The Fate of Bengal Tigers in India in 2010
"With the unabated increase in human and livestock populations, the
protected areas (PAs) and the tiger within them will face an escalating
state of siege. Even today about four-fifths of the total tiger population in
India is in PAs - a habitat that constitutes less than 2 per cent of the land
mass - while tigers in much larger habitats without protection are
constantly decreasing."
"These latter tigers will continue to decrease and may almost disappear
by 2010, except in a few very remote areas. In the PAs, however, I do
believe that the tiger would continue to survive and there would still be
more Bengal tigers in the PAs of India and of other range states than all
the tigers elsewhere."
- Dr MK Ranjitsinh, director of the WWF Tiger Conservation
Programme, New Delhi
"Since 1989 official government records indicate that India has lost
nearly 1,500 tigers. The crisis is at a critical point. Will we be able to
slow down this decline over the next two years? On this fact will depend the
fate of the tiger in 2010. I believe that if we can win some battles to save
the tiger, India will have around 500 tigers in about 12 protected areas in
2010. If we fail to win some of today's battles, tigers will be virtually
extinct by the time of the next Year of the Tiger."
- Valmik Thapar, vice-chair, IUCN Cat Specialist Group (Asia) and
director, Ranthambhore Foundation, New Delhi
"The tiger may survive by 2010, but its future will be even bleaker than
now. Past trends show that it is most vulnerable in dry deciduous and
semi-arid environments. Forty per cent of the tiger population in India
lives in these habitats and is barely surviving in sub-optimal conditions
aggravated by high human disturbance. The tiger has already
disappeared from over 70 per cent of the semi-arid and 35 per cent of
the dry deciduous protected forest habitats. The habitat still exists in
some form - but without tigers."
"Unless threats such as loss of prey and poaching are controlled, tigers
will continue to disappear as they have in the past. The trends suggest
that if the tiger is lost it will be from these sub-optimal habitats in dry
deciduous and semi-arid habitat with high human and cattle populations.
If the tiger is to survive beyond 2010, such problems on the ground need
immediate attention."
- Dr RS Chundawat, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Duna
*That the tiger and its habitat is fast depleting is a major cause for
concern. Since the Ranthambhore Foundation's inception, it has tried to
find ways in which local people could be involved in the tiger's
conservation. This, we feel, is the only way in which the tiger's survival
can be ensured - if at all."
- Dr GS Rathore, field director, Ranthambhore Foundation, New Delhi
Nepal
Tiger surveys conducted in protected areas during 1994 and 1996
revealed a total population of 96 resident adults and estimated a further
161 cubs and non-territorial sub-adults. The surveys showed that they
are mainly found in three distinct populations in the lowland areas
separated by migration barriers. The largest comprises three contiguous
protected areas on the border with India - Chitwan National Park (932 km
2), Parsa Wildlife Reserve (499 km2) and Valmiki tiger reserve (840 km2)
in Bihar, India.
Chitwan and Parsa contain 45 or 50 resident adult and sub-adult tigers.
In Valmiki a census in May 1997 reported 53 tigers. However, some
experts question this figure and suggest only 15 or 20. Exact numbers
may prove to be fairly academic because although Chitwan tigers are
well protected against poachers, poaching in Parsa and Valmiki is a
serious problem.
The second largest tiger population of around 37 is found in Bardia
National Park (960 km2) and in the adjoining forest to the east in Banke
District, which is a proposed extension to the park. Tigers to the west of
Bardia in Kailali District have become isolated since the late 1980s due to
habitat fragmentation. A survey conducted in November and December
1997 found four adult tigers in Bara District adjoining Parsa Wildlife
Reserve and none at all in Banke District adjoining Royal Bardia National
Park. Tigers here, or in other areas such as Bara outside protected
areas, are not going to survive for long unless some measures of
protection can be afforded to them and their prey.
The smallest population is found in the Royal Sukla Phanta Wildlife
Reserve (155 km2) in the south-west corner of Nepal. A census in
December 1996 noted 14 resident tigers in the reserve and a further two
in a proposed extension area. This extension would double the size of
the reserve but there are problems in setting it up because of an invasion
by squatters.
A survey team is currently assessing the status of corridors linking the
reserve with the forests across the border in India.
Bhutan
Bhutan probably supports between 80 and 240 Bengal tigers, some of
which it shares with India. The exact number will be established once a
programme of surveys is completed in 1998.
Bhutan still has 64 per cent intact forest cover and more than 25 per cent
of its area is formally protected. It also has a low human population
density of 32.3 per km2 (compared with India's 256.7 people per km2),
which suggests that habitat loss and depletion of prey are minimal. Even
though the vast majority of Bhutan's people are Buddhists opposed to
widespread hunting, tiger poaching and the smuggling of animal parts is
still a problem.
Tigers range from the relative lowland sub-tropical forests of the south
up into the central Himalayas (3,500 m). Here, transient males have been
known to climb to 4,000 metres to hunt domestic yak. Throughout their
range in Bhutan, their favoured prey species are sambar deer and wild
boars.
Although tigers are not found in all the kingdom's protected areas, there
is a continuous distribution from the north-west in Jigme Dorje National
Park south-eastwards through an unprotected but currently
non-threatened corridor, to the Black Mountains National Park. From
there, the distribution continues south to the Royal Manas on the border
with India, adjacent to which lies the Manas tiger reserve in Assam. From
the Black Mountains National Park, tigers extend eastwards to
Thrumshingla National Park and probably further east to Kulung Chhu
Wildlife Sanctuary on Bhutan's eastern border with India. How further
east they extend is not known.
Throughout the central Himalayas, the tiger is difficult to poach without
the active support of local people. But many now know of the high prices
and easy money that tiger parts fetch. The increased demand in markets
outside the country has led to a rise in poaching attempts within Bhutan -
"something that keeps our anti-poaching squads very busy" says Karma
Tshering of the Bhutan government's Nature Conservation Section.The
fate of Bengal tigers in Nepal and Bhutan in 2010 - what the
experts say:
"Traditional Chinese medicine is no longer such a threat, but the losses
sustained and the relentless loss of habitat have taken their toll.
Nevertheless, more resilient than imagined, the tiger persists in the best
protected and managed reserves, certainly in Nepal and in the mountain
vastness of Bhutan."
- Dr Charles McDougal, Smithsonian Research Associate, Nepal
Coordinator for the International Trust for Tiger Conservation and WWF
consultant
"When field staff question the villagers on their opinions of the tiger,
many favour its protection and see it as a religious deity that subdues all
evil. But at the same time, those who are highly dependent on their
livestock for survival look upon it as a major predator. Often they kill
tigers by poisoning or trapping and I can't see that stopping."
- Karma Tshering, Bhutan government tiger conservation expert
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, tiger population estimates vary between 300 and 460.
They are found throughout the Sundarbans mangrove forests and may
still occur in Teknaf VIII, in the extreme south-eastern tip of the country
bordering Burma. The Sundarbans, spanning the borders of Bangladesh
and India, are a high priority for tiger conservation.
The tiger's protected habitat comprises three wildlife sanctuaries:
Sundarban East, South and West IV. These were recently expanded to
form a contiguous area of 1,379 km2 adjoining the Sundarban tiger
reserve in India, thereby creating a total protected area of 2,700 km2.
Tigers are threatened by poaching (at least 14 were taken between
1975 and 1991), habitat loss and natural disasters such as the cyclone
in 1988 which was thought to have killed nine tigers.
Tigers in the Sunderbans are responsible for a number of human deaths.
Between 1975 and 1993, 23 fatalities were recorded, but many more go
unreported because they occur in core zones where it is illegal to enter:
reporting a companion's death would involve admitting trespassing.