Togetherness with the Tigers; a Tadoba Success Story!

 

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"When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity."… George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw has been born in a country or continent where tigers have never been seen, I mean during his lifetime as he is from Ireland which we know as UK earlier & Europe. If you ask who Bernard Shaw is then I am sorry, some names don’t need any introduction, Shaw's is one such for literature, oh yes, he got the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925. Though when Shaw was alive our country i.e., India was under rule of his country i.e., UK, so technically he has lived in a country with the tigers in it but I doubt whether he has ever encountered one! And yet what he has written about human-tiger relationship is true even today because every day if not a tiger but some wild predator gets killed by accident (as sports is now banned fortunately) by some humans & when a tiger kills a human he is declared as man eater or enemy of the humans! If you are wondering about direction of this sharing then no, it’s not about tiger deaths & bad things happening to wildlife (we all are well versed with it by now) but this is story about human’s & tiger’s togetherness which is happening right in our Maharashtra State, yes, I am referring to Tadoba i.e., TATR, a project tiger forest in Chandrapur district. And this is not just about project tiger status which gets you lots of legal power (and funding too) but about the villages, small sanctuaries as well open farm lands even non-forest areas which also are becoming part of this human-tiger unique story & it must be made to the world!

Those who are ignorant about tigers & its importance (there are many such yet), then in all the world there must hardly 7000 tigers out of which fifty percent i.e., nearly 3500 tigers are residing on our country & their numbers are growing (deaths also) & this is very proud thing for us as a country. Because, the existence of a tiger makes a forest, a habitat complete & it's a very big as well important thing in conservation of wild life & this is not easy to handle! Because a tiger needs space & privacy & if you fail to give it then there is bound to be a conflict between the tiger & the humans & outcome is death of one of the parties, which often is the earlier. Yet there have been instances where tigers have taken lives of humans too as without any weapon humans are no match for the tiger & its strength. And this space factor has made conservation of not just tiger but conservation of any wildlife species difficult all around the world & on such background Tadoba & its surrounding hosts nearly 200 plus tigers in the forests there & the numbers of the tigers is increasing every year. This has not been possible overnight & the hurdles as well challenges of making this miracle happen, were many & are still; this is what my story is about.  (The figures of the tigers are approx. but what is more important is the huge difference on the scale of sheer numbers, between some 700-crore humans vs 7000 tigers!

Those who visit tadoba, they all know how much more chances there are here, to see a tiger than any other forest & now the situation is you can see the tigers in buffer areas, outside of buffer areas & even in tourism zones also around the tadoba! Those who don't understand these terminologies for them, core is a part of forest where no human activities are allowed. Buffer is an area around the core zone where human settlements which have already existed for years are only allowed but are restrictions for the new developments. And then there are forests which are out of buffer where human settlements as well developments are allowed with due procedural permissions. But these all rules are made by humans & tigers don’t live by our rules or zones as wherever it has food & water & shelter it will go, that’s nature. Here is where exactly the conflict aspects come into picture as some twenty years back when the core area was getting insufficient for the newborn tigers the forest dept started creating a buffer where for ages villages were present. These villagers opposed strongly to get declared as official buffer thinking their land value is going to get reduced due to restriction on new developments in the buffer & which is true at some extent But as the name of tadoba & its assured tiger sighting started reaching to outer world (thanks to social media, internet) because of efforts form some very good forest officers such as Nitin Kakodkar, Sheshrao Patil & their team, slowly the tourists flow started increasing & so did the money these tourists got along!

Here is where the people around tadoba started realizing the benefits of togetherness with the tigers as if on one side their land value may have got reduced due to restrictions on the development but on the other side the tiger’s presence has opened many avenues of earning good money & tourism was the backbone of those avenues. Right from getting jobs as guides, gypsy drivers to making homestays for tourists to getting jobs in hotels resorts to operating food joints there are many many ways now available to earn some decent money in & around tadoba, provided you are ready to learn some skills & work hard!   The last part is important & was the most difficult challenge for the forest dept as well entire system as money earned through the tourism was there but to make the locals learn skills & work as per the needs of the tourism industry wasn't an easy task. But slowly its being done & outcome is today there are nearly 20 gates of buffers & every gate (entry point in the tourism zone of the forest) means tourism & opportunity of business. This is why some ten years back there was huge opposition to declare buffer gates at villages such as Agarzari & Devada but today the scene is a village Sitarampeth which is near the core area of Moharli is demanding to give them a gate & declare them as buffer as they know this will follow tourism as right now also tigers roam in Sitarampeth. Rather three people have been killed by tigers in the Sitarampeth & yet they are not hating tigers or asking the village’s relocation but want to stay right where they are with the tigers secured, what better example there can be of living with the tigers!

I think this is the true success of Tadoba (read as all those which are part of the system) as no more tigers or wild animals are hated or killed even though there are & can be man-animal conflicts but then in our home also disputes happen, right? Here the animals are part of the family & disputes (conflicts) are not going to break the family bonding, this is the success of Tadoba & this is what should be replicated all around the country & the globe as their lies the future of the wildlife!

On the ending note, the governing system i.e., forest dept must admit one thing that its tourism which has helped a lot to achieve the success of tiger conservation & with due respect to efforts of forest dept its high time to run the forest dept’s tourism wing more service oriented as well affordable! Indeed, a lot of improvement is there but, on some fronts, especially about animal sightings (I am not saying just tiger sightings) there is a lot of scope for improvements, especially park road infrastructure. Right from the road conditions to making new routes (with proper permissions of course) & making rest rooms at regular intervals to reducing checking time at gates many issues do make the tourists a bit uncomfortable especially in winter seasons when animal movements are less as sightings becomes difficult. There has to be some cross roads to the main roads as once the animal crosses the main road then it’s impossible to see that animal & that’s frustrating for the tourists as they pay so much to see the animals & not just trees! The stretch from Pandharpauni Water hole to Navegaon gate & ahead is nearly 5 km strait road with forests & grass land on both side & once a tiger or a sloth bear gets in these patches then you won’t be able to locate it, so some cross roads at interval of 500 meters can make the tourist able to cut across the forest or grassland & they can have a look at animals. We can use the fire lines also for such purposes, as well these new routes can be made as fire lines, whatever suits, point is understanding the need of the tourists which are major stakeholders in conservation of the forests now! At the same time when speed restrictions are there, we have to keep one way in the forest as this also irritates a lot when a tiger is around. Agreed a narrow road can be kept one way but where its easily possible to pass on two vehicles those routes must be kept two ways all the time!

Another important aspect is booking system, to my knowledge Tadoba bookings are non-refundable as well non-transferable, this is seriously to be looked after as the tours are planned nearly 60 days earlier & anything can go wrong with one or more members & in such case as the permit is non-transferable the entire financial model collapses of the tour if it’s a group or even a family! Nowhere in the world such a policy is there about transfer of permits with legitimate reasons such as illness of some members, Tadoba guys please look in! And then the issue of reducing total number of gypsies & keeping only 20% of forest area open for tourism zone, this is most ridiculous decision as if tourism hampers tigers or wild life then how the tigers in Tadoba are increasing even in the tourism zones, rather it’s the tourism (well controlled) is the reason which has made tadoba on the world map & has become an example in wildlife conservation! So, all the stakeholders, its high time to appeal to Hon Supreme Court about giving order to open all the forests for tourism as well provide proper infrastructure to the forest dept to control the tourism & then not just Tadoba but every forest in the Country has some Hope for conservation of its wildlife, that’s what we all want, right?

 

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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