Kawal and Corridors, Tigers and Conflicts, Vested Interests, and Death of the reserve
This article comprehensively talks about the issues at Kawal, the corridors, the recent conflict-attributed deaths and translocation failures, and probably why tigers must be left alone.
Kawal is one of the oldest wildlife sanctuaries of India, established in 1965 and promoted to the status of a Tiger Reserve in 2012. With an aggregate area of over 2000 sq. Kms, Kawal has the potential to be a sink for tigers from Tadoba, but it never has been and probably will never be – no tigers will ever stay in Kawal.
The reasons are so text-bookish (as it is a well-known fact that tigers need inviolate spaces to survive)
- illegal timber logging/smuggling,
- teak wood smuggling,
- illegal grazing (an estimated 4000 grazers live in the entirety of Kawal TR),
- illegal mining of sands along the streams/river inside the reserve,
- illegal felling of trees (for linear development),
- illegal encroachments (with political leaders having allegedly directed forest officials NOT to ‘harass’ encroachers) for farming and cultivation/occupation.
Kawal is a death trap for the spillover tigers (the reasons will be obvious as you read along) and is negating the success story of the nearby Tadoba forest.
One note says that 20 tigers disappeared from the reserve since 1996. A few cases from the recent times are listed below.
- 3 tigers missing in 2014.
- A male and female went missing in 2016.
- A male tiger called 'Jyestha' was killed and buried in Nov. 2016.
- A tigress K4 has been moving with a snare around its waist for 2 years (in Chennur forests) and despite many efforts, it was not captured or treated.
- A tiger skin was seized in Nov. 2016 from Bejjur, and the skin went missing later on, only to be seized again in Jan. 2018.
- Phalguna's (resident of Sirpur-Kagaznagar corridor) previous litter tigers (other than K4) are missing.
- A male tiger that made inroads to Kawal Tiger Reserve, on Dec 15, 2018, was poached within 40 days of its arrival in Kawal.
Kawal and the forests surrounding it are important corridors for migrating tigers and can be a very important TCL (tiger conservation landscape) with Tadoba in North (Maharashtra) – Kawal(Telangana) – Indravati in East (Chattishgarh). The surplus population in any of these forests could migrate and populate the other forests, but the failure of Kawal (2000+ sq. Km) and Indravati (2700+ sq. km) in not even holding 20 tigers (both combined) is spelling a death knell for Tadoba’s unprecedented success.
Every year, around 40 subadult tigers are born in the forests of Tadoba, and most of them either vanish or die to
- infighting
- poaching
- poisoning/electrocution
- shifted to enclosures, due to human-animal conflict.
Tigers from Tadoba and surrounding forests are known to undertake long distance migration (naturally) sometimes as long as 1000kms, through dense human-dominated landscapes (settlements, encroachments, agricultural fields etc.). The cluttering and blockage of these migration corridors is bringing these animals in contact with man, many times, creating an undesirable outcome for both tiger and man.
During a confrontation, men (grazers, wayward villagers, farmers) who haven’t seen a tiger ever, in these parts, don’t know how to react (on seeing the big cat from close quarters) and a surprised or a cornered big cat that feels threatened will launch an attack. Immediately, media houses create a sensation talking about a man-eater lurking in the region (and villagers demand for the urgent removal of the tiger from that area, supported by local political interests). Unfortunately, this doesn’t bode well for the tiger (in all probability, a human kill is accidental and consumption, if any, might be opportunistic).
There has been a steady movement of tigers towards Kawal in the recent times, but the tigers are documented to move out of the reserve no sooner than they come in. Tiger is an indicator and a keystone species – the presence of the animal is a direct measure of the environmental conditions or conduciveness of the habitat not just for tigers, but for every other animal in that forest.
Though Kawal has not been documented to support resident tigers, one of the vital corridors to Kawal, the Sirpur-Kagaznagar belt which is supposed to be a conduit for the spillover tigers from Tadoba is, in fact, proving to be a favourable habitat, thanks to the unflinching and resilient efforts of the forest department officials over many years. As of now, this area is supporting resident population as well.
The pertinent question – what’s there in Sirpur-Kagaznagar belt that’s missing in Kawal, a few tens of kilometers away, that the tigers aren’t finding conducive? In addition to the illegal encroachments and non-contiguous/highly fragmented forests, the conversion of grasslands and scrublands into plantations/agricultural fields is also hurting the Tiger reserve. For a tiger to survive, it needs ungulates, mostly deer (70-80% of a tiger’s preybase across India is comprised of spotted deer and sambar deer). Deer cannot survive in a dense canopied forest but will need grasslands. Grasslands are grazed away by the cattle-herds as well.
The next question – in the wake of the recent Human-Tiger conflict, can tigers be translocated? The sirpur-kagaznagar is an important migration corridor that needs to be inviolate, while conditions at Kawal improved for supporting tigers. Forcing tigers into Kawal (by translocation) without improving the conditions at Kawal will not help in retaining the tiger but may also create a future conflict situation.
A2 Tiger – Possible suspect
As per a TOI article dated 23rd December 2020 – ‘Man-eating Tiger in Telangana: Suspect Identified’, a tiger known as A2 is suspected of making the human kills.
A2 is supposedly born in Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station (possibly, one of the four cubs of CSTPS tigress, seen in 2017). One of the tigers that went towards Wardha-Amravati-Betul (and another towards Wani) in August 2018 reached Satpura power plant in Sarni, MP by December 2018. It was captured, shifted to Kanha and subsequently released in Bori WLS, a part of Satpura Tiger Reserve.
- The first kill in Telangana/Kagaznagar happened on 11th November in Rebbana range - Digida village in Dahegaon mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. This area falls under the Kagaznagar Tiger Corridor (KTC) which connects Kawal TR with Maharashtra forests.
A fisherman who was collecting leaves accidentally got too close to a sleeping tiger, that startled both the man and the animal, and in the confusion, the animal attacked the man.
- The second kill happened on 30th November in Bejjur Range, compartment no. 227, in a cotton field located in an encroached two-acre land inside forest near Kondapalli village. (aerial distance between the two incident sites is around 3 Kms). It is to be noted that a DNA fingerprint test by CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) of a sample of saliva from the deceased body identified the killer, in this instance, to be a tigress (and not the tiger) as per CCMB director and PCCF.
As indicated by the forest officials as well, these are stray incidents and not necessarily of those of a conflict tiger or tigers (the word man-eater is now obsolete, as per the NTCA SOPs).
With this background, we need to understand the stakeholders and vested interests in removing the tigers from this corridor (while as we understand, a PIL has been filed to translocate the tiger/tigers to Kawal Tiger Reserve from this corridor).
The Asifabad, Kagaznagar Tiger Corridors are heavily fragmented forest patches with rampant encroachments and illegal settlements (even by non-tribals).
The following factors are shrinking the corridor space
- unchecked podu cultivation (traditional system of cultivation used by tribes, by burning different areas of forest every year to provide land for crops). As per the Kagaznagar FDO (Forest Divisional Officer), nearly 17000 hectares of forest land is encroached by podu cultivators in Kagaznagar division, with more than 90% being occupied by non-tribals.
- national highway and road upgradation works (cart-track to BT road) such as roads from Etiguda to Talai requiring 3.0367 hectares of forest land and from Etiguda to Agarguda via Gundepally requiring 7.4189 hectares, improvement of existing road by widening and providing BT road from Gunjed to Dubbaguda in Mahabubabad district requiring 34.553 hectares of Pakhal wildlife sanctuary and construction of new BT roads from Chinnaboinapallt to Kondai in Mulugu District and from Gundala to Pasra in Kothagudem district, requiring 10.133 hectares and 9.02 hectares of forest land respectively out of the Eturunagaram sanctuary (courtesy - 24 proposed projects in Telangana spell danger for tigers, New Indian Express dated 14th December 2020).
- encroachers having political support (including encroachments by non-tribals) – for instance, Anitha, a forest range officer, Kagaznagar, was attacked by a (politically instigated) mob, in June 2019, during a compensatory afforestation drive (of 20 hectares of degraded forest land).
Translocation of Tiger
Translocation of a wild animal is the shifting of or introducing the animal from one habitat to another. Reintroduction is to shift a wild animal to a suitable habitat from captivity. Tigers are translocated or reintroduced, sometimes with the word ‘relocated’ used interchangeably. The idea behind mentioning the comprehensive list (providing suitable background stories and cascading impact) is to understand the deleterious effects of translocation sites and lax monitoring.
To the best of our knowledge, there has been no single instance of a tiger branded a conflict animal or a man-eater being successfully re-wilded at a release site (even after soft release/re-wilding) owing to factors such as
- unwelcoming locals (the history of the tiger precedes its release at target site)
- unfamiliarity, poor tracking of the tiger by the personnel
- inconducive environment for the animal at the target site
- behavioural impact owing to the capture and captivity in the enclosure
Situation at Kawal Tiger Reserve
Wildlife crimes are highest at Kawal in the state of Telangana, with the following figures.
- In 2017-18, 26 cases in Kawal out of 78 cases in Telangana.
- In 2016-17, 20 cases in Kawal out of 79 cases in Telangana.
- In 2015-16, 29 cases in Kawal out of 84 cases in Telangana.
The ungulate population at Kawal stands as below (as per Hindu article - 'Here, green grass is a prized item for thieves' dated Dec. 2018) in the 900 sq. Km area.
- Chital : 1500 to 2000
- Nilgai : 1200 to 1500
- Sambar : 300 to 400
- Chinkara : 100 to150
- Chowsingha : 200 to 300
- Black buck : 100 to 150
- Gaur : 60 to 90
How translocation of problem tigers fared, so far, across the country, and how failed instances have jeopardized future scope of such projects
To give a new leash of life to young conflict-tigers that are possibly victims of human apathy, a few tigers have been translocated, but all these ended up in failures. The lone reason being the unpreparedness of the forest department/govt. and the locals at target sites, which are generally wildlife sanctuaries or forests that are heavily fragmented and encroached. The below are a case-to-case stories of the failures in recent times.
Satkosia Tiger Reserve
With a view to repopulate the dying Satkosia TR (which only had two old tigresses and no males) in Odisha, the govt. there has requested for translocation of 6 tigers from Madhya Pradesh. This was the first of its kind inter-state translocation project and hence was even more prestigious.
In June 2018, two tigers, MV-2 from Kanha and Sundari from Bandhavgarh were translocated as part of the program. On 14th November 2018, MV-2 was found dead (possibly entrapped in a snare) and subsequently, Sundari, on allegations of killing two people in the reserve, was shifted to an enclosure, where she, a free ranging tiger, born in the wild, continues to rot to this day.
Both these tigers were collared, and despite no movement (stationary, cos of possible entrapment) by MV-2, the tiger was never rescued, in this botched tracking by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and local Forest Department.
Even before Sundari was shifted, rumours spread like wildfire at Satkosia that a man-eater or a problem tiger was being shifted to Satkosia. This naturally had a negative impact on the locals, who detested the presence of the tiger there. This coupled with the alleged kills and the aggression of the locals in burning boats and trashing the department officials forced the department to move the tigress to the enclosure.
The project was a total failure in that it also jeopardised the inter-state translocations of tigers, thanks to the forest department and government of Odisha who failed to sensitise and educate the locals and the tribals, and also contain the spread of rumours. As one journalist puts it, “M.P. lost one of its tigers, but Odisha gained none”
The plan as of today is to shift Sundari back to an enclosure in Kanha, from where it will be rewilded/released in a suitable habitat.
Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve
In April 2018, MT-1 (aka Mirza aka T-91 at Ranthambore) was the first tiger translocated to MHTR, followed by MT-2 (aka T-106 at Ranthambore) in December 2018. A third tiger, MT-3 (T-98) migrated to MHTR on his own in February 2019, while a fourth tiger MT-4 (T-85 aka Lightning at Ranthambore) was also translocated in April 2019.
MT-1 had no territory in Ranthambore after conflict with males and he became a wandering male. MT-2 was one of T-34 aka Noor’ cubs from her third litter. MT-2 was the first to separate from the mother, carve a territory for herself in Zone 1 of Ranthambore, even when the other two female cubs were still with the mother.
Almost at the same time, the male cub of T-60 of Ranthambore, T-98, in search of his missing mate at Ranthambore, MT-2 (T-106), migrated all the way to Mukundara Hills TR; circumnavigating the very densely populated towns and villages between Ranthambore and Mukundara Hills; a distance of around 200 Kms. It is beyond human understanding as to how a tiger could go in search of his missing mate. He was christened MT-3. MT-2 later must have got pregnant with MT-3, and her cubs were seen in the beginning of the current year.
MT-4 also had cubs (a trap-camera image proved the same), but the apathetic forest department was not aware of this fact and it seems that the cubs of MT-4 have perished.
Disaster struck when MT-2 and MT-3 died within a span of 10 days (July – August 2020) at Mukundara Hills TR, and it is learnt, of late, that the radio collars on all the four tigers have been non-functional since quite some time.
Satpura Tiger Reserve
When Bandhavgarh opened to tourism in 2017, after monsoons, it became clear that Kankati jr., of Magadhi range (core critical tiger habitat of Bandhavgarh) was missing. She was later declared poached, and her three cubs were taken under the protection of forest department. An enclosure was made where the cubs were reared, till they reached subadulthood, when they were shifted to a bigger enclosure in Bahraha area of Bandhavgarh. On 28th January 2020, the female subadult, aged three years, was translocated to Satpura TR. Along with the female, the male subadult was also translocated to Satpura TR. The third subadult, another male is awaiting translocation (intended to be done in February 2020). The male subadult. On 7th February 2020, allegedly, a woman was mauled to death by a tiger, and the villagers opine that one of these two subadults killed the woman who has gone out for defecation. The villagers vandalised the forest department’s eco-centre at Matkuli, Satpura.
Dudhwa Tiger Reserve
- In January 2012, a four-year-old tiger from Kheri forests was stalking the Rahmankhera area, just 25 Kms away from the densely populated town of Lucknow. The tiger, named Rahman, eluded all efforts by the forest department in capturing it for close to three months. He was tranquilized in April 2012, collared and sent to Dudhwa TR where he settled and ruled a big territory. His current whereabouts are unknown (and since long), despite being collared.
- On 5th March 2018, a woman was killed close to Chandupur village of Pilibhit TR. Atleast 5 deaths in the area over the past 2 months have been reported. Owing to the proximity of human habitations, Philibit TR has the highest tiger-human conflict, with as many as 21 people being killed by atleast 5 tigers in the previous year - 2017. On 8th March 2018, the tiger, named Chandu, was translocated to Dudhwa TR to give another chance to the tiger that was seemingly not incapacitated or injured. His current whereabouts are unknown (and since long), despite being collared.
Bor Tiger Reserve
On 29th July 2017, Brahmapuri tigress T27-C1 named as ‘Kismat’ after killing two people, was radio-collared and released in Bor Tiger Reserve. The resident tigers at Bor were not probably allowing Kismat to settle down and hence it started moving along the Bor-Melghat corridor. It was also reported that the monitoring teams used crackers to scare and push the tigress into Amravati forest division. She allegedly made two more human kills and was electrocuted (by accidentally getting in contact with an electrical fence) during a botched capture-operation, on 14th October 2017.
Chaprala Wildlife Sanctuary
On 12th August 2017, a migratory Tigress from Armori-Wadsa area of Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra, that seemingly came from Brahmapuri forests and trying to settle in the Armori range, was captured for killing two people. The tigress was released on 29th August 2017 at Chaprala WildLife Sanctuary. She was settling in the area and started to subsist on natural prey. On 3rd November 2017, the tigress encountered a live-wire, a 11 KV – power supply line, possibly laid to poach the tigress, and died.
Melghat Tiger Reserve
E1 from Ekara forest area of Brahmapuri, was collared by WII in January-February 2019 to study dispersal patterns. E1 subsequently killed a villager in north Brahmapuri in May 2019 (and suspected of killing another human as well). She was shifted to Gorewada rescue center after capture on 31st May and was translocated to core area of Melghat Tiger Reserve on 1st of July. Within a day, E1 was suspected to have attacked a 7-year-old girl close to Kekdakheda village, Melghat TR. In the beginning of September, a 45-year-old farmer was killed in Dadra village, on the periphery of Melghat. The tigress E1 was then shifted back to an enclosure in Gorewada zoo.
What can be done?
The translocation projects also are a burden on the exchequer with the cost of each translocation project running into crores of rupees for collaring and monitoring of tiger, erecting soft enclosures etc.
What emphatically needs to be done is a proper identification of the conflict animal, understand the course of the conflicts, and probably attach a team of trackers to monitor and track the animal unobtrusively (positively without collaring), and warn the villagers of the movements on a real-time basis.
At this juncture, I will also point to the success of Tadoba, not far from Kawal which can be a good learning model for Kawal.
In less than a decade, after rising to prominence (before which, nobody even knew the name), Tadoba today rakes in/generates the second highest revenue of any tiger reserve (just a little behind Ranthambore, which has been on the map for many decades). More than 400 villages in and around Tadoba benefit from eco-tourism. In the last year, the buffers alone have generated a revenue of more than 5 crores (which is higher than many other core Tiger reserves) – with 70% tangible benefit to the locals’ and 30% marked for village development through Tadoba Tiger Foundation. All of this in addition to the intangible benefits such as habitat for species, gene-pool protection, carbon storage, carbon sequestration, water provisioning, water purification, soil conservation/sediment retention, nutrient retention, biological control, moderation of extreme events, pollination, gas regulation, waste assimilation and climate regulation.
From the previous experiences (at Satkosia and Mukundara Hills), we need to understand that artificially introducing a tiger (particularly in non-tiger forests) will not save the forest not before providing a conducive environment that could naturally bring in the tiger, which in turn will save the forest.