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Policies & Politics
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Ignored lessons from Sariska experience & translocation protocols threatens Satkosia project
 *This image is copyright of its original author Just three months after she was moved to her new home, officials have decided to put Sundari behind bars. The tigress from Bandhavgarh TR, Sundari, was shifted to Satkosia TR in Odisha to boost the reserve’s tiger population. Within two months of being translocated, she made her first human kill. The tiger that was brought from Kanha (MB2) has settled well in the core area of Satkosia and was never found roaming around in the buffer areas or outside the tiger reserve for prey. She too had once entered into the core area of the Satksoia Tiger Reserve but was chased away from there immediately by the older tigress that have been inhabiting there for long. Ever since, Sundari has been roaming around in the buffer zone of the tiger reserve. Occasionally, she has also come out of the limits of the tiger reserve. She's been killing cattle frequently, and then mailed a man who went to a pond on the edge of the forest. When a local news reporter went to the spot later, she charged & seriously mauled him too. She hasn't been tagged a man-eater yet but the killings weren't due to "chance encounters" either. Her activities have triggered mass panic, large-scale protests and violence among the local people. Attempts to tranquillise or bait-trap the tigress haven't been successful yet. She is to be shifted to Nandankanan Safari or back to Madhya Pradesh. By the way the project was handled shows gross mismanagement on part of the Odisha Forest and Environment Department.  *This image is copyright of its original author The process of tiger translocation is governed by the “Protocol for Tiger Re-introduction”, framed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). The protocol states a team of experts from the WII, state FD, a Vet & Wildlife Biologist should evaluate the socio-economic impact of the translocation. "A thorough assessment of attitudes of local people to the proposed project is necessary to ensure long-term protection of the reintroduced population, especially if the cause of species’ decline was due to human factors (e.g. overhunting, over-collection, loss or alteration of habitat). The programme should be fully under-stood, accepted and supported by local communities." Let alone being in the fold, some villagers from the region had complained that they weren't even informed of the presence & came to know from media after she killed a person! “Translocation of tigers is justified only if, 1. there is sufficient data to show that adequate prey density exists; 2. tigers are either absent or well below carrying capacity densities as shown by data; 3. there is no chance of wild tigers colonising the area naturally with adequate protect-ion; 4. the introduced tiger is not captive bred but is caught in the wild and is capable of hunting prey; and 5. the introduced animals are radio-collared and tracked so that they can be shot or recaptured the moment there is problem,” said Ullas Karanth. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Re-cognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, or FRA, says that rights of forest-dwelling communities must be settled before declaring a forest a protected area. No such thing happened at Satkosia. Of all the tiger reserves in India, STR has the highest number of habitations—116 villages inside the protected area! Other than still having a large human population, apparently it has very low prey base. Preybase development takes years of effort & no such rigorous program was carried out either. “Satkosia is not an inviolate area by any stretch of imagination and there is hardly any herbivores there. In 1996, I had opposed declaring Satkosia as a tiger reserve. It’s a disastrous exercise,” said PK Sen, former director of Project Tiger. Even rearguard actions taken in Sariska post tiger translocation like erecting masonry walls at strategic places to prevent livestock grazing, collection of forest produces or wood and human-tiger interface etc. are missing in Satkosia. Sources: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/shoddy-translocation-of-tiger-sundari-leads-to-bloodshed-62038 https://m.telegraphindia.com/states/odisha/odisha-tigress-sundari-eludes-capture-teams/cid/1672504 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2018/state-editions/sariska-lessons-ignored--odisha-tiger-shift-in-trouble.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/after-rising-protests-odisha-plans-to-shift-tigress-sundari-to-nandankanan-zoo/story-AGvuo534gf1pbn9PnnDsyH.html |
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