An exact headcount of tigers is not necessary to save the animal. Tigers do just fine till there are just a few left in a forest. So should we fuss over feel-good numbers propped up every now and then for a figure-happy media? Fuss we must, because the first casualty of such manipulation is the early warning system.
Sariska and Panna did not lose their tigers overnight. The managements were happily counting many tigers per tiger till the last ones were killed in a poaching spree that continued for years. Honest monitoring could have easily detected the population slide in both cases, leading to a timely crackdown on the mafia.
History cannot be undone. But seven years after the Sariska lesson, the Centre's much-vaunted initiative of continuous monitoring of tiger reserves has again left it to the ability, whims and integrity of the states to report real-time data that will determine the management response on the ground. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is entirely funding this exercise but has set no benchmark for accountability.
Ironically, Project Tiger (now NTCA) boss Dr Rajesh Gopal had termed the 2005 Sariska debacle an opportunity for reforms. Already, in 2002, Project Tiger and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) had begun replacing the human error-prone pugmark census method with a scientific estimation protocol. In 2005, the initiative gathered steam. In a three-phase programme, the Centre institutionalised camera-trapping and has since spent nearly Rs 25 crore to conduct two quadrennial all-India censuses. While in 2006, the tiger numbers were rationalised from the pugmark based count of 3,500 to 1,411, the 2010 report claimed a jump to 1,706.
But, independent experts were already raising a few pertinent points. The future of the species depends on good breeding populations and there are few left in India. While the mega quadrennial census spread out resources over 3 lakh sq km, key tiger areas spanned not more than 25,000 sq km. Besides, tiger mortality and birth rate are very high and poaching anyway causes a rapid fall in numbers. So a lot can happen to a tiger population in the long window between two quadrennial censuses.
The NTCA agreed and decided to move on to Phase IV of its monitoring programme. In a series of meetings hosted by the government during 2009-11, experts decided that the NTCA would ensure rigorous scanning of the high tiger density areas to generate real-time data while the WII would continue with its all-India exercise every four years. In November 2011, Phase IV monitoring was launched in all tiger reserves (except Sunderbans and Buxa) and the NTCA has since distributed Rs 5 crore among the states. The annual exercise will eventually cost Rs 30 lakh per 1,000 sq km. Read the full report here.
Source: Jay Mazoomdaar, Independent Journalist, Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 14, Dated 07 April 2012.
