The incident at the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, where a ranger was killed while on duty by a tigress, shows that thoughtless interventions do not always work well.
A report by Deepanwita Gita Niyogi
The recent incident, where a two-year-old tigress killed forest ranger Devendra Singh Chaudhary in Rajasthan’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, has brought back poor wildlife management into focus.
This is not a lone incident. The tigress named Kankati had killed before. In April, she attacked and dragged a seven-year-old boy, Kartik Suman, on the road leading to a temple which is frequented by pilgrims. At present, she is in an enclosure. A committee will decide on her outcome.
Kankati is one of the three cubs of tigress Arrowhead. After the mother lost the capacity to hunt due to a tumour, the forest department gave her live baits for food. But it proved to be fatal. “Arrowhead was in distress for the past three years. As she developed a tumour, the forest department supplied her with buffalo meat. But in the process, the cubs also got accustomed to her food. They used to come out at the sound of vehicles,” said a wildlife expert not wishing to be named.
According to India’s leading tiger expert Ullas Karanth, wildlife conservation is not animal welfare. Rather, conservation deals with the welfare of tiger populations, or any endangered species, for that matter. It is not about the fate of individual tigers.
“My research shows that tiger populations that are secure and doing well will lose about 20 percent of individuals each year. However, such losses are made up by the birth of cubs. Scientific wildlife management forbids making interventions such as feeding cubs, hospitalising their mothers and so on. In thriving high tiger density reserves these are not needed. Such interventions cause conflict. In this way, public support for conservation is lost. Euthanising tigers fated to die eventually can lessen their misery from the perspective of animal welfare,” Karanth said.
The expert added that it was a thoughtless and misguided intervention without any science behind it. “If tigers cannot hunt anymore, they will die naturally (as also the cubs). Such animals cannot be sent anywhere.”
Poor tiger management
In 2023, India completed 50 years of tiger conservation launched in 1973. Currently, the country has an estimated 3682 tigers but the population is not balanced properly across its 54 tiger reserves. Some reserves are beyond their carrying capacity.
Tigers are thriving in some landscapes and disproportionately adding on to the increasing tiger count. At the same time, other landscapes have either lost all, or most tigers.
Karanth explained that it is sad to see ignorance driving tiger conservation at all levels. He explained further. Assuming that there are 3000 tigers, and 1000 being adult female breeders, with 333 of them breeding every year on an average and giving birth to three cubs, about 1000 cubs will be born each year.
“It is impossible to save, hospitalise and translocate all these animals. Nor is that needed. It is a consequence of the lack of basic knowledge of tiger biology among officials, law courts, and tiger lovers which is leading to this situation. Everyone is on this bandwagon of giving names to tigers and trying to save every one of them by feeding, hospitalization and translocation.”
As tigers are increasing in number, it is leading to conflict situations. In reserves like Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh where the number of tigers has increased in recent years, conflict has also risen.
“Apart from human-tiger conflict, there is tiger-tiger conflict over territorial fights,” said wildlife conservationist Prem Chandra Pandey, who works independently on conflict management. He cited the instance of Pilibhit’s Mahof range where two male tigers are engaged in a fight for territorial dominance. “There is a need to protect forests to accommodate wildlife. There is extreme human pressure on the forest area which is reducing. Tigers are spilling over leading to conflicts.”
Coming back to Ranthambore’s two victims, the ranger was killed while he was on tracking duty in the Jogi Mahal area which falls in zone three of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. A few labourers were working in the vicinity where he was killed. The boy, Kartik Suman, was dragged into a bush while his grandmother was present.
Assistant forester Seema Meena, whom the reporter had trailed in Ranthambore’s zone seven while on duty, said that the ranger probably did not know that Kankati was in the area. “The labourers heard cries and then informed the staff. The forest patrol guards are always at risk, but we have to do our duty.”
Focus on Ranthambore
Like other reserves, in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve too, there are territorial fights between tigers. About four years back, tigress Riddhi displaced her mother Arrowhead. After that Arrowhead was left with a reduced area.
According to conservationist Shantanu Sharma, the Ranthambore tiger reserve, which worked as a source population for tigers, is now beyond its carrying capacity with about 80 tigers. The department should maintain the corridors, mainly the Kuno-Ranthambore corridor, which connects the tiger reserve in Rajasthan with Kuno in Madhya Pradesh. The corridor is a mosaic of agricultural fields, villages, forest patches, and ravines, reads the Ramthambhore-Kuno Corridor Profile report. Spread over 2500 km square, the corridor faces threats like linear infrastructure, land use change and sand and stone mining. Corridors help in dispersal of tigers.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority, along with the Wildlife Institute of India, has identified 32 major tiger corridors. However, corridors are under threat due to developmental pressure. “Tigers should be able to shift naturally to new areas through corridors,” Sharma said.
