From the present census report of Odisha State Forest Department, the tiger population in Odisha has sharply fallen to 40 as against 101 in 2006 in Similipal alone excluding other forests of the State. The census report says now there are 26 tigers in Similipal, including three cubs.
But earlier in 2014, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which made a census of tigers in their own way employing a number of fixed cameras in vulnerable locations in the different forest blocks of the State, had downgraded the total figure of tigers in the State to 28.
Opposing the enumeration of the NTCA, the State Forest Department had said that the method of tiger census through camera trapping is not a foolproof method. The second and the usual practice of counting the tigers in wild conditions is enumeration of pug marks of the big cats in various spots. It is biometrically proved that the foot prints or the pug marks of one tiger cannot match with some other tigers.
Similarly, the pug marks of a female tiger cannot match with a male tiger or tigers and also of tigresses.
This equals to the thumb impression of human beings which varies from one to other. Practically, this is not a foolproof method and many errors are also involved in every method. Sometimes the personal biases are also involved in this process. To maintain records, the pug marks of tigers and tigresses are recast through tiger tracers or by plaster of paris, which become identical to the original pug marks.
The tiger tracers are plain glasses framed like writing slates. The figures of pug marks in the field are drawn on the glass plate of the tracer in pencil and the field workers having expertise in this line can calculate the actual number of tigers in the forests of the concerned blocks. The writer did the census of tigers in Similipal forests thrice under the guidance of late Sarojraj Chaudhury.
In the present scenario, the State Forests and Environment Department applied both the methods of camera trapping as well as counting in the field. The department spent Rs 5 crore and employed 448 cameras to trap the images of live tigers in the field. In 2014 there were 28 tigers in Odisha as per the version of the NTCA.
The entire forests of the State are divided into a number of blocks and every forest compartment is more or less an area of a forest beat.
Every beast Forest Guard and Section Forester records field evidences in their daily diary book and submits the same on fortnightly basis to their higher authorities. Such field evidences include sighting of animals in natural conditions, roaring evidence of the royal tiger, kill evidences of the carnivore, who preys for its own meal, and the fresh urine left by the animal in its own habitat. Especially during mating period there are certain carnivores like different cats and dogs which show some distinct peculiarities. When the male and female tigers roam about on courtship, and the mother moves with cubs, it is the best period for census of tigers.
Not only tigers, but it is most suitable time for all cats and dogs as far as their enumeration is concerned. Such biological actions of a royal tiger are seen during pre-monsoon period. late Sarojraj Chaudhury, the eminent conservationist, could capture the tigress, Khair, from the back of Khair river in Similipal, when it was a cub and moving with her mother. Every animal including tiger always leaves biometric evidences in their living territories like basking in the sun, sharpening of nails, prowling after preys etc which can only be recorded by the field biologists or the forest employees of the unit concerned.
When the writer was posted at Similipal, such practices were carried out under the guidance Choudhury, the foster father of Khair tigress.
If the forest authorities of the State are now following such biometric practices, their enumeration has a certain degree of credibility.
The NTCA cannot be successful in their attempt unless they get full co-operations from the field staff of the State. The tiger or the leopard census needs coordinated efforts of Central and State teams.
The State should admit its failure, if the tiger conservation measures are not hopefully carried out mainly for loss of habitats, illicit poaching, besides man-animal conflict. There is ample scope in Odisha for rearing of tigers or leopards in nature’s abode. There are ample opportunities for the field staff to know the habitat of each individual tiger in the entire biosphere. However, willpower and sincerity seem to be missing.
The biospheres of Similipal or Sunabeda or Satakoshia are not individual ecological divisions which restrict an animal to confine itself within a given bio-complex and not to stray away to other areas for food and co-habitation with its fellow members and species.
Everyone knows how a male tiger of Satkoshia Sanctuary came all the way to Nandankanan Zoo for mating with opposite sex. So the forest employees in the field should be amply cautious to avoid bogus counting of tigers or panthers.
Apart from 26 tigers in Similipal, the State census says there are three tigers each in Karanjia and Keonjhar divisions. All these areas are very much contiguous to each other and are almost homogenous bio complex, which ecologically cannot be divisible. The writer served in these three forest divisions. There is every possibility of tigers moving in these three divisions to catch the prey. So, there are ample scopes of bogus counting of tigers.
Similarly, the Sunabeda and Kharia Wild life Divisions are alike. The census staff could record four tigers in Sunabeda Sanctuary and one tiger in Khariar Division. The political or the administrative boundaries cannot restrict any animal within a given boundary. Again, the Rewa forests of Chhatisgarh are very close to Khariar and Sunabeda Sanctuary of Odisha and the animals and birds from one territory to other can freely move. There are only two tigers in Satkoshia Sanctuary. The dwindling numbers prove our utter failure at tiger conservation.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)