Prashanto Banerji
Dean - Centre for Enterprise Management, IIPM
[November, 2005]
With the disappearance of the last tiger, Sariska has, with one stroke, severed its connection with both its future and its past. Never again would the famed dark forbidding valleys reverberate with that most primal of sounds, the soul stirring roar of a tiger asserting it’s right to be free and to rule and to roam as only a tiger can.
It is obvious now, that unless matters are taken out of those indecisive hands with a nervous twitch called ’The Ministry for Environment’; all of India’s wildlife would follow the Cheetah into extinction. The current storm gathering over the brown hills of Sariska is soon going to blow over, and before you know it, the dust would settle and the wind would die without a pugmark to show for all the whistling and whirling.
I write these words on behalf of every Indian in an effort to give voice to the collective frustration of a billion people, for the conservation machinery has failed us. The Ministry of Environment and Project Tiger had taken on the onus of managing the country’s most valuable, and perhaps only, truly renewable resource, our forests and wildlife, and failed.
The severe lassitude and apathy of various governments over the last three decades as trustees of the natural heritage of our country has established the fact beyond debate that special cells and ministries do not operate as stakeholders but as irresponsible and indifferent hired sentinels who’ve repeatedly been caught napping on duty.
Almost every sphere of legislative influence in the country is a pathetic paradigm of ineptitude, corruption, indolence and profound insensitivity and myopia. Project Tiger was instituted in 1973’ when the tiger population in India had hit an all time low of approximately 2000 from a one time estimated high of 30,000. 9 sanctuaries were earmarked under the aegis of the project and Sariska, ironically enough, was the first national park to benefit from the project. Under the glare of the international media, well-timed support from international funding agencies-and irrespective of all her supposed failings as a leader and a politician-with the commitment and vision of the then Prime minister, Ms. Indira Gandhi, the rust-crumbed machinery creaked into motion and by the late 80’s, the tiger population had stabilized with more than 4000 of these most magnificent of cats lording over our jungles.
But the euphoria did not last long. In 1994, amidst sporadic reports of poaching and corresponding denials by forest officials, surfaced hard evidence of the fact that 95 tigers had been killed by poachers that year. Subsequent seizures have established that poachers have accounted for more than 80 tigers on an average, every year. However, for every cache of skins, organs and bones apprehended, there are many that go undetected. Therefore, numbers of tigers poached every year in our ’protected’ sanctuaries could hover anywhere from 160 to 200. This horrible systemic failure of Project Tiger has betrayed the nation and one of its most powerful symbols and resources. At this rate, this great beast will be gone forever within a span of a decade and a half.
If the flagship of India’s conservation movement is in such a terrible state of disrepair, one shudders at the thought of what might befall other denizens of India’s rapidly eroding wilderness like the Asiatic Elephant, Great Indian One Horned Rhino, the Leopard, the Sloth and Himalayan black bear, the Smooth Indian otter and the Musk Deer, whose parts find just as many markets as the tiger. All this, after the government claims to have spent Rs.15 crore on ageing, untrained, understaffed security guards and antiquated communication systems and firepower on an average, every year in it’s efforts to protect a wildlife resource that has enabled poachers to earn almost Rs.900 crore within the last decade.
What is even more pathetic than the colossal callousness of the various ministries and boards responsible for our wildlife is the absolutely illogical motive that drives this cruel trade. Besides the skin, tiger parts are worth many thousands of dollars because they are prized ingredients in Chinese traditional medicinal concoctions for ailments ranging from rheumatism to penile dysfunction and even charms for immortality. While clinical tests have proven that what works for a tiger need not work for a man, even a fool ought to know, that if its own skin, claws and organs could not immortalize the tiger, they can do precious little for a human being.
Demand from the mainland and the Chinese diaspora still drives this illegal traffic and has in fact decimated most of the South-east Asian sub species of the tiger. International conservation bodies like WWF(formerly k.a World Wildlife Fund) and affected governments therefore, need to undertake programs that educate consumers about the futility and the consequences of their actions.
More importantly, all organizations, governmental or otherwise, committed to the cause of tiger conservation need to realize that as long as the tiger is worth more dead than alive, there would always be those who would ruthlessly dip their hands in blood, in search of ’poached pennies’
Poachers are usually local villagers or tribals, who, for less than a thousand Indian rupees, kill a tiger by electrocuting, poisoning, trapping and/or shooting it. Then the traders take over and by the time the tiger, albeit in parts, reaches the end of the distribution chain, it is worth Rs.60 lakh or more.
These forest communities are almost always at loggerheads with forest officials because they are unhappy about losing their traditional grazing grounds, sources of firewood, and the odd cow or buffalo to the tiger. With nothing to gain and everything to lose, the locals see no reason to support the conservation movement. Thus, when presented with the opportunity to earn a year’s wages in a day’s work, not many would let their traditional animistic beliefs stand in the way of a little profit.
The solution lies in offering them a stake in the development and ownership of the sanctuary, and a sizeable share from the commercial proceeds of the park. It really does not take much to ensure that the tiger is worth more alive than dead, for the current going rate for slaughtering a tiger is a mere $15. It is only then that forest and village communities would look upon the tiger as a resource that can transform their lives and the lives of their children and thus fight tooth and nail to defend it.
The government of course has done nothing to develop the wildlife resources that abound, for now, in our country. Doing so would’ve ensured that a trickle down effect takes place to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. The government, the local communities and those with business interests in and around the park would’ve gained from the influx of tourists who’d happily pay top dollar for viewing high density wildlife. And as a consequence, the wildlife would’ve enjoyed greater support and protection.
For instance, India has 7 times South Africa’s forest cover, almost twice as many species of mammals, 4 times as many species of birds and 5 times as many kinds of reptiles. And with 4 times as many protected sanctuaries as South Africa, India is far better endowed with ecological resources than South Africa. And yet, South Africa, expects to earn more than $ 6.25 billion in foreign exchange alone from tourism in 2005, where eco-tourism is the primary activity, while India barely managed to scrape together $ 4.9 billion from ‘total spend’ by tourists in 2004. Indeed, South Africa, with a little over half our ecological wealth manages to receive ten times the number of tourists visiting our national parks and sanctuaries.
Not only have succeeding governments failed to effectively protect India’s natural heritage for future generations, but they have also done a poor job of managing this invaluable resource and its potential for wealth generation, thus, further compounding the woes of Indians and their wildlife. The fact that the country’s highest wildlife conservation policy planning body, the Indian Board for Wildlife, under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister has met on only one other occasion in the last decade further emphasizes the embarrassingly low levels of commitment displayed by governments, past and present.
Mining and road building projects, many of which are sponsored by organizations like the World Bank, threaten wildlife corridors that are essential for healthy genetic exchange between different populations of the same species, and yet governmental agencies have consistently sanctioned the ravishment of these virgin lands for the sake of kick backs and votes. Alas! If only trees and tigers could vote. Richard Bach, celebrated American novelist, once wrote “From the ground they dug riches for the few, jobs for the many and graves for the children of all.”
Dr. Manmohan Singh, our honorable Prime Minister, should realize that there is more to tiger conservation than just a Page-3 type date with the tiger influenced by his uninitiated PR machinery. It really is insulting for people fighting for the rights of this ’big cat on a very hot tin roof’. We hope he hogs the headlines for more serious and committed reasons the next time around, for, the tiger is not just a big cat that prowls in the dappled light of our jungle pathways. Nor is it just a creature of legend and nightmare that environmentalists say is vital for maintaining the ecological equation. The tiger is also not merely a totem animal, a national and religious symbol for one billion Indians. The tiger, above all else, is an inspiration to all, for there is no force of nature that more vividly encompasses the virtues of courage, dignity and grace. If we let the last tiger die, with it will die all that we celebrate and cherish in each other - courage, dignity, grace…and perhaps even that most definitive of human virtues - compassion.
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