Some fear the striped wonder may soon vanish from India, its last stronghold on the planet. But there is fresh hope that may not be the case
The Bandipur National Park is a long narrow tiger reserve. Twenty-five thousand families share its 180 km border with wild animals. One lakh twenty five thousand villagers depend on the forest for survival. Over 50,000 cattle use the jungle for fodder. Each family cut around 8 kilograms of fuel-wood from the forest each day. That’s almost 2.5 tonnes of firewood per family per year. It was taking a huge toll on the park. But forest guards looked the other way. Most of them are locals and knew the villagers had no other option. As villagers cut into the forest, its rightful inhabitants came out. Elephants, wild pigs and deer raided fields to satiate hunger. And where its prey went, the tiger followed. “One village near the Bhadra National Park had 17 buffaloes killed by a tiger. The villagers killed it. You can’t blame them for protecting their livestock,” says M.D. Madhusudan, director, National Conservation Foundation (NCF).
Science and Tigers
As villagers learn to let go of the park and its forests, the number of herbivores has increased and this can only mean good news for tigers, believes Ullas Karanth, one of India’s leading tiger scientists and director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), India. “You won’t see tigers reviving in Arunachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand anymore. They suffer from the Empty Forest Syndrome. All the prey has been hunted out,” says Karanth.
(This story appears in the 18 December, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)