Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[Roflcopters]

210 kilograms problematic 4 year old male that strayed out of Dudhwa National Park.

Real life Story- Tiger of Rehman Kheda
Chilly winter days of January 2012 gradually transformed into breezy spring of February. The mild winters of February slowly melted into the light warmth of March. Lot many flowering trees bloomed. Semal and Palash turned into fiery red. Leafless Sheesham trees bore new soft green leaves. Holi was celebrated with gaiety both by urban and rural folks. People sprayed wet colors on each other, and sang loud songs of mirth. Then, days of light warmth knocked on the doors of April. Reign of long dark nights gave way to one of long bright days. The farmers harvested good wheat crop, and mango orchard owners looked towards a bumper crop of mangos. Two third of the April too passed and now one could feel the heat of the daytime. May was going to be really hot, everyone thought. Water was getting scantier in small ponds and nullahs.
Besides the weather, too much had changed at Lucknow in the last four months. Elections were held in February and everyone seemed busy. Poll results had uprooted one government and paved way for another. People believed in change, it seemed. In the department of forest, corridors of power remained the hatching ground of conspiracies. Top brass retired one after the other taking few battles to the court as well.
What really had not changed in the last four months was situational attributes of this tiger vis a vis UP forest department. The tiger had discovered a perfect home in the thin small 70 acre jungle of Rehman Kheda. All evidences, direct and indirect, had pointed out its straying out from its real natural home, the Dudhwa National Park at a distance of about 200 km from Lucknow, towards agricultural fields .
Could a tiger get strayed so far and travel so long, everyone wondered. This jungle of Rehman Kheda, just a woodland with a small running water stream was really not big enough to support a tiger, yet it provided good cover to it in those long dark nights and short foggy days. In the beginning, tiger had preyed upon few neelgais inhabiting the same area. Later neelgais left the area under terror, and forest department in order to cage this animal or tranquilize it safely, started providing live baits to it in the form of buffalo calves, the goats, a domestic pig on one occasion, and later a full-size buffalo.
Despite forest department’s best efforts that included multi pronged strategies at the hands of experts comprising of senior foresters, shooters, trackers, wildlife managers, tranquilizing experts, the tiger could neither be caged nor tranquilized. Tiger had learnt the skill of survival under odd and abnormal situations in a home away from its real home. 
And now the time and opportunities were slipping fast. The public outcry was at its peak. And media was crying hoarse about the terror the tiger had created among the local populace, and its ‘sufferings’. The terror and suffering, both were somewhat real, somewhat imaginary. People’s movement had been grounded to almost zero by presence of this tiger and ensuing restrictions the forest department and district administration had imposed upon the public. 
This tiger came into my professional life very late, and I too, under force of unmitigated circumstances made a hurried exit from its life, even before the turn of events in his life could reach a climax. Climax came a little too late. At that time I was only a distant spectator.
Exactly on 1st of January 2012, there came a report from some rural part of adjoining Hardoi district that few pugmarks of tiger were spotted in an agricultural field. No wonder it was not taken very seriously. Hardoi district has hardly any forest cover.
Simultaneously a rumor was found afloat that few peasants had seen a tiger in the agricultural fields of Malihabad and Kakori, places not far off from Lucknow, merely at a distance of twenty km from Lucknow.
It was dusk time and the fields were laden with wheat and mustard. Dusk is the time when most optical illusions and visual confusions occur. On the basis of this premise, the event of witnessing or sighting a tiger by few peasants was not taken as very reliable. The second premise was: there are no jungles around Lucknow in a territory of 175 Kms. So sighting of a tiger, that too in an agricultural field at dusk, far from jungle, was at best attributed to drunken state of mind of those peasants. The matter was dismissed without much ado.
However on 7th of January, sighting of few clear pugmark was reported from a rural area around Kakori, a town about 15 km away from Lucknow towards Hardoi side. There were no report of any cattle killing, yet this area being nearer to Lucknow, the state capital, naturally called for taking the matter much more seriously by the forest department.
Forest department was still in the state of reverie when a report came on 9th January from Central Institute of Subtropical Horticulture (CISH), Rehman Kheda, a fenced up area of about 300 acres, lying on the right of Lucknow –Hardoi railway line, that a neelgai has been killed in its campus by some tiger, and most of its part has been eaten away. With this news, forest officials rushed to the spot. Not only a big neelgai was killed but there were fresh pugmarks of tiger all around.
A story had begin.
So, a few things were clear. There was a tiger, and a male one, strayed away from its natural habitat to an area which was bare of jungle or greenery, the only possible exception being only this very campus of CISH which had a number of mango and jamun orchards at different level of experimentations, besides some scattered thorny bushes, or the adjoining area of State Agricultural Institute which had few areas lookalike forest. Both the patches together still lacked depth of a shelter for an animal like tiger. Forest department had to see to it that the local population does not come to any harm by this tiger, and their life remains normal; at the same time tiger too is not damaged by any one, it is caught safely either by caging or tranquilizing , and transported back to its natural habitat.
It was a big and very uncertain task demanding of specialty, leadership, teamwork, PR and resources. Forest department in earlier times had caged and tranquilized few such strayed-away tigers, even had eliminated few under certain exigency, and definitely was equal to task; but as the later events proved forest department was no equal to this tiger’s wit, cunningness, coolness, adoptability and a very high instinct to survive. In the beginning, forest department imagined: with its experience, lore of handling such situations, and capability of roping in the services of specialists from the top institutes, it would diffuse the situation, one way or the other; but it was all wrong.
It did rope in the services of their own experts and some old experienced animal trackers, besides the experts on tranquilization from Wildlife Institute of India, Wildlife Trust of India, WWF, National Tiger Conservation Authority, Nandan Kanan Zoological Park Bhubaneshwar, and few others. Most of these experts were tired by the end of January and too eager to go home.
Long cold dark nights and dim foggy days of January, the sweet water flowing into Behta nullah running over the territory of CISH, thick luxuriant growth of scattered thorny bushes, presence of neelgais- although their number was receding with time for tiger’s terror- had all helped tiger to survive the month of January. All the strategies of forest department to tranquilize or cage the tiger had failed. Technology had come to the aid of forest department. It was tracking its pugmarks or other signs every morning and was trying to study its movement with the help of their GPS locations plotted on a sheet of paper. On the basis of this knowledge, cages with live baits, mainly goats and small buffalo calves, were being put at the spots most likely to be visited by tiger in the night. The machans too were being tied at such likely spots too with tranquilizing experts over the machans and live baits under them in order to tranquilize the beast if it ever comes in daytime to take the bait.
The tiger never took the bait either physically or literally the entire January. It did come to some cage some time but had the sense and self discipline not to be lured into it. On one occasion, instead of entering into the cage and getting trapped, it just cut the tail of the goat hanging from the cage, and decamped with it. Later the forest department, in order to concrete its efforts, imported urine of some tigress from the local Zoo, and sprinkled it all over the cage. But sadly tiger was too experienced to be lured into cage thwarting all feminine entrapments.
On few occasions it killed the live bait of a buffalo calf under the machan in the darkness of night , hurriedly ate a small portion of it, and bolted away never to return to the same spot. It was playing its game cautiously and all its cards closer to its chest.
In the entire month of January 2012 hardly was it actually seen by any forest staff. Definitely on one occasion a supervisor and few laborers of CISH accosted it on a bend in a mango orchard one afternoon. This chance encounter was unexpected and every one bolted so swiftly that even the tiger felt embarrassed. Later CISH campus gave a deserted look. Most of the employees were asked not to turn up until tiger left the campus.
Technology further came to the aid of forest department, and one fine evening tiger got himself photographed in a camera trap . This picture of tiger was released to the media, and media kept circulating scores of sensational stories about this tiger for about a week.
This tiger, localized to the campus of NISH and adjoining State Agricultural Institute, got so much bored that it started taking excursions in the night time. It often crossed under the fence of CISH, crossed over the railway track, and toured few village boundaries and agricultural fields under the glow of winter moonlight. However it did not enter into village habitation or killed any cattle or teased any human being, thus totally avoiding any controversy or embarrassment to the forest department. One night it went as bold as to have crossed River Gomti, visited few villages of trans Gomti area, took overview of the world, and came back silently to its newfound home.
However all these activities of tiger bagged good time for rumor mongers and gossipers. A ‘tiger’ was seen on the edge of so many villages and small towns at dusk time resulting into the loud outcry and killing of some harmless animals. Delay in caging the tiger also gave a good time to the agitationists, activists, trade uninionists and pseudo environmentalists.
My entry into the life of this tiger happened by default on 1st February 2012 when government appointed me Chief Wildlife Warden of the state. My retirement was due in two months, on 31st March. My only fear was this tiger might not cost me my job and subsequently a disgraceful retirement. So the first thing that I did after taking over this job was to pray God to bestow upon this tiger necessary skill and courage to slip under the cover of darkness from this Rehmankheda woodland and march back silently to its original home.
God did not grand me this wish. So I had no option but to recourse to other actions . I asked old reliable Dr Utkarsh Shukla, the Vet and Kamal, the tracker, of Lucknow Zoo to be associated with this mission in whom so many were already knee deep. Dr Utkarsh Shukla is Deputy Director and chief Vet of Lucknow Zoo, and in few years time would have the world record of tranquilizing most number of animals in wild condition. Kamal is virtually a jungle worm and knows jungle and its denizens as intimately as one knows the palm of one’s hand.
My arms being tied with so many other botherations, I kept myself confined only to occasional visits of the area, discussing the matter on hand with staff and experts, counseling where necessary, briefing to the government and press, and left the real caging part of the tiger to the wisdom and ingenuity of local forest department and its officers.
However I politely asked Nawab Shafat Ali Khan of Hyderabad, whom forest department had called for consultations, to disassociate himself from the operation. He is the shikari and hunter par excellence and his experience in eliminating the refractory carnivore is extraordinary. He was the one who had eliminated a similar strayed out tiger in Kumarganj (Faizabad) under most difficult situations in the year 2009. This tiger had killed a few persons and was living in a small patch of forest, and had proved one of the most delusive animals ever noticed. Nawab had come to the rescue of forest department when most of its expert had failed, and not many options were left. Nawab had camped there then in that out-of-world hamlet for a long time under scant facilities, and had done that all at his own expenses. Taking such adventures was his passionate hobby.
I made Nawab sahib very clear that I wish to catch this tiger all very alive and safe, and since he has not much experience in tranquilizing the animals I would simply be wasting his time, although he was very willing to stay even at the risk of his own life. His presence was giving wrong signals to the public and press. Everyone thought forest department wished to hunt away this animal which was really not the case.
In the meanwhile some more experts left home and some more joined to swell the rank of experts. Forest department’s LIT Guest House in the outskirts of Lucknow on Hardoi Road virtually became ‘centre for strategic planning’, and a borrowed room in the main building of CISH a ‘war room’. I called Roopkali, a trained elephant along with its mahout from Dudhwa National Park for the tracking purposes, later to be joined by another elephant Champakali. Later I called PP Singh Ex Deputy Direcor, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, to join the fray too. He was the one who was young and had extensive experience in tackling such situations. He was the one whom I had permitted a few years back to shoot an almost crippled ‘tiger of Kaanptanda’.
It was difficult to say who changed its strategies fast? The forest department to catch this tiger alive and safe? Or the tiger to survive forest department’s stratagems of trapping it? Tiger so far was successful in outsmarting forest department’s moves. Forest department was changing its strategies so fast that sometimes it looked as if it had no strategy.
Forest department then embarked upon lot many innovative ideas. Now there were not just live bait in the cages; at certain strategic spots tranquilizing experts themselves sat in the cages, half dug into bunker like pits and camouflaged with dry leaves, with a live bait close to the cage. Idea was to hit the tiger with tranquilizing dart from close quarter when it came to kill the bail. Tiger was able to sense it and never came close to these bunkers.
When tigers kill a big bait like a buffalo and eat part of it, they have tendency to come back to the same ‘kill’ to devour the rest. Hunters in old days sat on machans over this ‘kill’ to shoot the tigers. These days tranquilizing experts sit over such machans to shoot the tigers with a dart gun. This tiger never came back to its ‘kill’. Rather on one occasion it chopped off the head of the buffalo calf tethered to a tree with a thick rope, and took away its entire body from under the machan. On another occasion in daytime it did come quite close to Roopkali but one of the experts sitting over Roopkali missed the mark by his dart gun, and tiger went away happy.
Later forest department played audio cassettes of ‘tiger roar’ in the cages to attract the tiger. Either the tiger was too clever to be bluffed by these roars , or the ‘tiger roar’ was not loud enough to catch the attention of tiger. The strategy failed.
Then someone suggested bringing in a live tigress from the Zoo to attract this male tiger. The idea was bright and innovative but found impractical. It was adjudged highly cumbersome to bring in a caged female tigress from the Zoo, and put it the vicinity of the cage having a live or dead bait. Idea was rejected.
Later forest department in an ingenious move brought in a trophy of female tigress, sprinkled it generously with the urine of female tigress, and put it at strategic points beside the cages with bait to attract this male tiger. The exercise continued for about a week. The tiger was not lured, and the trophy was sent back to the Zoo.
Some more ingenuity was applied. The point from where tiger often crossed under the fence was blocked and some rope traps were laid. Tiger failed to get into rope traps. Later some long hunting nets, locally known as khabar, too were deployed but to no avail. Some ditches were dug on other side of the fence on its way to outings in the night. Tiger ditched this plan too. Tiger changed its course of outing.
There was lot of grumbling and clamor from the media and NGOs who were kept out of the spot of actual action.
Tiger remained unfazed from the event of assembly election in the middle of February and later Holi in the second week of March, although forest department was under tremendous pressure to keep the tiger alive and safe from hooligans and miscreants and at the same time handle the law and order situation. There were few pooling booths in the vicinity of tiger’s newfound home too. It was to be ensured that polling was no way affected by the presence of tiger.
Then came in more experts and opinion makers, and some more ingenuity was applied to the mission. A pit, 10 feet long, 10feet wide and 12 feet deep was dug at a strategic point. The dug earth was spread on one side of the pit, a buffalo calf was put on the base of the pit, and pit was camouflaged. The idea was; tiger, while chasing the smell of the bait, would fall into the pit.
The tiger did come to the pit in the night and sniffed the buffalo. In the meanwhile buffalo too, sensing the presence of tiger up above, got panic stricken, rambled and made such frantic movements that it broke its own neck. Tiger sensing the danger moved away.
In the morning when forest guys reached the pit, they found the buffalo almost comatose hanging upside down in the pit. It was taken out of the pit and replaced by another buffalo with some modification in the camouflage.
Tiger did come again to pit another night and really fell into it, but escaped unhurt from the pit by making firm grip on the rain soaked wall of the pit with its claws. It had rained only a day before. It all sounds incredible but strangely it is true. It was concluded the pit was not deep enough. Another bigger pit was made of 12’x12’x14’ size , the dug earth spread on one side of it, and camouflaged much more intensively with dry leaves and twigs. Tiger never came to it.
From the middle of March, course of events started taking more dramatic turns. Days started stretching longer and nights shorter. Sun was getting warmer and water scarcer. There was leaf fall in most of the trees in tiger’s new found home and thus much less availability of cover to hide . By all means these conditions were much less favorable to tiger than earlier. A new popular government had taken oath in Lucknow. Press, feeling relieved of heavy electioneering process and government formation, was now feeling rejuvenated and more focused on this tiger. The local population too, grounded so long because of the terror of this tiger, wanted more unrestricted movement in the area. Things were getting politicized. There was much more monitoring of this tiger’s wherewithal at government level than earlier. General perception was forest department has not been able to do anything concrete so far. It must do now or never. 
Some heads were likely to roll if something went wrong. No one was sure what was going wrong.
After a fortnight on 31st March 2012 I retired from the government service, my job all intact. I thanked my stars and the tiger for not messing up the things. Thus I silently exited from the life of this tiger.
From this point onward in this story, my source of information is a report compiled by Sub Divisional Forest Officer Sri BB Srivastave. He was the one person who was engaged in this operation from day one to last , and one of the important think tanks then.
With the passage of time forest department inducted more experts and changed its strategies more frequently. The entire area so far virtually cordoned off from the eyes of public and press, was now frequently and massively visited by the public, press, government officials, bureaucrats and ministers. The tiger so far virtually invisible to forest people was chance encountered in the first week of May by whole entourage of minister, press people and crowd of public and forest staff. It was clicked extensively, and next day the newspapers were full of coverage of this operation.
The things were gradually slipping from the hands of forest department. Then forest department decided to slap all its resources on this operation. 
A fresh thinking was on its way. All the unnecessary staff was asked to detach itself from the Operation. The number of vehicles was increased, and more cages were procured from all over the state. Frequency of baiting was reduced. Buffalo calves were replaced by full grown buffaloes. Tranquilizing activity so far confined to daytime only was taken up in the night too with the help of strong search lights. Use of elephants so far limited to tracking of the tiger, was extended to tranquilizing too. More tranquilizing teams and their backup teams were formed and deployed. The entire area was divided into workable plots. The forest department was working on war footing.
By the middle of April the shape of the operation had turned more like a silent haanka or kheda type of operation where few teams were working day and night to track the tiger, drive it to some suitable spot in the open , and to finally tranquilize it. Success came to it finally on 25th April. It was the day when teams had started their work right from 3.30 in the morning. They were trying to track the tiger on the basis of its movement after it had killed a buffalo a night before. Finally the tiger was tracked and driven by a team comprising BB Srivastava and others sitting on one elephant to a spot where Dr Utkarsh Shukla, Kamal and PP Singh were waiting on another elephant. As soon as the tiger came in range, Dr Utkarsh Shukla fired the tiger with the tranquilizing gun, and the dart hit it on its left rump.
Tiger had no clue as to what has happened to it. It rushed towards jungle and was further tracked. However its gait slowed down and fifteen minutes after it fell unconscious and hit the ground.
Rest of the story is very simple. It was put into a cage, its rising temperature cooled down by pouring water over it, and then treated with necessary antidotes. Surprisingly the tiger had no injury and was absolutely healthy. A large local crowd had gathered to see the tiger. Shortly it was visited by every high up from Lucknow including the minister, bureaucrats, press and public. Tiger was weighed and measured and its vital statistics recorded. Then it was radio collared.
Now this 10.5 feet long tiger, weighing 210 kg, all well and healthy, was on a different voyage and on a different lease of life. It was transported to forests of Sonaripur in Dudhwa National Park, and silently released deep into the jungle. It was believed to have come from there only to Rehman Kheda to stay in a thin patch of forest for about four months.
28-12-2016.



Credits to Mohammad Ahsan - the former principal chief conservator of forests. Reply