Tigers crossing vast distances in east-central India bring a message of hope. If only we would listen

Counterintuitive arsenic this whitethorn sound, tigers migrating specified mammoth distances is arsenic overmuch a impervious of conservation occurrence arsenic it is of conservation failure. Conservation success, due to the fact that the origins of astir of these walkers prevarication successful the tiger-rich states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, among the best-performing states successful tiger conservation wherever numbers person jumped remarkably implicit the past 15 years. With astir tiger reserves present filled to the brim with the large cats, galore tigers — sometimes young males looking to eke retired a spot of wood for themselves, astatine different times older males pushed retired by their younger counterparts — are forced to migrate. Invariably, galore of them caput eastwards, into Chhattisgarh, Telangana. And truthful begins their agelong march.

It is mostly the territorial males that question afar, whereas females thin to instrumentality wrong a 100-200 km radius of their natal forests, though unusual exceptions bash hap (such arsenic the lawsuit of a tigress migrating from Pench successful Madhya Pradesh to Achanakmar successful Chhattisgarh). For the males, though, determination are 2 things they are looking for — ample prey and mating opportunities. And this is wherever the conservation nonaccomplishment facet comes in.

Regrettably, contempt their immense expanses of green, each the east-central Indian forests are practically “barren” from the constituent of presumption of prey basal and the beingness of tigresses. Except for notable exceptions specified arsenic Similipal and Amrabad (Telangana), determination is not a azygous wood successful each these states that has aggregate breeding females. Tiger reserves specified arsenic Satkosia (Odisha) and Achanakmar person immoderate semblance of a prey basal but nary breeding females, the erstwhile having mislaid each its tigers much than a decennary ago. None of the different tiger reserves, dozens of wildlife sanctuaries oregon forests crossed these states, has either chaotic prey oregon mates to marque adjacent 1 of these males settee down. In technological parlance, specified forests, emptied of astir each their ample and medium-sized mammalian fauna, are said to beryllium afflicted by the “Empty Forest Syndrome”. The superior driving origin for this — rampant bushmeat hunting implicit the decades — is yet different grounds to conservation nonaccomplishment successful these states.

And so, our roving tigers support walking – navigating roads, railway lines, villages, cultivation fields, mines, bushmeat traps, and truthful on. In the lack of chaotic prey, they astir exclusively past connected colony cattle that they find en-route, frankincense bringing them into struggle with the locals. Consequently, astir ne'er marque it beyond a fewer months, and vanish without a trace. The wood department, successful astir cases, ne'er adjacent gets a whiff of them. A fraction marque it through, continuing their seemingly endless journey, sometimes for years. They usually instrumentality pit stops successful definite areas wherever they mightiness enactment a fewer weeks oregon months earlier moving on. The identified pit stops see the Kawal tiger reserve and the Kagaznagar forests successful Telangana, Indravati, Sitanadi-Udanti, Kanger, Gomarda, Barnawapara and the Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve successful Chhattisgarh, and the Sunabeda and Debrigarh sanctuaries successful Odisha.

Of late, the Palamau Tiger Reserve successful occidental Jharkhand has emerged arsenic the astir important pit halt for tigers that march retired of eastbound Madhya Pradesh and past the archetypal fewer 100 kilometres done Chhattisgarh. One of the archetypal 9 tiger reserves and erstwhile a conservation agleam spot, present among the worst-performing reserves successful India, astatine slightest fractional a twelve antheral tigers person landed up present successful the past 2 years. With its erstwhile nonmigratory tiger colonisation and prey basal wholly wiped retired — Palamau being the lone tiger reserve successful the full state wherever adjacent the different communal sambar deer, the main prey taxon of tigers, has been poached to extinction — these males usually instrumentality a breather for a fewer weeks here. Then, they march on, and owed to the lack of monitoring, vanish without a trace. Two, however, person bucked this trend. A antheral whose march began from the Sanjay Tiger Reserve (Madhya Pradesh) went done the adjoining Guru Ghasidas Tiger Reserve. After a little enactment successful Palamau, it traversed confederate Jharkhand, turned southbound to transverse implicit into Odisha, and yet reached Similipal, Zeenat’s caller home. The different male, again originating from Guru Ghasidas, took the aforesaid mode retired of Palamau into confederate Jharkhand. But erstwhile here, helium turned east, into Bengal. This is the antheral who roams Purulia arsenic I constitute this essay.

However, beyond conservation successes and failures, determination is different facet to this communicative — of hope. Despite the dismal authorities of wildlife successful the forests of east-central India, these are inactive among the largest swathes of wood successful the country, replete with ample imaginable tiger habitats and interconnected corridors. In the look of unprecedented threats — from mining to linear infrastructure projects, dams to industries — looming implicit these forests crossed states, these roving tigers punctual america that they tin instrumentality to landscapes they had disappeared from, but lone arsenic agelong arsenic their forests stay intact. Empty forests tin erstwhile again beryllium afloat of wildlife, but lone if they are allowed to be. Perhaps this is the connection these wandering tigers bring on with them, twelvemonth aft year. If lone we would listen.

The writer is simply a conservationist, writer, and Conservation Communicator with Wildlife Conservation Trust, Mumbai