As security levels plunge, tigers are rapidly disappearing from Kanha National Park. Undaunted, forest authorities, blatantly violating rules of translocation, remove tigers from Kanha and ensure the destruction of the last remaining few

ELEVEN TIGERS died in 12 weeks in Kanha National Park, in Madhya Pradesh. The latest toll was on Thursday (March 6) when a male tiger, in its prime, was found dead. The cause of death: ostensibly an attack by another male tiger; not identified and officially blamed for all the deaths.

  According to forest officials, the number of deaths is six. But Madhya Pradesh forest department is not transparent about tiger deaths. An admission of dwindling population may raise questions, if not force a change of job.

 
Kanha National Park was a haven for the severely endangered and rapidly disappearing Bengal tigers. Two years ago, 120 tigers roamed the 940 square kilometre area. Today, there are barely seventy.
 
Security is at an all time low and forest officials are precipitating it.
 
On November 7, 2008, a forest vehicle was used by three forest workers, Shabbir, Bhanwar and another to take tourists on a night safari, which is supposedly strictly prohibited. When authorities in Mandla were informed they said the matter will be looked into the next morning. Subsequently, the police was informed. The erring forest workers were picked up. Shabbir was transferred for the time being but his return is imminent; the others went scot free.
 
Security at the park has relaxed sufficiently for tourist vehicles to move freely along roads closed to traffic; for tourists to take a walk in the forest in the presence of forest guards. As for the forest guards, some are supervising the canteen at the park’s zero point. Not surprisingly, both the quality of snacks and the quantity of prey and predators in the forest have gone through the floor.
 
Kanha Maidan, once teeming with hordes of cheetals, lies deserted. Poaching once a problem, is now an acknowledged activity. During my trip, in December, I was informed the recent death of the tiger was an accident. “They were hunting sambars and cheetals and the tiger got electrocuted by mistake,” I was told by familiar faces, who wished to remain anonymous.
 
Yet, the Kanha regular diligently does the morning and evening park rounds with the faint hope of seeing the tiger. Pug marks are seen, but the tiger promptly disappears at the sound of the vehicle. The Digdola tigress is a case in point.
 
“She had killed a gaur. I saw her just once, on the day of the kill. Thereafter, she disappeared at the sound of the vehicle,” our guide told us during our February trip.
 
Kanha tigers never cared about vehicles or people. Nasty experiences must have now taught them to avoid human beings. 
 
The border town of Khatia resembles a ghost town. Most people here earn a living taking tourists inside the park. With nothing left to show, soon no one will come to see. The gloom is palpable.
 
“It has become a shamshan (crematorium),” says Jabinder (name changed) as we meet at the local teashop. “There is nothing. In another eight years, Kanha will become another Sariska.” He was born here and has lived all his life here. He should know.
 
After two dozen trips over the past few years it is clear Kanha is in its death throes. To put the nail in the coffin is another development: Park authorities are involved in the translocation tigers out of Kanha to Panna National Park. On Monday (March 9) a tigress from the core area of Kanha was air-lifted to Panna.
 
“A four-year-old tigress was found on Monday (9 March) morning, tranquilised, radio-collared and shifted to Panna in an IAF helicopter,” said director of Kanha, R P Singh, talking to the media.
 
That the tiger might have been pregnant did not stop the translocation. The deputy director of Kanha National Park, AK Nagar denied the possibility but at the same time added, “Even if she is pregnant, it is better from conservation point of view.”
 
The question is, is it actually better? Panna National Park, also in Madhya Pradesh, has lost each one of its 40 tigers to poachers over the past years. According to camera-trapping evidence by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehra Dun, there are no tigers or tigresses left in Panna. Forest officials deny this and are in no hurry to investigate the disappearance of the 40 tigers of Panna. Meanwhile, National Parks of the stature of Kanha and Bandhavgarh are losing healthy and breeding tigers from their core areas to this notorious park.
 
On March 3, the locals at Khatia went on strike protesting the translocation of the Kanha tigress and demanding an official enquiry into the disappearance of the Panna tigers before removing tigers out of Kanha. The shift of the Kanha tiger was stalled for the time being. Instead, a tiger from the core area of Bandhavgarh was hastily taken to Panna by road even before a proper collar was found for the animal.
 
Subsequently, the Kanha tigress was also removed to Panna in gross violation of the rules of translocation as laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) that prohibits the removal of adult tigers from the core area.
 
Locals at Khatia have been joined by conservationists who have filed a writ petition in Jabalpur High Court challenging the translocation.
 
Meanwhile, in a letter to the prime minister, members of the National Board for Wildlife (NBW) and tiger experts have demanded a high-level inquiry into the disappearance of all tigers from Panna. Signed by NBW members Valmik Thapar, Brijendra Singh, Belinda Wright and former director, Project Tiger P K Sen, scientists Raghu Chundawat and Ullas Karanth, and conservationists Bittu Sahgal and Fateh Singh Rathore, the letter says, the future of tigresses translocated to Panna cannot be ensured until an inquiry into the local extinction of tigers from Panna is carried out.
 
For those who care for tigers, the official step of sending Kanha tigresses to Panna and sure death is shocking. One begins to wonder if the whispers doing the rounds at Khatia are true after all: all levels of forest officials are involved in poaching Kanha tigers.

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