckshot by a poacher who had gone into the jungle in search of deer. She was found in the Purunakote Range and was transported for care to the Nandankanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar, where, even today, she lies in a tiny cage, paralysed below her waist, with painful bedsores, far away from the forests she once roamed. In my view, she would be better off dead.

The tigress, shot by a poacher at Asurakhola in Purunakote. Now confined to a
squeeze cage in Nandankanan zoo for nearly one and half years

At Wild Orissa, we have always known that Satkosia was a crucial tiger breeding habitat and that it needed much more protection. But it took 11 long years of intensive lobbying to get Satkosia declared a tiger reserve. In December 2007, I made another long trip to Satkosia, this time to the proposed core area of the tiger reserve, to document and collect data on tigers and their prey. With me was friend and fellow wildlifer with Wild Orissa, Dayani Chakravarthy from Mysore and Satyabrata Mishra, also a member from Bhubaneswar. We based ourselves in Tulka, in Purunakote Range, for the first half of the trip and then in Labangi, in Pampasar Range.

In and around Tulka, we saw many tiger pugmarks, fresh and old. On the main jeep track, we saw the fresh pugmarks of a tigress followed by a lone cub! The size of the prints suggested that the cub was no more than three or four months old. Interestingly, the pugmarks were superimposed on our car tracks, which meant they had passed just the previous night or early that morning because we had arrived around midnight. We knew that there was a tigress in Purunakote Range with two cubs, but they were almost a year old then. This was a different tigress and it had a new cub in tow! All this spelled good news for Satkosia.

Pug mark of a tigress, Satkosia Tiger Reserve

Apart from the two breeding females, we found the pugmark of yet another lone tigress and the pugmarks of two different males in different parts of the range. All this in the vicinity of the Tulka and Purunakote villages! In all likelihood, the high density of tigers is because of the healthy gaur population in the reserve. Not surprisingly gaur kills by tigers are frequent. The reappearance of dholes in this area is also a very welcome sign of the increasing prey base. Through our stay, we heard alarm calls of chital, sambar and langur daily. On our third morning in Tulka, as we were returning to the bungalow after our morning romp in the forests, we were treated to the most awe-inspiring sound in the world – the call of a male Royal Bengal tiger! He called for almost half an hour, at intervals of 5-10 seconds. The whole atmosphere was electric! In my view, if there is any real future for the tiger in Orissa, it is here. Even more so than Similipal (which is neck deep in controversy about its tigers now), though both reserves must, of course, receive the highest level of protection.

The significance of Satkosia

The location of Satkosia’s rich forests – in the very heart of Orissa – makes it an extremely vital biodiversity vault. It has direct or indirect corridors with almost every other major forest patch in the state. The Satkosia-Baissipalli belt, together with adjoining Reserved Forests has been declared as the 1,000-plus sq. km. Mahanadi Elephant Reserve, which houses close to 500 pachyderms. To the south, the Satkosia belt (which includes Baissipalli) is directly connected to the Ghumusar North and South Reserved Forests. Indirectly, corridors also connect the Nayagarh-Daspalla forests. And the park is well linked to the forests of Western Orissa, particularly the Khalasuni-Badrama (Ushakoti) section, which also harbours a tiger population.

Perfect habitat for tigers in Satkosia

I have visited this forest frequently and have come to know it well. Elephant and tiger movement frequently occurs between Baissipalli and the Tarasingh Range of Ghumusar North. Ghumusar is one of the few forests outside the Protected Areas that contains a breeding tiger population and should quickly be listed as a critical tiger habitat for the long-term survival of Panthera tigris in Orissa. Leopards are also doing well here, though their poaching is getting increasingly frequent in the region. The success of the Satkosia Tiger Reserve would be greatly shored up if Ghumusar could be readied to accept Satkosia's spillover tigers. This would also serve the additional purpose of refreshing the gene stock of both tiger populations.

The Ghumusar forests are in turn well connected with the Kondhmal (Kandha referring to a predominant tribe here, mal meaning mountains) forests (Phulbani and Kalahandi) and the historically rich and very remote ‘Dandakaranya’ (at the junction of Orissa, Andhra and Chhattisgarh). This area has historically been known for its tigers and its wild, untamed terrain. On the western side, the Boudh and Rairakhol forests connect Satkosia to the wildlife-rich jungles of Ushakoti-Badrama.

To the north, the regular movement of elephants (and tigers) between Satkosia and Similipal through the Kapilas Reserved Forests was badly affected by the NH-42, which links Cuttack and Sambalpur. Whatever little migration was possible was wrecked by the construction of the Rengali Canal. Such shortsighted and ecologically damaging projects could so easily have been better planned, if only developers had the sensitivity and ecological intelligence that is going to be so critical to the survival of human populations on the Indian subcontinent.

It is impossible to underestimate the value of the Satkosia forests, which are, incredibly, also linked to the coastal forests of the Cuttack and Khurda districts.

The Satkosia Tiger Reserve

A decade of solid work put in by Wild Orissa's finally paid off in 2005, when the Central Government gave an ‘in-principal’ approval for the Satkosia Tiger Reserve. However, it was not until December 31, 2007, that the Orissa Government actually formalised Satkosia’s declaration as Orissa's second tiger reserve. Hopefully, the Orissa Forest Department will now ensure that this decision translates into greater protection for tigers. It’s not going to be an easy task because timber theft and poaching are rampant here. Twenty tigers could be lost in the blink of an eye if we lose our focus. All it would take are a few jaw traps and a few pesticide bottles.

The other critical effort will be the building up of herbivore populations through protection. This happens to be one of the most neglected aspects of wildlife management in India and it troubles me when forest officials treat anything other than tiger and elephant poaching as ”petty crime by locals”. Whoever indulges in the killing of wild animals, rich or poor, tribal or non-tribal, should have the book thrown at them. This is because killing of deer and wild pig directly affects the food availability of carnivores. And when food is short, not only does the breeding success of carnivores fall, but incidents of human-animal conflicts automatically rise.

Habitat management, of the kind that parks such as Kanha have so effectively implemented down the years, is vital for habitats such as Satkosia whose prey density will surely rise if we create and maintain the meadows that had long ago been lost to the teak plantations planted by the British. Apart from encouraging prey densities to rise, meadows will also encourage both carnivores and elephants to stay inside the park and will greatly reduce the man-animal conflict that has become a part and parcel of the life of those living on the fringes of Orissa protected forests.

Late in January this year, I returned to Satkosia for a short trip. In a little over two days, I was able to spend time watching for raptors including a really good Crested Serpent Eagle sighting. Other birds I enjoyed watching were the Blackheaded Bulbul and Monarch Flycatcher. I followed up on a report of a leopard that had killed a goat in a village near Jagannathpur on the way to Purunakote and was able to follow the day-old pugmarks of another leopard along the road to Asurakhola. Jungle paths always tell interesting stories and as I followed the leopard’s pugmarks, I saw older tracks of a lone tiger going in the opposite direction. I did an about turn and discovered where the tiger had scraped the soil beside the path at frequent intervals. Near one of the scrapes, I discovered a scat that seemed to suggest that the tiger had made a chital kill, but to be absolutely sure, the hair would need to be examined under a microscope. A little ahead, I found fresh bear scat with termite heads in it, but missed the sloth bear that others had seen ahead of us.

I spent the second morning in Tulka where, the forest watcher, Ganga, had found tiger pugmarks three to four days ago, probably of the resident Tulka male. I spent the day at Tikarpada and walked along the opposite bank of the river, watching river lapwings and a particularly large mugger crocodile. Our boatman said he had seen tigers on the Mahanadi's banks on a few occasions. I also heard of villagers who had scared off a tiger that had a charged a grazing herd of buffaloes.

The most promising tiger habitat here is the Labangi-Tulka-Purunakote patch, which has a fairly decent prey base. However, this area is not going to be sufficient for new cubs because when they grow up they will need independent territories, which will be hard to come by. All the truly suitable tiger habitats in Satkosia are already occupied and, under present conditions of habitat and protection, both predators and prey seem to have reached a level of saturation. Without improving the habitat by drastically reducing human, and especially, cattle pressure, improving vegetation and forage for herbivores and increasing protection, there is little scope for the carrying capacity of these forests to increase any further. From here on it is up to those who control the destiny of India to make up their minds whether they wish to see the tiger quietly die out, or whether it is worthwhile to encourage some key villages to move away from critical tiger habitats with their domestic livestock, so that tiger numbers can rise and the forest can perform the water harvesting and climate control role it had been performing for eons.

The problem is not with the villagers for they have already said they would be happy to move. In fact even those villagers living in Revenue Villages along the Pampasar-Tikarpada State Highway that bisects the Satkosia Sanctuary have agreed to move and some such as Raigoda have put this intent in writing over five years ago. But the Orissa Forest Department has not been able to provide an effective relocation package. Purunakote, tired of losing their crop to elephants and ungulates, also now wishes to relocate. The condition of forest villages such as Tulka, Labangi and Chotkei is even worse and they would surely jump at the chance to move closer to markets, where jobs and medical facilities for their families are much easier to access

Incidentally, the Forest Rights Act which is likely to devastate forest lands when brokers and middlemen misuse it to access timber and other forest riches, has no roll to play in the relocation of the Revenue Villages such as the ones mentioned above because these communities already own their lands, which they would gladly sell, provide they were assured of equally fertile lands elsewhere and of a financial package that enabled them to improve the lives of their families. The Satkosia Tiger Reserve has 106 villages strewn across it. Five of these are in the core area of the Tiger Reserve and the rest 101 one lie in its buffer. Rehabilitating these out of the Tiger Reserve will have an immense positive impact on the wild fauna and flora, and, at the same time, provide the people with better opportunities to live a much happier life.

Organized wildlife poaching is another serious threat. This has become a chronic elephant poaching zone and poisoning of tiger kills also happens. The porous southern and eastern boundaries of the park, easily accessible through the Mahanadi, let the notorious wildlife/timber mafia based in Narsinghpur and Badamba villages of Cuttack district have a free run of these forests.

At the time of writing one hears of the Rs. 600 crore financial package that could be allocated for the long term protection of forests such as Satkosia. Another sum of Rs. 50 crore is said to have been allocated for tiger protection in the country in the Union Budget 2008-9. If these funds are used to benefit the wildlife and are not misspent, I have no doubt that Satkosia will turn into a park that could rival any Kanha , Corbett or Nagarahole. Officers of the likes of ex-DFO Sushanta Nanda and his team of rangers (whom I credit with the revival of these forests over the past year and half or so) need to be posted for continued competent and dedicated administration of the park.

The elixir of life!

I am young enough to dream about turning these forests that feed the Mahanadi into the throbbing heart of India’s wilderness. I know that by acting as mega-carbon sinks such thick and biodiversity rich forests could mitigate many of the impacts of climate change that the rampant industrialisation of Orissa is surely going to accelerate. Put another way, protecting the tigers of Satkosia’s amounts to the protection of the very future of Orissa; the very future of India.

My images from the Satkosia Tiger Reserve can be seen here

*Not applicable to some images

BHITARKANIKA!

2008-04-01T17:11:00.012+05:30

Shikar Kothi Meadows

Here is my collection of images from trips to this amazing wild-land. The images are from trips made between January 2007 to February 2008. Hope you enjoy them. Feel free to critique. Click on the images to go to gallery.

Bhitarkanika is India's second largest patch of contiguous mangrove forest- next only to the Sunderbans- and is home to the densest population of Saltwater aka Estuarine Crocodile in the subcontinent. Over 1500 salties- the largest living reptiles on the face of this planet- share ~ 650 sq kms of mangrove forest, estuaries and beaches with mind blowing avian and reptilian fauna.

Unlike the forests more inland, mammals take a back seat here as reptiles rule this real life Jurassic Park. However, that doesn't stop it from being home to some extremely rare mammals like the leopard like Fishing Cat and Irrawaddy and Bottle-Nosed dolphins, not to forget other 'common' creatures like chital, wild boar, jackals and hyenas. I'll keep adding to this album as I go on visiting Bhitarkanika.

Bhitarkanika is home to there species of monitor lizard, the largest of which is this,
the seven footer Water Monitor Lizard.

Bhitarkanika is home to 1500 Saltwater Crocodiles

An Asian Openbilled Stork

THE JUNGLE AFTER SUNDOWN

2008-03-08T12:38:00.013+05:30

Click on above image to view gallery

Wildlife photography at night is often discouraged. The reason is, people can't think of it without the use of a flash. Nocturnal wildlife is very sensitive to light. Their eyes are meant to be used in very low light and need to be rested even in daylight. Imagine the effect of a powerful camera flashgun on them! Even the 'weak' inbuilt flashes that come with digital cameras can cause permanent optical damage if used from very close.

So does one have to pack up one's camera at sundown? Not necessarily. In this age of DSLRs, we have the convenience of changing ISO at will. Torchlight, car headlights (from a distance, of course), etc. are not known to harm/disturb wildlife the way flashguns do. Especially in areas where wildlife has become used to frequent human presence, such an external source of illumination may be used without any feeling of guilt. However, care must be taken not to approach too close to the subject and one must always switch off the light at the least hint of disturbance on the animal's part. Combined with these weak sources of light, a high ISO of 1600 or 3200 can yield fairly good results. During night drives through well wooded parts (don't do it in parks where it is not permitted!), I usually have my 75-300 mounted, with ISO pumped up to 3200 and camera in 'Tv' mode and shutter speed set somewhere between 1/15 to 1/30. My camera has an in-built 'Shake Reduction' system and I manage to take fairly good pictures hand-held at such low shutter speeds. Later, I work on them on Photoshop, adjusting levels to correct lighting and if necessary, use noise reduction and sharpening. Here, I have attempted to showcase some of my work taken with these tricks. Night photography need not always be unethical!

Some 'DOs' and 'DON'Ts' to keep in mind:

(a) NEVER use a flash.
(b) NEVER shine a light directly onto the animal's face/eyes.
(c) NEVER physically restrain the animal. Switch off the light at the least hint of disturbance.
(d) Maintain silence throughout.
(e) Pump up your ISO to max.
(f) Use medium range focal lengths (200mm, max. 300mm.)
(g) Use manual focus.
(h) Tripods and beanbags, if possible to use, will give a lot of advantage.
(i) Don't drive around at night where it is prohibited. Roads outside parks, especially in rural areas and even in city outskirts, often throw up the odd hare, civet or jackal.
(j) Don't be a maniac of a driver. Drive slow and don't honk. In any case, if you do any of those, you'll probably end up not even seeing a rat.
(j) Practice all standard safari ethics while on these 'night safaris'.

Would love to hear your views on this.

Cheers!

2008-01-29T00:39:00.003+05:30

Hi everyone,

I've been tripping rather hectically since the beginning of 2007. Keeping this blog updated with so much travel has become rather difficult. Although I'm trying my best to put up detailed trip reports ASAP, I'll take this opportunity to brief you about some of my most memorable incidents in '07.

* Perhaps the best thing that happened in 2007, by me, has been my trips to the Satkosia Gorge Wildlife Sanctuary. To see Satkosia bouncing back and its tigers making a comeback- breeding and refusing to perish under human pressure, has been a dream come true. To top it all, on 31 December '07, a day before the Forest Rights Act was implemented, Satkosia was declared Orissa's second Tiger Reserve- 11 years of untiring effort by Wild Orissa, with whom I have been volunteering with since the past five years, has finally paid off. It'll be a while before I post my trip reports here. Until then, please go through the images I made there by clicking on these images:

* The second most memorable part of '07 has been my trip to Tadoba Tiger Reserve in November '07. I made the trip with my friend Dayani Chakravarthy, from Mysore, and had a great experience interacting with the Tiger Research and Conservation Trust (TRACT) who're doing excellent work there. The trip also gifted us with a great tiger sighting apart from many other herbivores and some great birding. A few images from that trip can be seen on my INW Gallery by clicking on the image below.

* Apart from some major wildlifing, in many shorter trips throughout the year, one major mentionable is that I was honored to receive the "Sanctuary Asia-ABN AMRO Young Naturalist of the Year Award '07". Click on the image below for details on that.

Alternatively, you may log on to www.theearthheroes.com or www.sanctuaryasia.com

ELEPHANT RAGE

2007-09-08T19:48:00.005+05:30

The pitiful state of Chandaka's wild elephants

16 sec. Dial-up friendly video
The pitiful state of Chandaka's elephants

Chandaka is a small sanctuary on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Orissa. It has a population of about 65 elephants, who are literally trapped next to this city in this tiny 190 sq. km. sanctuary bereft of traditional elephant migration corridors with bigger nearby habitats. However, the elephants do come over to Bharatpur, a 2600 acre patch of scrub jungle right inside Bhubaneswar, which is also part of the sanctuary. But Bharatpur has become separated from the main Chandaka forests over the last decade because of ruthless and mostly illegal real estate 'development'. This is causing severe stress to these highly intelligent creatures with emotions almost at par with humans. This has been causing human-elephant conflict to be rocketing since the last few years. Typical symptoms of what scientists have termed 'elephant rage' are being witnessed here. These highly intelligent and emotional creatures have been seen reacting to stress and conflict very much like humans. They have intelligence bordering on the capability to reason and revengeful behavior towards ever increasing human encroachment is being routinely noticed in parts of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bengal and the North-East of India.

This video was captured when I was out one afternoon on a birding trip with a couple of friends and came across a herd of elephants as we often do. But we normally see them browsing, resting and generally doing their own thing without any sort of aggression towards us. So much so, that they have over time gathered trust for us. But on this particular day, this old matriarch, to whom we refer as the 'Torn-Eared Female' wanted to cross the Khandagiri-Chandaka road in order the 10-15 km to the main Chandaka forests. She had two calves and a juvenile with her. As she hung around near the road(not visible in video, but you can hear a few vehicles plying), waiting for darkness to fall so they could cross over peacefully in its cover. But, a couple of jackasses saw the matriarch from the road and wanted to have a closer look at her. What they didn't know was that in the bushes towards which they were approaching, the calves and the juvenile were hiding. As the two men, both in white shirts (a color elephants abhor) came a bit too close, the matriarch couldn't take it any longer, and you've seen what she did. Later that evening, we waited in a temple near the road expecting them to cross. They came right up to the other side of the road. But then vehicles and people started gathering there and did not let them cross. She charged again, but retreated when the crowd and noise was too much. My friend Rudra managed to capture this even in complete darkness on his 3CCD pro- movie cam. I'll upload those videos soon. I managed to get some ISO 3200 images too which I've uploaded here. Since this particular video was captured on a little digicam, the quality is pretty poor. Throughout the incident, not even one Forest Department employee was there to control the crowd. In fact, not even one Forest Guard or watcher mans this side of the forest. This corridor is under active usage and tremendous human-induced pressure. It is only about 3-4 km from the extremely busy National Highway- 5 and Bhubaneswar's busy Baramunda area.

Following are the images I took. These are high ISO (3200) images which I took in almost complete darkness.

The elephants gathered near the road (the edge of which can be seen at the bottom
of the image)

People just did not let them cross. They had to retreat. Nobody from the Forest Dep-
-artment was there to control the situation- and this is supposed to be a sanctuary!
How will elephants NOT kill people if they are continually harassed like this?

The very same elephant a few weeks before this incident.
A picture of calm and peace when left unmolested and unprovoked

More images from here and other places visited by me can be seen here: http://www.indianaturewatch.net/view_cat.php?tag=Aditya+Panda
and
http://picasaweb.google.com/junglediaries

Your views and comments will be greatly appreciated.

All rights reserved.
Copyright, 2007, Aditya C. Panda
Video courtesy: Dillip Naik

CHARGED!

2007-04-10T16:13:00.003+05:30

25 February, 2007

I’ve been visiting the Chandaka- Dampara wildlife sanctuary on a regular basis since well over five years now. The sanctuary is famous for its elephants and is known for good sightings in Orissa. In all these years, I’ve had many encounters with the pachyderms- I’ve slept on the Ambilo watchtower listening to a herd of eighteen and a tusker trumpeting, drinking and frolicking all through the moonless night, I’ve had a tusker hide behind bushes and watch me while I was searching for it in vain and I’ve had come across extremely fresh elephant spoor on many occasions and yet, never seen one. I know this is strange but the jungle has her own ways of surprising one… a hard working naturalist might be there for months in the field and not see even a glimpse of his subject while a casual, undeserving picnicker is rewarded with a grand sighting. Something like this was definitely happening with me. After way too many failed trips I had made it a point to always visit the sanctuary without any expectations (tip to safari goers: this approach greatly enhances the pleasure of a safari, makes you a better, more real wildlifer and greatly reduces frustration).

I try to visit Chandaka as many times as possible and Sundays are almost exclusively reserved for her. But since the last Sunday was disappointing with a lot of picnickers having disturbed the jungle I had made up my mind to stop my Sunday trips. I was therefore not very keen when Subhayu Mishra, fellow volunteer with Wild Orissa, came down from Mumbai and called for an afternoon trip. We rode down the 25 kms to Godibari, the sanctuary’s entrance, on my P180 and reached around four O’ clock. After a brief chat with the guards, we got onto the ‘morrum’ track that leads for another 15 kms to a watchtower near the Kumarkhunti reservoir. The ride didn’t produce much… langurs, a few peafowl, jungle fowl, quail, green bee-eaters, a female scarlet minivet and other miscellaneous jungle birds. My attempts at photographing the bee-eaters and peafowl later turned out to be a disaster. We also came across two pugmarks- one of a sloth bear and the other very possibly belonging to a wolf. Elephant spoor was everywhere and it was apparent that this route was being heavily used. We spent our time at Kumarkhunti watching the whistling teals, dabchicks and darters. Having our senses soothed by the birds, we went to the watchtower for a chat with Behera, the guard and an old friend. The land in front of the tower had been ploughed and Behera told me it was meant for sowing fodder for the herbivores. This was immensely satisfying to me as I have always being pressing for this. One of the biggest reasons for the lack of prey base in Chandaka has been the lack of enough grazing. A couple of new salt licks had also been built. As we waited eagerly expecting a sighting, a herd of domestic cattle and buffaloes came over to the salt lick giving us a rude reality check. This was enough to enrage both us and Behera. He started cribbing about how wildlife and the forest department were being given step motherly treatment by the government and we couldn’t help but agree. Wildlifers in India are used to blaming the forest department for everything and anything that happens to our wildlife. I agree with them to a very great extent. It’s true that there are crooks everywhere. But at least as far as the forest department is concerned, in my own modest experience, I have found that more than increasing corruption it is the lack of resources that has made the forest department incapable of accomplishing the mammoth task of saving India’s wildlife. The Department is severely understaffed and whatever staff it does have is largely over aged, underpaid, lonely, homesick and terribly under-armed. The forest guard, range officer or even the DFO and his superiors are given rickety, ancient guns but only for self defense. Even if they do shoot in self defense, more often than not they are tried for murder. Such an incident happened very recently in the Bhittarkanika National Park in Orissa. When poachers are arrested, they are handed over to the magistrate and ninety nine percent of the time get off on bail and are threatening the guards with dire consequences the very next day. Convictions almost never happen. Why should we blame just the forest department then? The question I have to the forest department is why are they sitting quiet and defending the lack of successful conservation in this country when they should be openly stating the real condition of our wildlife and speaking up for themselves and for the wildlife that they are entrusted with?

Anyway, after all this and so few sightings we were both pretty irked as we rode back to Godibari. The sun was going down fast and the night jars were out. They always scare me by the way they keep sitting on the road until one almost runs over them. I switched on the headlight and a little later a hare jumped across the forest track. As we rode on discussing what should be done to save the sanctuary I heard something moving to our left. Expecting it to be a chital I was about to stop and look when all at once, in one single second, my sub conscious said that the swishing was too loud for a deer and my eyes made out four black pillars carrying a black mass on them just behind the tree line- an elephant! While all this processing went on in my head I was riding almost parallel with it only about 15-20 feet away! The elephant realized we were there at the same time that we realized it was there and in the ensuing confusion it violently turned towards us with a trumpet- and no other sound has ever exercised my nerves as that trumpet did that evening! I somehow managed to get over my nerves and gradually accelerated away. In my panic if I would have accelerated too hard the bike would have slipped on the soft, gravely jungle track and if not our lives, I would definitely have lost my beloved 180. We never turned back to look but both of us believe we heard the elephant give chase for at least a few meters after us. We couldn’t get a long enough look at it but from the small glimpse that we had we were reasonably sure that this was an adolescent female about ~7 feet tall. That meant the herd was nearby and the last thing we wanted was concerned elephant aunts, mother and sister arriving for help! And if they happened to be by the road sides further ahead, God save us! Fortunately for us, they were further inside the forest and of little risk to us. I never noticed when we reached Godibari. Adrenaline definitely has some effect on one’s sanity. Only this can explain the way we laughed out loud and continuous as soon as we got off the bike for a breather at Godibari! The hairs on our necks, and until very recently even our face, were still on their tips as we rolled into of those road side 'Chinese' restaurants in Bhubaneswar for a relaxing cup of tea and a sumptuous chicken roll.

In retrospection I finally recognized the place of the incident- it was just after the Bualigarh fort’s ruins, before the non-descript Ambakhali temple comes. The elephant would not have charged had it recognized us a little earlier. The charge was just a spontaneous reaction caused by fear and surprise. The jungle, yet again, taught me new lessons- 1. Never stay back late, not even until twilight, while on ‘bike safaris’ in elephant forests; 2. Avoid taking a fellow biker along- if you’re two guys, ride on one bike. If you’re more than two, take a car. If I would have had a biker following me that evening, the elephant would have been between the two of us and the rear biker wouldn’t have had time to turn back and flee; 3. If you are a greenhorn with ‘bike safaris’ or the jungles, DON’T go to elephant inhabited forests.

THE CANINE OUTCAST

2007-03-29T21:46:00.003+05:30

I know that this blog is supposed to be wildlife centric, but I couldn't stop myself from putting this article up here. Here goes to the oldest breed of dog in the world- India's ubiquitious "Desi".

I had been to a reputed pet shop to buy food for my dogs. In the shop there was this important looking man conversing with the owner, the conversation largely being about how great his show winning Great Dane and Labrador were. As I was about to leave, the he asked me what dogs I have. “A Rottweiler and a Desi (Indian Pariah Dog)”, I said. “N******t for a Desi?!” he exclaimed. “Lucky dog… that stray must have done some really great deeds in his last birth to deserve this!” How wished I could rub it into him that Desis are not necessarily strays or mongrels, and that they deserve a LOT more respect than they are being given. But I had neither the time nor the inclination for an argument right then, so I tried wrapping it up saying “it’s not that my dog is extraordinarily lucky, it’s just that the breed is extraordinarily unlucky to have been ignored for so long.” “Today’s kids talk a lot” he snickered.

The Indian Pariah Dog has been abused like this since a long time. Its name alone makes it an outcaste. Very few people even acknowledge it as a breed. It is better known as “stray” and “mongrel” than as a specific breed. No kennel club recognizes it. Not even the Kennel Club of India. These dogs have roamed the streets of India since years living upon garbage and scraps and are rarely considered worthy of being kept as pets. So much so, that many people are embarrassed if somebody in their family has one- “Oh, it’s just a friendly stray, not our dog” they tell guests. Why such bias? I don’t think I can as yet correctly answer that, but all I can guess for now is this- the British were the ones responsible (largely) for introducing the practice of keeping and showing dogs as pets in our country. They were too busy importing aristocratic canines from ‘back home’ and never bothered to develop local breeds. May be they even actively dissuaded local breeds (we know they did this with a lot of other local stuff, including people). The few Indian breeds that did get recognition were mostly the ones promoted by a few enterprising Maharajas. Little wonder then that most Indians, especially the snobbish kind, believe the Pariah (I’m tired of that name, lets just call it the Desi) to be the scourge of the canine world rightfully belonging in the streets and never to be seen in any self respecting man’s yard.

Dogs are not wild animals. They are just domesticated wolves that have changed morphologically due to years of isolated, selective breeding. They don’t ‘exist’ naturally on streets. All stray dogs, Desi or not, are on the streets because they have been dumped there by their owners, or, have been born to dumped dogs. Again, I repeat, no dogs ‘belong’ to the streets. Experts opine that the origin of the domestic dog can be traced back to Asia, particularly India, and that it is in fact a direct descendent of the Indian wolf Canis lupus. Here are a few facts about apna Desi for those of you who still need proof about their eligibility to the show ring:

· It is the oldest, in fact first, breed of domestic dog. Its domestication dates back 12-15, 000 years- older than any other breed.

· Since this is the oldest breed of domesticated dog, all other breeds can trace back their ancestry to this breed. Almost all other breeds have been developed by selectively breeding from this gene pool. Yes, your Doberman, Rottweiler and Bullmastiff had Desis as their ancestors somewhere down their lineage.

· It is spread across the globe from Israel, through Africa and Asia right into Australia with slight regional variations. The Israeli variety has been recognized as the Canaan dog and the African variety is called the Basenji. They are being bred to meet high standards and are excelling in the show ring all over the world. The Australian Dingoes are descendants of dogs left behind by Asian sailors. The Dingo is perhaps the closest one can get to the original domestic dog. In India they are struggling for recognition and are, more than anything else, treated as pests.

· They belong to the Spitz family but show many wolf like traits not seen in modern breeds. For example, modern breeds have two breeding cycles in a year while Desis have just one. In India this coincides with the breeding cycle of the wolf, i.e., during the Monsoon.

· They are extremely hardy and well suited to India’s sweltering tropical climate. They breed doesn’t have any inherited faults/diseases and have the most genetic diversity among dogs- that ensures that they don’t suffer from the ills of inbreeding.

· They shed remarkably less than other breeds and produce very little odor.

· They are beautiful, well proportioned dogs.

· They are highly adaptive and, though they thrive with lots of exercise, will happily adapt to more sedentary lifestyles.

· They are highly intelligent, extremely loyal, even tempered, brave, dogs with a strong guarding instinct.

· They are easily trainable but some can be a little headstrong- blame their hunting pedigree for that. They are still used by tribes in India to hunt everything from hare and deer to wild boar- you need a very determined dog to face a wild boar.

· They are among the few breeds that go closest to being the ideal dog. They are a brave guard dog, yet loyal and friendly to their family. They are strong and athletic, but easy to maintain and extremely hardy. Their intelligence makes them very trainable. Their size is big enough to make them look intimidating to unwanted visitors yet they are small enough for easy handling and affordable feeding.

The breed is fast losing its purity to mixed breeding. It is extremely crucial to preserve the breed now. Like minded promoters of the breed need to get together, set a high standard, and start breeding these dogs selectively to achieve that standard. Every effort should be made to get the breed recognized at least by the Kennel Club of India and give it the respect it so truly deserves. A lot of us Indians need to stop being snobs and start appreciating the fact that the very purpose of keeping a dog is to have a companion for life. They are not status symbols born for the show ring and nothing else. The purpose of dog shows is to promote a breed and encourage breeders to strive for making every litter better than its parents. Glamour is not the point of a dog show. Even if you are looking for glamour, take this- the Desi is the oldest living breed of domestic dog. It’s the original domestic dog. The one that started it all! To me, nothing can be more glamorous than that, because it is impossible for any other breed to ever achieve that.

14 January, 2007: BLACK BUCKS OF GANJAM

2007-02-02T17:31:00.009+05:30

There are a few villages in southern Orissa- Ballipadar, Buguda and Bhetnoi, where the locals worship and protect black bucks, much like the Bisnois of Rajasthan. Legend has it that a long time ago, when the area was facing a severe drought, twelve of these elegant antelopes arrived in the area and rain followed shortly. The villagers thus, consider them to be 'avtaars' of the goddess Laxmi and worship them. Once, during the British Raj, a Maharaja shot a black buck here. The villagers caught him and paraded him through the village with a pot in his hands (his new age Bollywood and other blue-blooded cousins better beware!)!.The animals live on the villagers crops and the villagers consider this auspicious. Head of the Blackbuck Protection Commitee and Sarpanch of Bhetnoi, Amulya Upadhyaya says that they lose almost 30% of the crops to the antelopes. The area hold well over a thousand black bucks at the time of writing. Here are some 'record shots'.

These two males offered some good observation... when we arrived we saw the single horned one... his buddy was fast asleep... all was going well until the double-horned one woke up, saw us suddenly, freaked and ran.

We didn't get many female pics of the females... they were wary, probably because they had fawns, and wouldn't come within 300mm tele range.

FOR NEWER, BETTER QUALITY IMAGES FROM LATER TRIPS TO THIS REGION, CLICK HERE

All rights reserved.
Text and images © Aditya C. Panda, 2008

RUSHIKULYA- Watching Olive Ridleys in Sea

2007-02-01T17:16:00.006+05:30

13, January 2007

A pair of Olive Ridleys mate off the Rushikulya coast

Purunabandha is a village near the mouth of the river Rushikulya. This is part of the largest Olive Ridley sea turtle rookery which historically stretched across Orissa's coast. Now mass- nesting or "arribada" occurs only at two places- Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary and Rushikulya. It has stopped happening in the Devi river mouth since about a decade now.

A Ghost Crab

Rushikulya is not a Wildlife Sanctuary and the turtles are monitored and protected by a group of dynamic young villagers headed by Rabi Sahu. They have formed a committee called the "Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee" or RSTPC. Mass nesting hadn't started when we visited and we got to see only mating congregations. Rabi very helpfully arranged a boat for us and showed us RSTPC's highly informative and very well equipped interpretation center.

FOR MORE IMAGES FROM LATER TRIPS CLICK HERE

BIRD CENSUS IN MANGALAJODI AND VISIT TO NALABANA ISLAND

2007-01-29T11:28:00.006+05:30

11, January 2007
Mangalajodi Marshes

Mangalajodi is a small fishing village on the banks of the Chilika lake, about 5kms from Tangi. Until recently it was known as a "poachers' village". That was until Nanda Kishor Bhujabal from Wild Orissa intervened and after over a decade of persuasion managed to convert them into protectors. Now the birds are returning and each census is registering greater numbers.

Blacktailed Godwit, Mangalajodi

Years of persuasion has made these ex-poachers of Mangalajodi village turn into protectors of birds. They now fish or guide tourists for a living. If you plan to visit Chilika please dont forget to sample Mangalajodi... who knows, you might have a better experience here than in the Nalabana sanctuary like I did.

Whiskered Tern, Mangalajodi

12, January 2007

Nalabana Island/Wildlife Sanctuary

Nalabana was a little dissapointing. We had expected thousands of flamingos and pelicans. Birders before us would count 3500 greater flamingoes... this year there were only 56... of pelicans, there were none... still we got a few great shots and I chanced upon an Irrawady dolphin (which I couldn't photograph) while returning.

White Bellied Sea Eagle

Our sole purpose of visiting Nalabana was to sight the flamingos and pelicans which we had missed at Mangalajodi. While we neared the sanctuary's periphery we saw thousands of teals, pintails, shovellers and other ducks. Such abundance on the periphery itself elated us. Funny thing is, there were hardly any birds inside the sanctuary! Of pelicans, there were none. Same was the case with lesser flamingos. Of greater flamingos, who were counted in figures upwards of 3000 until recently, we found only 56, very far away, much beyond the range of our 300mm tele-zooms. It was only after wading for about a kilometer and combining it with stalking that we could get these satisfactory pics. The principal cause of such decline in bird numbers so suddenly is not poaching or fishing. It is the increase in salinity in Chilika caused due to the lack of dredging on the ocean side.

Greater Flamingos, Chilika Lake

Greater Flamingos, Chilika Lake

BANGIRIPOSI GHAT: SEARCH FOR THE KING ALONG SIMILIPAL-SARANDA CORRIDOR

2006-12-10T21:17:00.003+05:30

28 October-30 October, 2006

Bangiriposi is a small town on the northern border of the Similipal Tiger Reserve, Orissa. To reach it from the Jashipur side, one has to negotiate a ghat road called the Bangiriposi Ghat. In days long gone, this ghat used to be famous for tiger sightings, especially at night. However, like the rest of India, increasing human interference has taken its toll of wildlife here and there had been no confirmed tiger sightings since the past 15 years or so.

In early August ’06, a truck negotiating the ghat lost control over a tight bend and rolled over. A group of seven or eight village boys, who had come curiously to look at the wreck, were returning home when one of them spotted an animal standing on a cliff on the hill. It was around 11 a. m. and all of them saw it clearly. Most of them had never seen one before, but they recognized it immediately. One of them uttered the universal Oriya name for tiger, leopard, hyena and sometimes even fishing cat- “Bagha”.

The boys were not familiar with big cats and none of them could actually tell which of the above this was. One of them, Baikuntha, happened to be working as a domestic help at my residence and I came to know of this incidence from him. To help in identifying the animal I’ve listed his observations below:

(a) The animal was the size of a domestic bullock
(b) It had vertical stripes
(c) Its had an immense head, over a foot in diameter
(d) It stared down at them boldly
(e) When they started yelling and gesturing at it, it turned its head to look over both shoulders, stared at them, snarled, and walked back into the forest with controlled haste

When I heard these observations, I was more or less confirmed that it could be nothing but a tiger. On questioning him further, Baikuntha said that livestock kills happened, though infrequently. There were lots of goat and sheep kills, which could have been the handiwork of a leopard, but sometimes a cow or bullock would be lost. Even a largish leopard would find it difficult to kill bullocks. This, to me, confirmed the fact that the forests around Bangiriposi were part of at least one tiger’s territory. I mentioned the incident to Surjit Bhujabal, the chairman of Wild Orissa and he interviewed Baikuntha over phone for over half an hour. He too was convinced. In a week or so, fellow wildlifer with WO Dillip Naik and I were on our way to Bangiriposi. We were short on time, having a little over a weekend to spare, but we tried to make the best of what we had, and the following is what would have been my diary entries over the period:

Saturday,
October 28, 2006

We arrived at Jashipur very early in the morning after a tiring, 280 km overnight bus journey from Bhubaneswar. I had been to Jashipur before and knew the way around a bit. From the bus stand we went to a ‘dhaba’ owned by the governor of WO’s regional chapter, Pramod Panda. We had hardly slept the previous night and should have been making the best of the dhaba’s rope cots now, but the fresh morning air, doped with the mist of winter on the anvil, the sal trees, and just the fact that we were so close to the Similipal Tiger Reserve drove all signs of sleep away. After tea, we took a brief walk in the Project Tiger office premises nearby. It doubles up as a memorial to ‘Khairi’, a tigress kept as a pet by the first field director of Similipal Tiger Reserve, Mr. Saroj Raj Choudhry. The bungalow where the tigress and her master lived is now a museum and her grave is right in front of the bungalow, on the lawn. The compound is filled with sal trees and the trees harbor hundreds of Blossom Headed Parakeets. Mesmerized by the sight, I started yearning (like I have thousands of times before!) for a telephoto lens to go with my Vivitar. Dillip bhai did the best he could with his little digicam.

We were met by Mr. Panda around 8:30 a. m. He had made arrangements for our stay at Bangiriposi before hand and boarded us on to a bus to cover the very bumpy and slow 60 or so kilometers to Bangiriposi. The bus was filled with local tribals. I noticed a few of them carrying cocks in bags. These were for the cockfights scheduled to take place on the day at the weekly ‘haat’ at Bisoi, 15 kms ahead of our destination. We reached Bangiriposi around 12:00 p. m. and Baikuntha was waiting for us at the forest check gate that marks the end of the ghat and the beginning of the town. Put up at the “Similipal Resort” a small privately owned guesthouse, we were just in time for a delicious brunch of rice and country chicken. A little bit of jungle talk with Baikuntha revealed that elephants frequented the paddy fields around the place. Since we knew we couldn’t do much tiger tracking that evening, we planned the night on one of the crop protection machans, hoping to see elephants. Sleep finally caught up with us and we retired for a siesta. Baikuntha assured us that he’d be back by 4 O’ clock.

It was well past five, and there was no sign of Baikuntha. Losing patience after another half hour we decided to walk down to his brother’s ‘paan’ shop, hoping to find him there. We met him half way, and after scolding him to our hearts’ content, moved on. We were supposed to be on the machan by then, but the owners of the machan had cooked mutton at home and wouldn’t climb onto it until they finished dinner… around eight or eight thirty. Good thing I had brought my 25, 00, 000 candle power spotlight along! The three of us had dinner too and waited for the owners to arrive.

They arrived before eight and, happy about the ‘early’ start, we began our trek to the end of cultivation, where jungle meets paddy field and elephants descend at the onset of winter to feast on the ripening paddy. We left the tribal settlements behind and had another five or six kilometers to walk through the paddies. After covering half the distance, we heard the watchers yelling. The elephants had descended! But this posed a huge risk to us. We didn’t know if any of the elephants had crossed the line of machans to feed peacefully on the nearer paddies. And trust me; paddy fields in October are not the best places to meet wild elephants in India. That too at night! We talked only in whispers and looked carefully around every boulder, every bush, and every clump of tree. There was also the possibility of running into sloth bears and we used the spotlight where necessary. By the time we were just nearing the machans, all the 25, 00, 000 candles were out. Without the spotlight we couldn’t go any further. It was risky to shout out to anybody on the machans. When elephants raid crops, they know people will cause trouble. But they are hungry, and will resent. There was no option but to walk back to the guest house. The next morning we heard that four elephants, including a calf, had come.

Sunday,
October 29, 2006

Baikuntha was late again. He was supposed to arrive at five in the morning and it was well past seven now. We planned to explore the site of the tiger sighting. Breakfasting at the dhaba, we finally found Baikuntha, smiling shamelessly. We walked the seven kilometers to a temple on the ghat. On the way we came across rhesus macaques, and, an over turned oil tanker. The petroleum it was carrying had spilled and the air bore its nauseating stench. This was the place where the boys were standing over two months ago and Baikuntha pointed to us the rock from which the King stared down at them.

We started our ascent to the rock from the temple. It was on the northern side of the road. A clear spring flowed behind the temple and the hike up the hill was extremely steep, almost vertical at times, and rocky. It was thickly wooded and we found a cave halfway. The entrance to the cave was sandy, and we made out the pugmarks of a large, male leopard. He must have been using it as a temporary den. I say temporary because the view from the cave was of National Highway 6. We also missed the distinct, pungent smell of the big cats and there were no remains of kills. There were also the pugmarks of a bear. Photo session later we trekked on. The rock on which the tiger had stood had no pugmarks around. We didn’t expect any. We didn’t expect the tiger to reside on the hill. It was too disturbed to have a resident tiger. On the western side of the hill is a deep gorge, thriving with small game, like barking deer and hare. It also provides cover to elephants during the day. Sambar and chital are also present, according to sal leaf gatherers, though in very small numbers. Peafowl and jungle fowl also thrive. This is excellent diversity for a reserve forest in India, that too with a national highway passing through it. We started our descent and were back at the temple by 12:30. Thumbing a lift from a passing tractor, we were back at camp for a refreshing bath and sumptuous lunch. It had been a satisfying morning, but we were determined to see the elephants that night and this time I made Baikuntha stay with us through the afternoon.

We were on our way by five. The spotlight had been charged fully, batteries and cameras and other sundry equipment checked and double checked extra carefully. The hills marking the border between cultivation and wilderness were beautifully silhouetted against a setting sun and the paddy fields in the foreground, golden with the ripened crop, enchanted us. As we got closer to the hills, the serenity was broken by an illegal stone quarry. They use dynamites to blow up sections of hills and cause are extremely damaging to the environment.

We finally reached our machan. But the owner thought it would be better for us to sit on a rock, right on the path of the elephants. We agreed. It’d give us a better view. There were other machans to our right. When the elephants descended, these were expected to yell, burn tyres and in short, create pandemonium. This would cause the pachyderms to try and escape through our side of the area and offer us a clean view. The plan seems perfect. The rest depends on the elephants and we hope they come tonight like they have for the past two nights

The moon was up and we waited for it to go down so that the nervous giants could get a confidence boost. We talked only in whispers and our ears were craving for alarm calls… there were none expect a few jackal calls and a langur’s “whoomp- whoomp- whoomp”. This disappointed us. The langurs almost assured us that there were no elephants nearby then.

It was now eight o’ clock and most of us were dozing. A while later, my subconscious registered a whooshing noise. All of us were now wide awake, expecting the elephant (we assume it’s a loner) any moment. There was no noise from the machan to our right. Everybody expected the elephants to come after the moon went down and stole the opportunity for a nap. The elephants got the better of this. They used the opportunity to escape to the fields near the ghat. We lost our sighting, which was obviously frustrating, but I honestly couldn’t help admiring the intelligence of the animals!

Monday,
October 30, 2006

Today was our last day in Bangiriposi. We decided to have a last look at the ghat section. We reached the temple at around 9:00 am and got news that a big cat had been sighted a few days ago. There was a National Highways Dept. camp on the far side of the ghat and a man had been posted there to guard sundry construction machinery. On the evening of the 28th, incidentally our day of arrival, at around 5:00 pm, while there still was light, he had seen a leopard cross from the southern side of the ghat to the northern side. He said that this was a regular happening. This was encouraging news indeed. We had very little time in our hands as we were leaving the same evening. Trying to make the best of what we had, we scoured the nearby forests. We could make out the pugmarks of two leopards, one medium sized and the other small, but were not sure if they were male and female or mother and cub or simply two unrelated leopards of different sizes. They were made at different times but are pretty much at the same place, right next to the road. The guard told us that he sees two different leopards and we assumed this to be true. We saw a jungle hen pretty close to the highway and, as we had already learnt before, the forests were moderately rich in jungle fowl, peafowl, barking deer and occasional chital and sambar. All these reinforced our assumptions.

Our findings in the area make us infer that the ghat is used by at least three leopards, which are most probably resident. The ghat is part of a very important wildlife corridor connecting the Similipal Tiger Reserve with the Chaibasa and Saranda forests of Jharkhand to the north. Elephant migrate between these two very rich habitats via this corridor and we are very sure that it is also the part of at least one tiger’s territory. Low prey density and high human interference have caused the few remaining tigers here to wander large distances in search of prey and mate and it is very likely that there is tiger movement between Jharkhand and Orissa through this patch.

This corridor however, suffers from some very major threats. A national highway cuts right through it and heavy vehicles ply regularly. Apart from disturbing the habitat by their noise and pollution, these vehicles are prone to accidents on the ghat. It goes without saying that they definitely heighten the chances of road kills. Oil spills from petroleum tankers are extremely damaging. In order to keep this corridor viable, it is absolutely necessary to close the ghat section from all traffic at least between 6:00 pm and 6:00 am. All road expansion work should also be stopped on the ghat. The fact that the ghat lies within the Similipal Biosphere Reserve bolsters our plea. Another threat is from the illegal stone quarries. It is the administration’s responsibility to ensure that these are kept under check.

Proper protection will definitely cause increased usage of this corridor by big cats and elephants alike. This is extremely important as the tiger population of Similipal is now under many question marks and human-elephant conflict in the region is on the rise. The pachyderms need the right of passage in order to find new feeding grounds and the big cats need to wander farther in search of mates in order to diversify their diminishing gene pool.

SOME OLD SCANS OF FILM IMAGES- A modest beginning as a photographer

2006-11-30T16:03:00.003+05:30

The famous tigress, Khairi, being fed by my grandfather. Pic: S R Choudhury

Here is an insight into my beginning as a wildlife photographer! Almost all of them were taken with my Vivitar 3000s SLR, with a little 50mm lens. The "Brook's Hill Stag" was a freak, taken with a little point- and - shoot fixed focus camera! Khairi's photo was taken by her owner, S R Choudhry, the first Field Director of Simlipal Tiger Reserve. Do post your comments!

Chital Stag, Brook's Hill, Sambalpur

Wild mushroom, Bangiriposi, Mayurbhanj, Orissa.

Brown Fish Owl if I remember correctly, Bannerghatta

Bonnet macaque, Bannerghatta, Karnataka

Village in the middle of Chandaka Elephant Reserve

Deras Reservoir, Chandaka-Dampara Elephant Reserve

Chital hoof print, Deras, Chandaka

Gharial, Bannerghatta, Karnataka

Iguana, Bannerghatta, Karnataka

R K Beach, Vizag. The hill is called 'Dolphin's Nose'

The sky from my terrace

Can anybody identify this lizard for me?

I found this snail on a fruitless trip to Jashipur, an entry to Simlipal. The snail was the only compensation for the all trouble!

Tree frog in my garden

2006-11-09T16:40:00.000+05:30

www.indianwildlifeclub.com

2006-08-23T15:37:00.000+05:30

LINKS:
www.wildernessrocks.blogspot.com
http://hamadryad.blogspot.com/

GHODAHADA DAM NEAR LAKHARI VALLEY WILDLIFE SANCTUARY- RICH POTENTIAL AS A WILDLIFE HAVEN

2006-05-14T15:50:00.003+05:30

2, 3, 4 May 2006

Ghodahada dam is a huge reservoir surrounded by densely wooded hills adjoining the Lakhari Valley Wildlife sanctuary in Orissa. Since quite some time, the Forest Department had been stating a population of just three elephants for the region. But, during the 2005 elephant census Mr. Nanda Kishore Bhujabal, Vice Chairman of Wild Orissa and naturalist and philanthropist par excellence, visited the area and was treated to a sighting of no less than 17 elephants! The Department seems to have copy-pasted figures without conducting any actual censuses, thus failing to register the growth. The herd had migrated from Lakhari to the Ghodahada area and, according to villagers, had become resident in the area since quite a few years.

The area is not included in the sanctuary and Mr. Bhujabal was so overwhelmed by the richness of this ‘non-sanctuary’ area that he decided to work on the area and involve the local people in community wildlife protection.

On the banks of the Chilika lake, near the town of Tangi, is a village called Mangalajodi. This area was notorious for waterfowl poaching. The Forest Department staff did not have the guts to take on these ruthless gangs and birds were dying in thousands. This was when Mr. Bhujabal interfered. He believed community protection was the answer to this. Disregarding his own safety, he visited the poachers’ villages, tried to make friends with them (this was difficult, the villagers were very suspicious of outsiders and especially conservationists - Mr. Bhujabal was both) and explaining and educating them about the need to conserve by showing them a new livelihood – ecotourism. When he caught poachers in the act he educated them instead of getting them arrested. Thus, 11 long years later, Mangalajodi is one of the safest havens for waterfowl in the whole of India. The villagers have formed a committee – the Mahabir Pakhi Surakhya Committee. They now take tourists on boat rides and use their bird catching skills for bird watching instead. Mr. Bhujabal’s efforts have borne fruit – the last census registered over six lakh waterfowl in Mangalajodi while the Chilika Sanctuary registered, ironically, just 90,000!

Coming back to our story, this was what Mr. Bhujabal had in mind when he visited Ghodahada early this May and I had the privilege of accompanying him, along with Madhaba, poacher turned conservationist from Mangalajodi.

Day 1:

We reached Ghodahada at around 2pm and spent the afternoon in the shade of a mango tree chatting with the local villagers while the ripe fruits dropped at intervals, barely missing our heads. The villagers were fishermen, making a good living from their catch and did not find a reason to poach. They offered to take us on a boat ride that evening so that we could get a chance to watch the elephants. We started around 3:30pm with the sun beating down hard upon us. The reservoir had quite a few water fowl on offer – dabchicks, grey herons, night herons, kingfishers, openbill storks, whistling teals, to name a few. The area has a large population of Brahminy kites and the boatmen, Basu and Amulya, said that the waters were full of mugger crocodiles – I didn’t see any though. We halted on a small islet close to the bank where the elephants were expected and sat there in patience until sunset. No elephant appeared. Strangely, we didn’t even hear the common jungle sounds like peafowl or jungle fowl calls. ‘Our’ villagers didn’t poach, but there still were poachers in the surrounding villages that did. There used to be two leopards, a mating pair, near the dam. The male was poached for his pelt and the female was killed when she turned cattle lifter. Perhaps she had cubs to feed and this caused her to take to cattle lifting. The cubs must have followed her in death.

We didn’t see any elephants but we had one interesting sighting nevertheless. While waiting for the elephants Mr. Bhujabal pointed out a spoonbill to me. Anyone with birding experience will tell you that the spoonbills we find in India are gregarious white birds with black legs, black bill, a crest and are tinged with yellow. But this lone bird was marked with black on its wing tips and had pink legs. I had mistaken it for yet another openbill and didn’t care to look trough the binoculars but Mr. Bhujabal did. It was smaller than an openbill and the grayish black bill was distinctly shaped like a spoon. Unfortunately, the bird was far beyond my camera’s range. Even the expert Madhaba claimed never to have seen one.

At dusk we rowed back to the village collecting some prawns from locally made traps called ‘baja’s. We cooked dinner - prawns along with some rice and dal under the mango tree and slept on the verandah of an inspection bungalow belonging to the Irrigation Department. It was too hot inside even with the fans switched on. Not long after we hit our beds thundershowers poured giving us respite from the heat but at the same time drowning all my hopes of elephant sightings. With the heat gone the elephants would never come down to the reservoir to drink or bathe as there would be enough water inside the jungle.

Day 2:

The nest morning there was no trace of last night’s rain. After unsuccessfully scanning the waters from the IB’s verandah (the IB overlooked the dam) for any muggers I went down to the boat ‘ghat’ with Basu for a morning check on the ‘baja’s and especially to photograph the Brahminy kites as they swooped down to pick up fish thrown away by the fishermen. The day was spent collecting provisions and then discussing about the prospects of ecotourism as a livelihood with Basu and his father – a respected personality in the village. We asked them to gather a few villagers for a meeting in the evening.

Meanwhile we prepared for an afternoon tour of the forests. So, after lunch we got back into the boat (rather late as the skies, falsely, threatened us with another storm) and rowed some distance to a relatively undisturbed patch of forest. From there we trekked up the steep, wooded hills for an hour or so and returned to the boats as the sun hid behind the mountains to the west. On the trek we came across some very old elephant spoor and one leopard pugmark – a fair sized young male. The area had sambar and wild boar but the last spotted deer was sighted two and a half years ago. It is true that spotted deer are rare in hilly areas but this was unusually rare. Spotted and rufous turtle doves were quite common and Mr. Bhujabal saw an emerald dove but I missed it. We didn’t see anything more and rowed back to the ‘ghat’. As we got out of our boats we saw, perched on a tree atop of a hillock and beautifully silhouetted against the evening sky, the dark form of a huge horned owl. As we stood there admiring it majesty a local quipped in “nice size, will fetch a good sum in the market.” Owls are regularly captured and sold. There is a belief that their meat has medicinal values.

The meeting was a complete success with the few gathered villagers agreeing that ‘their’ forests would not last long if they went on felling and poaching. We gave them the example of Mangalajodi and Madhaba was living proof to them. We made them understand that if they themselves protected their forests and wildlife then there would be no reason for the Forest Deptt. to include the area under the sanctuary and they wouldn’t have to move out. With the resulting increase in wildlife the area would become famous and they could add to their income by taking tourists for rides in the river, show them elephants, birds, muggers and other wildlife. They unanimously agreed to the proposal and agreed to send an official request to the Forest Department asking it to assist them in this venture and stating that they would form a committee for the protection of wildlife and forests. The only thing remaining for us to do was to rope in the other remaining villages in the area into this committee. But we were short of time and it might take another trip or two before this happens.

We went back to the IB for dinner and sleep. A talk with the ancient caretaker revealed some old tiger stories. He told us that before the dam submerged the forests the area abounded in tiger, gaur and spotted deer. All these are gone now. Elephants, it seems were not previously known in this area. Only after the dam was built did they start coming here. The present resident herd came over from Lakhari to escape poachers. Two tuskers associated with the herd had been poached and the herd was being very protective of the two young bulls it held. A few human casualties had occurred in the recent past. The villagers, surprisingly, are of the belief that the elephants attack people belonging to the poacher communities only and that they are safe from the elephants since they don’t harm them. Strangely none of them has been attacked.

Day 3:

This was our day of departure. After bidding good bye to our hosts we left Ghodahada. We dropped in at the range office in Podamari, a few kilometers away. We learnt from the ranger that the last tiger census had revealed no pugmarks and that they were yet to receive the GPS systems, needed to carry out the census, from the Project Tiger Directorate. They had found scat, hair samples and scratch marks though.

The ranger agreed that the entire system needs to be changed and that full police powers should be given to forest officers in order to properly implement our wildlife laws. The recent naxalite attacks were very demoralizing to the forest staff. Let alone naxals, our forest staff are not even equipped to face sundry poachers. When will the government wake up?

GHUMUSAR: BLACK BUCKS AND MORE

2006-04-26T14:07:00.005+05:30

13, 14 April 2006

I had been to Bhanjanagar, in the southern part of Orissa, along with a few colleagues from Wild Orissa in the second week of April. We had been invited by a Bhubaneswar based NGO to a ‘consultation’ on tribal rights vs. wildlife conservation. While the so-called ‘consultation’ turned out to be a complete failure, we stole the opportunity to tour the forests of Ghumusar North and South.

One of the last places in India where the extremely endangered Blackbuck lives safe from poachers and gun toting film stars is the area around the villages of Ballipadar and Bhetnoi. There is no forest here and nor is it a sanctuary. The locals believe that their crops will fail if the antelopes don’t feed from their fields. They strictly protect the animals and even rescue injured and sick animals. This belief has led to what is now a model for community protection of wildlife. Only 4-5 kms after the village of Ballipadar, we were stopped by Amulya Upadhyaya, head of the Black buck protection community. On the roadside, what had to us been just another paddy field scenery, he pointed out to us our first wild blackbuck. It was a splendid male; looking very much like Africa’s ubiquitous Thomson’s gazelle, only black in color. The females are fawn colored with a white belly and a thick black streak separating the two colors. As we tramped the fields, almost forgetting the heat and humidity in our excitement, we saw over fifty or sixty more of these critically endangered antelopes in less than 30 minutes. The locals say that they are even more concentrated in the monsoon and winter but they scatter in search of food in summer. The area is estimated to have around 900 blackbucks (and the figure is growing). In the absence of natural habitat (open grasslands) they are totally dependent on cultivated crops. Talking to Mr. Upadhyaya we learnt that the area was suffering severely due to a shortage of water in the summer and that they had thus stopped growing their summer crop. This is affecting both the people and the animals. With only one crop in a year, the people are finding it increasingly difficult to share their crop with the antelopes. A reservoir is necessary so that the monsoon waters last through the summer and this amiable relationship continue.

We returned to Bhanjanagar in the afternoon to prepare for a visit to the Kaliamba Reserve Forest only 6 kms away. From there we drove through the forest on a dirt track for 7kms to the century old Kaliamba Rest House. The drive yielded no sightings save a couple of spotted doves. There is a huge banyan tree in front of the rest house, which houses a few giant squirrels. The watcher offered to take us for a round of the forest. We asked him to take us on his beat. From the animal tracks and scat on the ground we concluded that barking deer, sambar, wolf and bear were prolific. Elephants are migratory here. We came across one leopard pugmark, a medium sized male, and are unsure of a second, smaller pugmark. The area also holds a few gaur and we saw one hoof mark. It should, however, be kept in mind that this walk lasted only an hour and half and there certainly is more wildlife here than what our search revealed. The last big cat census revealed the area was devoid of tigers but the watcher said he had seen a pugmark just before the census. Leopard sightings are common in the area and cattle kills happen occasionally. The watcher was just telling us about a recent king cobra sighting when we came across the shed skin of a spectacled cobra.

The next day was our day of departure and we made an early start from Bhanjanagar. Beautiful ‘sal’ forests start around 10 kms after Bhanjanagar, on the Bhanjanagar-Dasapalla road. This is the Tarasingh Reserve Forest of the Ghumusar North Division. The road is narrow and with very little traffic and sightings are said to be high on this road. We dropped in at the Tarasingh Range Office and since we didn’t have enough time to tour the forests we had to satisfy ourselves with whatever the Forest Deptt. staff had to say. According to them, the area has bears, wild boar, barking deer, jungle fowl and peafowl. The last census revealed 15 leopards and 1 tiger. The ranger showed me the plaster casts of the pugmarks. The leopards seemed fine but the tiger pugmark was very small and was more likely that of a leopard, exaggerated in size since it was found on sand. They said it could be a tigress but I am still skeptical. The Forest Deptt. is notorious for faking the existence of tigers and this is one example of just how easily they can create fake figures.

The staff showed us a little barking deer fawn which had been colleted from villagers. A villager had trapped it from the jungle and on receiving this information the Forest Deptt. staff proceeded to seize it. They were greeted by a large group of villagers armed with sticks and they finally had to buy the animal for Rs. 400! This is the state of our Forest administration. When it can’t even seize a fawn from a villager, how can one expect the Forest Deptt. to fight gangs of poachers armed with sophisticated weapons? They are given guns but even if they fire it in self-defense, they have to prove this in court. And everyone knows that courts in India can take years for even simple cases like robbery. There is an immediate necessity to give full police powers to the Forest Department and to give magisterial powers to officers above the rank of Conservator.

Both the above areas are highly affected by timber theft and forest fires. Nevertheless, the entire area shows excellent potential for wildlife conservation, if it is declared a sanctuary. It has corridors with other wildlife rich areas like Baissipalli-Satkosia, Dasapalla, Berbera, etc. and these areas, with the exception of Dasapalla, have tigers and elephants which are in desperate need of un-fragmented rich forests if they are to survive.

MIXED EMOTIONS IN CHANDAKA

2006-04-20T11:04:00.003+05:30

23, March 2006

After collecting the required permits I left the DFO’s office at 3:15pm and a forty-five minute drive from there brought me to the Godibari main gate of the Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary and Elephant Reserve, hardly 20 kms from Bhubaneswar. It was already 4:00pm and I had to be back before sundown. I have been visiting this park for many years now but this visit had been after quite a while. In earlier times, even a few months back, sightings were very rare and even a junglefowl sighting was considered something of a success. With so little time in my hands, I didn’t really expect anything more than perhaps a lucky glimpse of a scuttling peafowl. But a drive in a forest, regardless of sightings, is always pure heaven to me. So I drove in through the gate after showing my permits to the guard. I had driven for hardly 200 metres on the soft, red ‘morrum’ road when a group of Forest Department labourers in a tractor coming from the opposite direction stopped me. The driver said that there was a lone tusker ahead on a bend at Ambakhalli. To my query about how the tusker had reacted to their presence he replied that since the animal was used to seeing their tractor on many previous occasions he was quite unaffected. “But”, he added, “I am not sure how he’ll react to the car”. I moved on and at Ambakhalli I saw the fresh tracks of the tusker on the morrum. The soil was soft and tracks wouldn’t last very long on it. This gave me an idea of its freshness. The elephant had crossed from left to right and had not come back. A careful eye scan of the bamboo bushes on the right of the road revealed nothing and since I was already late, I moved on.

On my way to Kumarkhunti I saw a few peacocks and a couple of junglefowl. I had just crossed a dry nullah, which is a landmark to Kumarkhunti, when an orange light on the car’s instrument panel said I was low on fuel. I damned myself for overestimating the car’s fuel efficiency on this kind of road where one can hardly shift over second or third gear. I could not go to the watchtower at Kumarkhunti and had to return a few kilometers before it. On my way back, just after the nullah, I saw two chital does hardly 10 feet away. There still was some sunlight and remarkably the deer didn’t seem very scared. They stood there and looked at the car for about 3-4 minutes before running away to a bush further away and watched me from behind it. This was a very good sign for a forest that was only recently a free-for-all to loot, hunt, chop or burn. The sighting of the deer at that early hour and there behaviour was a sure sign that things had improved since my last visits.

Damning myself a second time, now for not bringing my camera along, I drove on to see even more peafowl and junglefowl. There populations had surely gone up. Back at Ambakhalli I searched the road for the tusker’s tracks again. I was thrilled by what I saw. Superimposed on the car’s tyre tracks were the tusker’s footprints in a direction opposite to the one I had seen earlier. After seeing his tracks for the first time I had been back after hardly even an hour- very little time for the tusker to have gone somewhere purposefully and come back again to cross to the other side. While I had seen his tracks for the first time, he must have hidden behind the bamboos watching the car with suspicion. After I had left, he saw that the coast was clear and got away from there as soon as he could. He was used to the tractor and didn’t run away on seeing it but the car was unfamiliar and he wasn’t sure whether it (the car) was safe. So he decided to hide and watch. I had missed him by minutes.

Then started the sad part of the trip. Ahead on the track a Forest Department jeep was parked. The driver told me that it had carried some staff who were now controlling a forest fire somewhere within. The vegetation was dry due to the summer heat and it wouldn’t have taken long for a villager’s beedi to start the fire. I was pretty close to the exit at Godibari then. At the gate I stopped to meet Motilal, the captive makhana (or tusk-less bull), and for a chat with the guards. Talking of leopards, I learnt that this year’s census revealed a figure of zero. After all that elation due to the sightings, this was a complete downer. With the local extinction of the tiger long back, the leopard had somewhat filled the gap of top predator. Now with the leopard gone too, the whole ecosystem of the park is bound to be affected severely. Come to think of it- an entire trophic level, to be more precise, the top most trophic level is absolutely missing from this ecosystem. How will it sustain itself? How long will it last for? The thought is scary. Chandaka has no predators worth the mention. This, coupled with overgrazing by cattle will destroy these jungles forever. There is no chance of leopards or tigers migrating from the better-stocked forests of nearby Nayagarh, Berbera, Ghumusar, etc. since the corridors have long vanished. The only hope for the short-term future of Chandaka is to reintroduce leopards from the better-stocked forests of Satkosia and Ghumusar North, which are nearby. For Chandaka’s long-term future and especially to end its chronic man-elephant conflicts, there is no option but to re-establish previous corridors with Satkosia, Ghumusar and Berbera via the Nayagarh forests. This will prevent inbreeding among the leopards and elephants and more importantly, will create a large, contiguous patch of viable tiger, elephant, leopard and gaur habitat, which again is the only hope of their long-term survival in Orissa. It goes without saying that such basic measures as proper security and corruption free administration will also be necessary.

Chandaka is nowhere as famous as Sariska, and the leopard might not be as glamorous as the tiger, but the situation is just as bad as Sariska. I might be too dreamy to expect the Forest Department to actually take such a dedicated course of action, but the fact remains that drastic situations need drastic measures and re-establishing old corridors and re-introducing locally extinct species should be the primary course of action now. There are no options left. Re-location of tribal and other local inhabitants may be criticized in the name of human rights and coexistence is the catchphrase of such activists now. But coexistence involves a drastic change in the attitude of the people and this, especially in India, is a long-term prospect. Our wildlife has been ruined close to being beyond repair. We have created this trouble and its we who have to adjust. Such fancies of armchair activists as coexistence will not work in the Indian situation. It is too late to experiment with the current situation. We have to save our wildlife NOW. Period.