Ranthambhore's Mega Construction

Irreversible damage of careless construction in the Ranthambhore National park

Ranthambhore is the meeting points of two hill ranges- Arvalli hills and Vindhyan Hill system. Ranthambhore is the last home of tigers in this Dry deciduous dhonk (Anogeissus pendual) forest, which comprises of deep valley called "khos" and hilly table tops called 'dangs'. All the Khos have natural perennial and seasonal water streams. Only two months of summer are water scarcity period for Ranthambhore. This is the time when nature eliminates the weaker population of wild animals naturally.

But there are many of the natural water holes which have water for these critical months too. Impact of climate change cannot be ruled out but the forest department is making simple water holes which is fulfilling the need.

Recently, the forest department started making exuberant number of water shed program in the small park. They have already constructed more than 100 small anicuts and 20 Telais (ponds) in the park in a period of 3 years. This time they are planing some 20 big size dams each costing 35 lac to 75 lac rupees. Old tiger Champion late Shri Fateh Singh Rathore always objected on this kind of disturbance inside the natural ecosystem of Ranthambhore. Sadly, he was completely ignored by forest department.

Heavy excavator machines, pneumatic drills and blasting for this construction are creating immense stress for wild the animals.

Pic: showing excavation for Bhanwardha Dam which is in the Berdha area

Pic: Huge digging operation executed with big machines

Pic: Showing an explosive loaded tractor with pneumatic drills in Berda area - one of the most important tiger breeding areas in the small park

The ecosystem of Ranthambhore is very fragile the temperature and rainfall in this place is in the extremes hence the evolution of the plants and animals in this region is according to the xeric conditions. If we do any manipulation in this we will end up with some irreversible damage. Irrigation and Forest department both are involved in this construction and NREG/ NABARD schemes funding the projects.

Work is already going on:

In the last few months there has been an alarming amount of construction work and earth moving disturbance inside Ranthambhore National Park. In particular a number of cement annicuts and earth dams have been constructed around GALAI SAGAR. It is feared that this will affect the water-holding of this lake, in an area where there are a number of resident tigers including a tigress with cubs..

The TAMBAKHAN road has also been gouged out and widened with a JCB, apparently to facilitate use of this road by tourist vehicles going to ‘Zone 4’.

Just short of Tambakhan, large areas of earth have been removed by a JCB for road building.

Pic: Map showing the areas with proposed anicuts and natural water sources

These negative intrusions are totally unnecessary and will cause untold damage to the delicate balance of Ranthambhore’s habitat.

Pic: Tender notice showing a list of proposed sites, while constrcution of 6 dams are already in process.

A few examples are:

Pic: A proposed annicut at ADI DAGAR, beyond Lakardah, in a nullah that runs from Lakardah to Bakola. It has a number of perennial waterholes that provide water to wildlife, especially during the critical summer months. This is where the tigress ‘Machali’ (T-16) spent the summer of 2010, making kills around the waterhole.

Pic: Apart from irreparably damaging the natural, all-season Adi Dagar waterhole, the proposed annicut will inundate the surrounding rock walls that are home to a host of wildlife, including monitor lizards, mongooses, and owls. The proposed construction outlines of the annicut can be seen above.

Pic: Five hundred yards away is another waterhole. The proposed annicut will also destroy this second deep perennial pool. A cement annicut at this site is unnecessary and will be extremely destructive.

Pic: At ADI DAANT there is another important perennial waterhole that falls into BAKOLA. It will most likely dry out if the proposed annicut is constructed.

Pic: Another annicut (see construction outlines above) is planned in the BERDAH area. The site, called BHANWAR DEH, is a critical perennial waterhole that has probably existed for hundreds of years.

Pic: This deep pool is marked to become the tail end of the Bhanwar Deh annciut, which would most likely destroy this vital all-season waterhole.

Possible threats to the park:

1. All the proposed and in execution areas are breeding valley of the tigers. These dams will ruined them completely. During the construction the will lead to tigers moving out, from these territories. Which is already started happening. Heavy excavator machines, pneumatic drills and blasting for the construction are creating immense stress for wild the animals in that area. The soil texture of the area does not support water retention; impact – the water will stay just for 3-4 months and not during the steep summer season. And during the water holding days they will spoil this fragile ecosystem – the Dhonk (Anugesus pendula) will wear away.

2. The flora of this xeric and arid environment when exposed to excess water get damaged. Eg: the dhonk tree (Anogeissus pendula) is the main tree of this area. When it receives water in the non-water months it gets damaged and dies out. When the dhonk in the valleys get over, it affects gravely the fodder availability in the area as they shed the last and in the hot summer months this is the only tree leaving out fodder for the ungulates. The dang dhonk on the other hand sheds the leaves earlier and by then also the grass dries and becomes more fibrous and unpalatable, so in these steep months only the fodder of the valley's dhonk is available for all the animals.

3. Similarly the fauna too is affected, the moisture content of the soil increases which disturbs the burrowing animals largely. These burrowing animals are the base of the food cycle as they affect all the small cats like caracal, jungle cats also the raptors etc. This will have great impact on the ground birds such as the quails and partridges which primarily prefer this dry ecosystem. It is hence possible that with such irresponsible moves made by us we may destroy the last holding grounds of the elusive species like the caracal and other small cats.

4. Sometimes, these altered habitats attract exotic species and create menace for the region - It is possible that due to this the excessive water some other pest rodent may arrive and replace the natives, this pest can possibly damage the natural seed stock. In the same way exotic plant species can also increase in the region.

5. The dam and anicut constructions are close to the natural water points which will eventually lead to silting, this would choke the water flow and sooner or later the natural water body will be finished. At the moment with the strong flow the leaf litter and soil flushes out due to the water pressure. The best example of this is the Adidant nallah.

6. All the construction is done with the use of huge excavators, JCB machines and pneumatic drills causing noise pollution and turbulence which fundamentally causes disturbance in the wildlife of the area.

7. The Ranthambhore 10 year management plan mentions that these kind of water anicuts construction should be of loose stones and grass bed on top for holding the water.

8. The Hon. Supreme court's order 14/2/2000 in IA no. 158, which has peremptory to not have any construction inside the park without its approval, however this directive has been disregarded several times resulting in unwanted structures like anicuts, guard posts, roads etc.

Such habitat alteration require rigorous scientific protocols and sound environment impact assessment before any slapdash constructions.

Return of the striped King...Yuwaraj Tiger

Story of Yuwaraj tiger – who was declared poached and the poachers were caught by the Forest Department some still absconding but Yuwaraj tiger still alive and is in his home – Ranthambhore!

Many news published, blogs written, people moaned the death of a beautiful sub adult tiger, little did they know he was in the national park all the while hunting on wild boars & sambars and drinking the water from the streams of Ranthambhore!

Stories of Yuwaraj's death - Leaving many questions - published in news papers

Jogi ji only could give the details of this incident – so let us ask him. “Jogi ji, what’s the story of Yuwaraj tiger?”

Jogi ji said, “Yuwaraj was the young male, first litter of T15 – Guda tigress who walked out of Ranthambhore and reached Lakheri area – he was said to have reached Bundi and the people of Bundi district (adjoining to Ranthambhore) even celebrated and welcomed his presence. However, he was supposedly poached in November 2007.

A wonderful picture of Yuwaraj tiger taken by Shri Aditya Singh

The file photo of Yuwaraj (Courtesy Forest Department)

Bachu Mogya and his brothers were made the culprits in these, Bacchu died during the chase by the forest department, while his brothers - Moolya Mogya, Sakrama Mogya are still wanted and are scared and absconding on that case – Yuwaraj’s brother – T12, was shifted recently to Sariska and was in news”

Jogi said “Match some old image of Yuwaraj with T21 and you will see what I am saying... The two are the same tigers.

Jogi ji but I do not have Yuwaraj’s photo – Jogi said, “Check for his photo in Aditya’s blog and match it with T21” http://www.dickysingh.com/2007/12/another-ranthambhore-tiger-killed/

You can also ask for his photo from Sachin Rai and many others who had been here during this time...

Hence, if they said that Yuwaraj was missing and they had caught the poacher who killed him how it is that T21 matches the stripes with Yuwaraj?

We know that no two tiger’s stripes are the same it is just the way our finger prints are unique, hence Yuwaraj was here all the while and we booked some poachers for his death?”

Then there are several questions to be raised,

1. On what evidences did the forest department declare Yuwaraj to be poached?

2. On what physical evidences (seized skin / bones / claws etc) were these, Mogya’s booked for the tiger’s death?

3. If Yuwaraj is alive then was some other tiger killed at that time? Do we know which one?

“This is ridiculous! So did any tiger die?”

Jogi said, “This is where we are having lapses in our monitoring...”

I was even told that this male T25 was never captured before and had dollar like marking hence called the dollar male but some people have been talking of it coming from MP. If he has come from Madhya Pradesh then we should look for the corridor he has used and develop it, it is great news. However, if not then we should scan through our way of monitoring and reassess the tiger status.

Dollar male with $ like marking on the belly side - Now called T25 (Picture: Shri Balendu Singh)

Dollar male (Picture: Shri Balendu Singh)

File records showing T25 to be a female tigress

Jogi said, “There is more to it –

1. Who is T25 according to the FD? T25 is a female in the FD records. However, I was told the Dollar male seen these days in between Tamba khan and Bhoot Khura is been called T25.

2. If T25 is a female then who is this new male?

3. If T25 is a female then where has she disappeared?

4. Does FD has a family tree of the tigers?

5. Are the officers and guards not in same levels when it comes to tigers in the National Park, confused with tiger genders and territories?

Jogi concluded, “If we want to save our tigers we have to first understand them and strengthen out our monitoring system or else we will lose them without even knowing which tiger it was!”

Jogi ji left before asking few more questions –

1. They do not know which tiger went to Gangapur city and has he returned or not from there yet?
2. They had no clue about T14 (Old Sultanpur female) whom they considered dead for a year before she reappeared
3. T47 (Mohan tiger) is funnily said to have returned and sometimes they say he is still in Murena area.
4. When T7 reached Mathura they kept believing he was T47 and until then they kept assuming that T7 was inside the park !
5. They have no idea about T43’s location.
6. When the female T25 disappeared they started calling a male T25 (Dollar male)
7. T37 was believed to be in Kota for months and later it was found out that T37 was there itself – the tiger there was moving was T35. Until then they didn’t even know she had reached Kota so we were neither monitoring T35 nor T37

It is possible that in the national parks all across the country it may be difficult to monitor individual tigers but in a dry deciduous forest like Ranthambhore it is surely possible and we should be doing it...

The Role of Police in the recent attack

As the Tiger incident unfolds in Ranthambhore many effects of a system failure particularly with regard to the forest officials are coming to the forefront. The Bhuriphadi village which has generally not been hostile towards the forest in the past was already hostile in terms of an earlier incident where some money had changed hands and no receipts were provided. Under these circumstances Daulat Singh was sent to tranquilise this male Tiger that had already been suffering under heavy human disturbance. He was lucky to have had a committed Police Force with him that had little experience of Tiger control but were there to prevent any untoward incident between village and forest officials. This police force was already exhausted due to two days of Municipal election duty but still managed to be there and do the best they could. There was no officer from the Forest Department guiding the police force in any manner and they were left to be mere spectators with no instruction. However they still tried their best to control the mobs. They even tried to convince Daulat Singh to not go and try to tanquilise the Tiger the 2rd time as it was dangerous. Daulat was convinced and tried to tell his immediate superior Mr Sedu Ram Yadav that no more effort to tranquilise should be done as it was dangerous. However Sedu Ram was communicating with his superiors over the wireless and insisted that a 3^rd attempt be made. It was against the back drop of this complete lack of understanding of the situation on behalf of the superior officers that Daulat took the risk to make a 3^rd attempt. This situation is further compounded by the fact that as soon as Daulat was gravely injured the 1^st person to leave the scene of incident was Mr Yadav and behind him disappeared most of the forest officials. It was the police that took stock of things and got Daulat out of the area and sent him to the Hospital. Not only did they do this but they kept a vigil on the Tiger keeping people away from the scene through the night and until the next day when the Tiger has left and gone back into the safety of the Park. During this entire period no forest official or staff stayed at the scene to watch the Tiger. Had the police not been there the villagers would have definitely killed the Tiger and if not that then the Tiger would have killed some of them.

ACF Sedhuram Yadav retreating after attack on Daulat Singh

Time and time again it has been seen that in crucial wildlife management crisis the top official in the Forest Department fail to provide a measured and experienced response. There is no standard operating protocol for such incidents and every action taken is a knee jerk reaction made on the spur of the moment causing needless injury to man and animal.

A Tragic day in Ranthambhore.. .

Mr Daulat Singh attacked by the tiger when he went to close while trying to tranquilize him

20^th august 2010 was yet another tragic day for the tiger and a brave forest ranger.

T7 (5-year-old) one of the favourite’s tiger of the tourism zone who shared his territory with his own father T2 (10 year old) unfortunately strayed out of the park due to the overgrazing of cattle by Uliana and Bhadlav villagers and entered the agricultural field of Bhuripahadi village.

The Background: At about 3 AM tiger killed one of the buffalo calves of a villager, at about 3.15 AM the villagers discovered this, threw stones on the tiger, pulled away the calf, and informed the forest department.

The forest department reached on site around 5 AM and about three canters of police also reached. By then about 1,500 villagers had gathered around in that area, the men and women of the village were creating unnecessary havoc and pressure on the officers.

Sites of attack which have taken place in the past 4 months

One of the Rangers – Mr Daulat Singh [The most able and efficient ranger of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve] was cornered by villagers and physically abused.

This shoving created stress and strain on the forest rangers. The tiger was equally stressed due to the continuous stone throwing and other noises.

The stressed out tiger trying to find its way out of the crowd back in the forest

The ranger tried to tranquilize the tiger twice but missed the shot, third time around he tried to bend down and check if the tiger was darted but the tiger made a surprise attack.

Daulat Singh Saktawat was gravely injured on hands and face with him losing one eye.

Mr Daulat Singh rescued by the forest guards

He was rushed to the Sawai Madhopur Hospital, which had no electricity in the first place leave alone a sterilized Operation theatre. The state of the hospital was pathetic with no monitoring equipment, no oxygen, no ventilator and room was moist and filthy with fungus on the walls. Crowds of people were allowed to enter at will as if there was some magic show taking place and everyone was invited. Every possible protocol of Emergency Care was violated. Very crude patch up work was being done and that too in the light of a torch and even the torch was not immediately available and was brought by Dharmendra Khandal which was a car light used for Hyena filming. The generator was not working and everything was left to the mercy of God.

Under normal circumstances in such a small District town, the General Hospital would be the logical place to take all emergencies, but here there was an option of the best emergency care that was on the way from the site of injury, which was Ranthambhore Sevika.

The Sevika Hospital was on the way from Bhuriphadi and would save at least 30 minutes time as that is how long it would take to get to the General Hospital. Sevika Hospital is equipped with the best Doctors and equipment and yet the local officials took the unnecessary risk to take one of their brethren to the General Hospital where even electricity was not available.

These were the mistakes made due to the ego and protocol issues by the forest department, however there were some mistakes made on the site of the catastrophe:

No basic emergency equipment was available to combat the situation in such case with mob around; a kit should be available with the foresters, which would contain a loudspeaker to pacify the crowd, safety wear for the team such as helmets, and thick jackets (Which could have prevented this incident due to which Mr Daulat Singh ji lost one of his eye).

The eye lid was stitched with the cheek in the Sawai Madhopur hospital pretty badly and it will take a lot of work and expertise of the plastic surgeon to correct it.

Mr Daulat might not be able to see with one of his eye in the future but the eyes above all of us is looking at the people who let it happen due to their ego's and impassivity.

After the darkness of the night the tiger returned back in the jungle...

In the night the tiger went back to the forest...