Ranthambore National Park

No real count of the tigers

How many tigers does Ranthambore National Park have ? Nobody seems to know while the forest department of Rajasthan continues to maintain its count of 2009 which, according to its claims, stood at 40. The State forest department's census in 2009 counted 40 tigers in Ranthambore National Park along with Sawai Man Singh sanctuary. The mode of tiger census has been a subject of controversy as the counting was done earlier by taking the paw marks which was not said to be a foolproof method of ascertaining the tiger population. The forest department has been using different methods to be more precise in their census using the camera traps. The camera traps consisting of hidden cameras in the forest snap a picture each time an animal passes by. However, this technique works only when an animal crosses the range of the cameras and, it is not necessary that each of big cats may peep into the camera and say 'cheese'. Therefore, there are possibilities of some animals not being counted, or at times getting counted twice or more. It is strange that even after stray cases of tigers dying during 2010 and at least four being relocated in Sariska, the number remains constant in Ranthambore. A tiger and a tigress were sent to Sariska tiger reserve in May, 2010, a tiger found dead on 22 October, 2010 and with the disappearance of a tigress and her 3 cubs on the 5 January this year, the number of tigers cannot be more than 30 while a source in the Rajasthan's forest department said that there are still 35-38 tigers in the sanctuary.

If official claims at Ranthambore are to be believed then tiger 'sightings' should have been very frequent and easy in that forest. However, this is far from truth. Sightings are rare. Compare this to Bandhavgarh and Pench in Madhya Pradesh where almost 90 per cent visitors are lucky to see a tiger.

It seems that all is not well with the forest department of Rajasthan where officials are oblivious of the exact number of big cats. This is the continued to fool the tourists till 2005 claiming to having tigers in Sariska which were already extinct in that reserve. Rampant poaching due to villages inside Sariska had led to the extinction of the big cat in the reserve. The State government, however, was too late in accepting the truth. The tiger reserve was originally a hunting preserve of the erstwhile Alwar state. It was declared a wildlife reserve in 1955. In 1978, it was declared a tiger reserve. The tiger reserve has an area of around 866 square kms and is located some 110 km from Rajasthan's capital Jaipur. Some of the wildlife found in the reserve include the leopard, jungle cat, hyena, jackal, chital, sambar, langur, wild boar, four-horned deer and several species of birds. Since 2008, five tigers - two males and three females - have been relocated to the reserve from Ranthambore National Park in Sawai Madhopur district.

If ignored, Ranthambore may soon go the Sariska way. It is a known fact that some villages on the periphery of the reserve are inhabited by gypsy tribes which are said to be hand in glove with poachers who have remained active for a good part of the last decade. But the forest officials have failed to evolve a strategy to stop poaching. Though difficult, but it is not impossible to police the area outside the forest.

The depleting numbers are the outcome of sheer mismanagement on the part of forest authorities and their efforts to cover up their own carelessness and poor tracking of the tigers. If official claims were true, there will be 'sightings' almost every day and many times a day. There is no 'over population' of tigers either. Ranthambore, situated in Sawai Madhopur district, covers an area of around 400 square kms and together with the Sawai Man Singh sanctuary, it is around 500 square kms. Ranthambore National Park was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1957 and in 1974 it gained the protection of 'Project Tiger'. It got the status of national park in 1981.

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