Survival of tigers is dependent on conservation and management efforts. To gauge the success of conservation efforts as well as to guide management inputs, it is important to assess the effectiveness of management of Tiger Reserves. This publication aims at compiling management issues and key recommendations evolved from different cycles …
TWO HOARDS of banned animal skins and bones, worth about Rs 3.5 crore in the international market, were seized in Delhi on August 30 and September 1. The seizures exemplify the intelligence-gathering skills acquired by the Indian arm of the Trade Record Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC), …
CHINA -- one of the world's largest markets for tiger and rhinoceros parts -- has imposed a ban on the trade of rhino horns and tiger bones. These substances are no longer to be used in medicines, though the ban will be delayed by six months to allow liquidation of …
A DEBATE on how best to count the tiger population sparked talk of hidden cameras and 3-D photographs at a symposium earlier this year. But most delegates agreed in the end that none of the methods suggested is any more reliable and economical than the pugmark census. The delegates were …
THE TIGER census has been used for long as a convenient official yardstick to measure the success of national park management. But a dispute on the exact tiger population has set a census under way in Ranthambore national park that has the authorities on edge. Since Project Tiger was launched …
HUGE PROFITS are the main reason for the recent spurt in tiger poaching. A Royal Bengal tiger is a walking goldmine because its skin and bones are worth Rs 4.5 lakh. And, there is money to be made at every stage in the illegal tiger trade. Tiger skins have traditionally …
Why has park protection become so difficult? The government has banned villagers from entering the forest but without giving them an alternative. When they force their way in, claiming it is their right, we are authorised to stop them. But how effective are such powers without weapons? We can arrest …
AFTER a successful swoop on a dusty April afternoon on some poachers in the Keladevi forests near Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR), a posse of nine forest guards in a Jeep found their way blocked by a log. They got out to clear the road and were ambushed by armed members …
"RANTHAMBORE is like a leper's pock mark on this district," says a senior citizen of Sawai Madhopur, the town near which this important national park is located. The comment sums up the disdain in which many Sawai Madhopur residents hold the park. It also puts into doubt the government's nature …
AFTER two decades of Project Tiger, conservationists concede it is impossible to protect simultaneously tigers, trees and people"s livelihood. This was the major conclusion of an international seminar in New Delhi in February to assess the highly publicised project. Seminar participants identified the lack of local community involvement in protecting …
TWENTY years and crores of rupees after it was begun, the Project Tiger success story is crumbling. Indiscriminate poaching, the disappearance of tigers individually identified by experts and the seizure of tiger bones and skins in metropolitan cities have resulted in this situation. Add to this the resentment of the …
THE FIRST all-India tiger census in 1972 was designed by then senior research officer Saroj Raj Choudhury and his trainees at the Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun. The method used the hind pugs left by a tiger. No matter how the tiger walks, its hind pugs are usually clear. …
HEADLINES about Ranthambhore sanctuary in Rajasthan are usually about its vanishing tiger population, but it was recently featured in the news for a very different reason. Artists from villages neighbouring the tiger park came to New Delhi's Taj Mahal Hotel to display their creations of the majestic big cats. The …
RANTHAMBHOR National Park in Rajasthan is in the news, thanks to rampant poaching in the tiger reserve. This year's tiger census in the park shows their number has fallen from 46 to 18 in just one year. But even this is a rough estimate as only 13 tigers were physically …
STATE-SPONSORED conservation of natural resources in India has been in existence for many centuries and has been carried out in a variety of ways. Today, the generic term of "protected areas" includes various national parks, sanctuaries and game reserves, among other areas which the state considers worthy of conservation. Himraj …
Since the tiger is at the apex of the biological pyramid, its preservation is possible only if the whole biome or its habitat is conserved and maintained at an ecological stage, advantageous to the tiger. The project, therefore, provides for setting up of eight reserves in different tiger habitats of …
