Four tiger ‘killings’ in one go this week has sent shock waves not just here in Goa but across the country and perhaps the world. And this time in sharp contrast to the accidental, tiger-poaching incident of 2009 in the same Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, Goa’s politicians, forest officials and the establishment, have been deprived of the luxury to deny the wildlife conservation nightmare.
But, this is not a nightmare. It is real. Tigers are dead. Killed in fact. As many as four of them in a forest of a State where all and sundry spent decades denying the presence of even a solitary striped cat.
Expectedly though, instead of resorting to denying the obvious, the political establishment and most others have resorted to the next best option: take your knives out and gun for the cattle-rearing dhangars of Golavali in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, accused of lacing with poison their buffalo which fell victim to a tiger-kill and which the tigers later ate to their own deaths.
The knives are also out for the dozens of forest guards, range forest officers, assistant conservators of forests, deputy conservators of forests, conservators of forests and the chief conservator of forests, tasked with the responsibility to protect the majestic cat. As if, gunning down the ‘culprits’ will wipe away the blot on Goa’s reputation which this unfortunate episode has permanently embossed.
Goa’s Chief Wildlife Warden, Santosh Kumar, couldn’t have been more correct when he told Youth Congress activists who had gone to heckle him over the tiger deaths and score a few political brownie points, that the department does not have the staff needed to guard Goa’s forests.
Several wildlife conservationists and enthusiasts back him up on this count and blame the government for lack of political will to provide the forest department with the hands it desperately needs.Take for instance the circumstances which have now come to light, leading to the fatal tiger killings in the first week of 2020.
On December 14 last year, more than a fortnight before the tigers could die, the Golavali villagers had reported the first tiger kill -- a cow. Nothing much was done. Then, exactly a fortnight later on December 30 the second kill, this time a buffalo, was reported. Again, nothing much was done other than dispatching a team and activating the tiger-tracking mechanism to monitor movement of the big cats in the area.
Each milch animal is valued at between 40 to 80 thousand rupees and to expect the cattle-rearing dhangars of Golavali to absorb such quantum of losses without any hope of being compensated,was asking for trouble and trouble did come. The next day (December 31) the villagers located the carcass of the buffalo and allegedly stuffed it with poison, thus killing the four tigers who returned and ate their kill to death.
So with four tigers dead in one go and the Wildlife Institute of India pegging in 2019 the tiger population in Goa at three (the two cubs may not be accounted for in the census), are there any tigers left in this State’s forests?
Local forest officials vouch they do, and according to them, not three but at least five adult tigers were tracked by them in 2018. They argued that despite submitting the report to the Wildlife Institute of India, including evidence from camera traps, analysis of DNA samples from stools and other evidences like pug marks, prey kills and scratch marks, accounting for five striped predators, the Institute declared just three, perhaps because the census period chosen by them was inappropriate for Goa.
As the saying goes ‘no point in crying over spilt milk’, thankfully, genuine foot soldiers of wildlife conservation in Goa aren’t entirely in the blame-game mode after the shocking incident of four tiger killings. Instead, many of them are looking for lessons in the tragedy, which they say must be learnt if Goa has to overcome this perennial predicament of a conflict between man and animal to save the tiger.
Tiger Reserve--
way forward?
Wildlife scientist Girish Punjabi cautions protecting the tiger is not as rosy a task as one may think. “Nature is resilient. It will fight back. We have to look forward to how we can acknowledge our mistakes and change course to minimise the threat to the tiger habitat,” says Panaji-based wildlife biologist, Nandini Velho.
Velho, who recently completed a project with the World Wildlife Fund in Arunachal Pradesh and released her book capturing the history of Eaglenest forest there, starts off with the hope that the debate of transient versus resident tigers in Goa will die soon.
“It (transient v/s resident tigers debate) takes away from the central idea that declaring a tiger reserve is entirely a procedural issue and requires political will,” she argues.
She says there have been some tiger reserves in India which were declared in anticipation of tigers dispersing there in the future and do not have tiger camera traps there yet, hence making out a case for a tiger reserve in the Mhadei sanctuary, even if the argument that there are no tigers left resident there is accepted.
“Former MoEF&CC Minister Jairam Ramesh and the National Tiger Conservation Authority had already recommended that Mhadei be declared a tiger reserve. It’s up to the State, now, to send a proposal and I would argue also handle the rights of residents in the most sensitive manner,” Velho adds.
Aware that the political establishment will be resistant to the idea of a tiger reserve in Goa, Velho believes the way forward would be launching a trust-building exercise where land rights of people and their equity needs to be discussed and worked towards.
Often this communication vacuum is filled by interest groups that have more power and influence, which in the case of Goa, is the economically important iron ore mining industry and the political establishment, Velho adds.
“Clearly, we have to move beyond 60 characters on Twitter, central investigations, calling for resignations, residents being moved out and the decade-long campaign that called them ‘transient tigers’,” Velho said, adding that there is no alternative to active consultation with residents on how to win their support and settle their rights, including letting them stay where they are and obtaining community and individual forest rights for themselves.
First and foremost, she says, the political establishment should start off with strengthening the forest department force instead of blaming an under-staffed and under-provisioned work force for the deaths of the tigers and poor policing of the illegal wildlife trade.
According to her, recruitment of forest staff from the local community and constituting a tiger protection force is as crucial as letting field officers work free of political interference.
Individual wildlife conservation activists like Rajendra Kerkar, Nirmal Kulkarni and Range Forest Officer, Paresh Porob among others have spent their lives working and engaging with people living in the sanctuary. But apparently, structural support from within the government to actively deal with facilitating people to live with wildlife is lacking.
In the case of the four tiger killings at Golavali, Velho points out to the lack of response to cattle killings as well as the absence of local networks to buffer against illegal wildlife trade. The missing claws from the first sub-adult tiger found dead, she says indicates the prevalence of illegal wildlife trade here.
“Mortality rates of tigers may be high, but so is fecundity. Therefore, if given adequate habitat and protection tiger populations will thrive despite high mortality,” the wildlife scientist said, adding that scientific studies have established that tigers thrive under better protection.
“First of all, tigers are large predators which rely on large prey for survival. Their energetic demands mean that in low prey-density and small-sized areas such as Mhadei one cannot sustain many tigers. In such areas, as tiger populations grow they come in conflict with people if they kill cattle or other livestock,” says Punjabi, who works in wildlife, including tiger conservation in the Tillari region adjacent and contiguous with the Mhadei Wildlife sanctuary. On involving local communities in tiger conservation, Punjabi says it is essential.
“Tigers and humans have always been at conflict with each other for shared resources, especially land. What is important is to prioritize whether an area needs to be conserved for tigers (or not). Once there is political will, the government can allocate funds for improved protection of Mhadei and fairly compensate villagers for cattle losses and rehabilitate those who choose to relocate out of the sanctuary,” the wildlife conservation scientist said in an email interview.
Punjabi, like Velho, also cautions that declaring a tiger reserve has to be done with utmost sincerity to help tigers and local communities both. “Once a region is inviolate, tiger populations usually increase. Once rehabilitated, people flourish as well with better access to schools, hospitals, and other necessities of human life. So notification of the sanctuary was just a first step,” Punjabi said.
The wildlife scientist works with Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) and primarily focuses on landscape conservation for large mammals in north-central Western Ghats (Tillari region) and has been actively co-operating with both officials and wildlife enthusiasts in Mhadei. He said, a lot more needs to be done by garnering local people’s support if Mhadei is to become a protected area for tigers.
Expressing his thoughts on the Golavali incident, Punjabi said it is clearly unfortunate but made a strong case for working on winning the hearts of locals for the cause of tiger protection.
“Cattle kills need to be investigated immediately and monitored so that such poisoning does not happen again. Compensation claims should be easy to file and promptly paid by the Forest department,” he said.
“Since I work in the neighbouring Tillari area of Maharashtra, it was disturbing news. But when you are a conservation scientist you learn to digest such difficult news. The fact is such news can also become a pivot for change. I hope this is a turning point after which things improve for tigers in Goa.” All said and done, Punjabi believes a tiger reserve in the Mhadei area would be a welcome step but cautioned that it all boils down to how much willingness the Forest department, people of Goa, NGOs, nature enthusiasts and most importantly politicians show for tiger conservation.
Authorities unresponsive
to the plight of locals
The deaths of four tigers has been a tragedy and huge loss to our biodiversity, but we should not forget about five members of the dhangars, a community known to respect and worship nature. Authorities cannot ignore the plight of the people from dhangar community and their livestock, as they had been lodging complaints since the last two years regarding their livestock being killed by the tigers and other wild animals.
The panchayat had forwarded their complaint to authorities concerned, but these officials were least bothered to pay attention to the loss of their livestock. These people have been struggling for their livelihood since the last few years and dairy is their main source of income. If wild animals are killing their milch livestock and officials are unresponsive to their plight, it is obvious these people would resort to action to safeguard their livestock.
The Goa government had notified the Mahadei Wildlife Sanctuary in 1999 without taking locals into confidence and conflicts between humans and wild animals have increased since then.
” Thane Sarpanch, Prajita Gawas
Forest dept fully responsible for tragedy
If the forest department had taken timely and effective action to resolve grievances of the dhangar community, this tragedy would not have taken place. The forest department is fully responsible for this tragedy.
During the Manohar Parrikar-led government, environmentalists had tried to declare this wildlife sanctuary as a Tiger Reserve Zone. The panchayat had opposed it because if a Tiger Reserve Zone is notified, it would have an adverse effect on various developmental projects in the village.
Dhangarwada-Golavali is about 2 kms from the main locality of this village and we have been trying to tar the road to Dhangarwada from panchayat funds.
” Thane Panch, Govind Korgaonkar
Wildlife sanctuary status has affected people
The four tiger deaths in Golavali has brought shame to the village and the State. Since the last few years, tigers and other wild animals have been killing livestock of the dhangar community, located near the forested areas.
The Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary was notified without discussing the matter with the locals and hence, locals have always been bitter about the notification of the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and the consequences of this wildlife sanctuary on their lives.
The State government has not been serious about the problems confronting people on account of wild animals. We understand that tigers are an endangered species and vital for the biodiversity, but the State government also should think about the lives and plight of the people in rural areas.
There had rarely been instances of tigers causing problems to the locals for several decades and it is only in the last 10-15 years that tigers have been moving into human habitation in search of food.
” Thane resident, Narayan Khot
Govt least bothered
about Sattari farmers
Forest officials should be squarely blamed for the four tiger deaths. The dhangar community has been residing in the forest areas for centuries and are well aware about co-existence with the wild animals.
But if they are helpless to protect their livestock, which is their only source of livelihood, these people would have had to resort to measures to defend their livestock. The tigers may have been killed out of frustration over the loss of livestock.
If Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary officials had been serious about the problems faced by the dhangar community and had offered them some compensation for the loss of their livestock to wild animals, the four tigers many have been alive today.
People are fighting to declare wild boars and monkeys as vermin since these animals have been destroying plantations and livelihoods, but the government is least bothered about the issues confronting farmers in Sattari taluka.
” Thane resident, Prakash Gaonkar
