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John Varty & Tiger Canyon
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Newsletter 155
11/11/17  *This image is copyright of its original author Tigress Panna and cubs - picture JV Hello Friends
The Indian Connection:
"A sparkling diamond
A fragile life Through the trees A shaft of light Your coat so white As fallen snow Your eyes so blue Like rivers when they flow" From the song - Shine a Light I have just spent 8 fascinating days with some of India’s leading conservationists.
Nikhil Nagle is a businessman who has a passion for wild life photography. Nikhil has established The Last Wilderness Foundation which works in and around where tigers still exist. The Foundation works with communities & in the area of tiger & human conflict.
Vidya Venkatesh works for the Foundation & is at the cutting edge of the tiger human conflict. She is constantly engaging with people that live alongside the tigers, lecturing, negotiating & educating the people to find ways of reducing conflict between people and tigers.
Dr Harbhajan Pabla has been warden of the some of the most famous Tiger Reserves in India, including Kanha & Panna. Dr Pabla has been one of most progressive creative conservationists in India for the last 40 years.
Greatly inspired by the film "Living with Tigers", Dr Pabla has reintroduced Tigers into Panna Reserve, after they became locally extinct. Dr Pabla has engaged the help of South African conservationists, Les Carlise, Geoff Cook & Dr Dave Cooper to help him move tigers & gaur into parks where they previously existed.
In short Dr Pabla has pioneered the birth of the wildlife animal capture industry in India.
 *This image is copyright of its original author After seeing Tibo in the wild at Tiger Canyons, Dr Pabla is determined that the white tiger will return to Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve where the last white tiger, Mohan, was removed from the wilds in the early 1950’s (There are nearly 100 white tigers in zoos in India)
Doctor Pabla who is a world expert on tigers, is not too concerned with inbreeding of big cats. His theory is that a certain amount of inbreeding occurs in the wild & over years of evolution, the strongest genes survived and the weak genes perished.
All tigers have a narrow genetic base proving they once experienced a evolutionary bottleneck (that is a small population of tigers survived an evolutionary crisis).
Dr Pabla believes that the white tigers presently in captivity in India, are healthy & strong enough to return to the wilds, should the Indian government give the green light. I would tend to agree with him.
I am thrilled that Dr Pabla could see both Londolozi & Tiger Canyons working under a private enterprise system.
I would like to congratulate "andBeyond" (previously known as Conservation Corporation) on their brave investment into India some years ago.
"andBeyond" have not only introduced to India the concept of private enterprise working in government parks, but they have brought a new standard of lodges to India.
After a talk by Vidya Venkatesh, I was fascinated to learn that around the city of Mumbai, some 40 leopards thrive & survive. Scientists have studied this population of Leopards as they survive by feeding off stray dogs & cats which live in the city of Mumbai.
I couldn’t help thinking that in a hundred years from now, when the world's human population is 15 billion, (that’s if it ever reaches that high) towns like Nelspruit, White River, Hoedspruit, Phalaborwa & Nelspruit may have populations of Leopards living off their cities, just like occurs in Mumbai today.
Unfortunately for tigers, needing larger prey & more dangerous to humans, it is not as easy for the tiger to adapt to living off a big city.
One of the biggest advantages that India has, is that the Indian people like and admire the tiger. Indeed, some of them worship the tiger. This gives conservationists a huge advantage in solving tiger / human conflicts.
However, when the Tiger has killed one of your family or eaten your entire flock of goats, it becomes a competitor to be exterminated by whatever means possible.
The huge challenge for Indian conservationists is, how do you conserve the tiger & still meet the needs of the people. India’s population is already 1.2 billion. By 2020 they may exceed China as the most populated country on the planet. The challenge is enormous & it will need creative thinking of conservationists around the world to solve the problem.
I believe the answer lies in the Londolozi Model. If India pursues the concept of private enterprise working in government parks & in investing in rural people who benefit from the eco-tourism which the tigers brings, they could save & even expand the tiger home range.
If India pursues a policy of the government will do everything & will own everything, they will doom the tiger to extinction.
Indeed, I would like to see the Indian government privatize some, but not all of their parks & even privatize a few of their tiger populations.
Some years ago, the Indian government supported an idea to ban tourism from the parks in India. Fortunately this has been reversed. India needs to open up restricted areas to tourism so you get a Londolozi scenario of 3 vehicles at a sighting (At times surrounding a tiger in an Indian park, can be 70 vehicles all jostling for position)
India needs to grow the cake and bring in the unknown parks to help take the load.
They need to invest in colleges where guides are trained. This will lift the standard of guiding and make it a lucrative career.
Above all, they need to invest in the "Elmon Mhlongo Scenario" where they make the tiger more valuable alive to the rural people then dead. (Elmon Mhlongo used to kill Leopards for their skins, then he got a job at Londolozi as a tracker. Now it’s more lucrative to keep the Leopard alive because Elmon can make more money from a Leopard that’s alive than dead.)
The Last Wilderness Foundation
Tread lightly on the Earth http://thelastwilderness.org/ JV |
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