Having been involved with tigers and the Indian wildlife for decades, Valmik Thapar has observed and studied the country’s flora and fauna from close quarters. In an email interview, he tells Nitin Sreedhar why some species are doing well when it comes to preservation, while others face extinction. Edited excerpts:
Is the report that the global tiger population has increased by 22% true? What do you have to say about this?
There are about 2,000 tigers in India—plus or minus 10%. With better techniques since the turn of this century, many new areas have revealed the presence of tigers. The increase is a direct result of this. The good news is that when Project Tiger started in 1974, there were 1,800-2,000 tigers. Forty-two years later, there are still the same number of tigers, even though the population of India doubled from 630 million to 1.25 billion. The bad news is that many tiger reserves like Buxa, Dampha, Palamau, etc, have no or very few tigers left. Some tiger reserves like Mukundra are being declared tigerless. This flawed policy needs to be addressed. The number of tigers will increase with excellent field protection and regeneration of habitat where human use is minimal. These two critical issues must be focused upon.
The only real increase in tiger numbers has occurred in states like Maharashtra, where better corridor connectivity between tiger habitats has restored some strips of habitat. The state government has followed an innovative policy through village relocation, and meeting the demand by villages to relocate to better lands has been key in this process.
However, survey techniques require much improvement and many senior scientists have pointed out flaws in the methods. Their concerns must be addressed in order to improve the techniques.
Do you think the tiger is an overhyped animal?
The tiger gets overhyped because it commands public attention from across the world. This is not done by a minority because 700 million people each year see tigers in zoos. So (it’s) hyped on public demand.
While a lot of emphasis is laid on the tiger, what about other animals and their preservation?
Saving the tiger means saving every living organism under the umbrella of the tiger, but some species do suffer, especially smaller mammals and birds. Most governments across the world try to address this problem. We, in India, are supposed to have special schemes for gangetic dolphins, great Indian bustards, lions and snow leopards. Some do better than others and because much of our bureaucracy is ignorant to the needs of the wildlife, there are lots of problems.
In the introduction to your book, Winged Fire, you have talked about the white-backed vulture and how it’s almost extinct today. What are the other bird and animal species facing extinction, and why?
Many species have faced local extinction. Today, there are no sarus cranes in Ranthambhore—they used to be there till the 1990s. The white-backed vulture is gone, the (population of) Indian chinkara in some areas, including Ranthambhore, has declined sharply. Great Indian bustards are so endangered that maybe less then 100 live today in India. The house sparrow has vanished from so many areas across India. The story goes on and on, as we pollute our air with puffs of poison that rise from our cities and towns, and we pour our filth and toxic wastes into our rivers and wetlands, leaving little opportunity for any health in our environs. Much more will be lost, and in the very near future.
What do you feel about the man-animal conflict, especially tourists and wildlife photographers in sanctuaries and national parks. What is the optimum solution for this problem?
There is no optimum solution. Every area has to derive its own site-specific solution. The federal government will have to stop interfering with the states. You create public will through people locally, nationally and internationally, and that is the only way we can pressure administrative and political will to do the right thing. Without that, the system goes into hibernation.
In places like Maharashtra and Rajasthan, where tiger numbers have actually increased, innovative state government schemes have come into play for conflict resolution. The Van Dhan Yojana in Rajasthan and the Jan Van Vikas Yojana in Maharashtra are new state government schemes that effectively mitigate conflict between people and tiger landscapes.
Well-managed tiger tourism is an essential tool for better tiger conservation. Since 1985 and over the last 30 years, we have gone from zero revenue from tourism in Ranthambhore to nearly R300 crore a year today. And that is the impact of tourism on the Sawai Madhopur district in Rajasthan. We need local communities to engage much more with this process. And again, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are encouraging private wildlife refuges—outside tiger reserves—for locals to run and generate income from. The future will lie in this concept. We need to create more public-private partnerships in such processes. We need to outsource much of the day-to-day activities of park administration and management to experts out of government. Managing tiger landscapes is a state subject, and the role of the national tiger conservation authority and the federal ministry of environment, forest and climate change needs to be minimalised. Less interference by the Centre and more power to the states is the only way forward for healthier tiger numbers. A huge engagement of our younger generation from the non-governmental sector will be vital to trigger new concepts and positive change.
