Today is the third day of the Tiger census at the Bandipur
National Park in the south Indian state of Karnataka in India. The first three
days was for carnivore’s survey and the last 3 days for herbivores. We were
supposed to start between 6 and 6.30 am. But in reality we usually start at
around 7 am from the base camp (which is the forest range officer’s office)
The census so far has been really disappointing. On the
first day I even decided to go back.
As with my luck goes, as always, I ended up unlucky. To
start with I was put in a range called Omkar, which is a buffer zone between
the Bandipur NP and the adjacent village. To add to that my beat/patrol areas
was the region close to the village. The area is a former eucalyptus plantation
area, where the villagers still use it for their cattle’s, and more than 50 %
of it is actually encroached. There is solar electric fencing around to stop
the elephants. So the truth is that the possibility of live sightings of
animals – forget about tigers, elephants, bear or leopards, even antelopes or
wild pigs – is highly unlikely.
In the last 3 days of early morning patrol the only live
sighting was a group of wild pigs. But the area is a known territory of the
cats. We saw pug marks of tigers and leopards every day. Some of the leopard
pugmarks were very fresh, probably from the same day. But the cats are very shy
animals. So I never had any hope of sighting them. What I was hoping to see
during patrol was ellies.
In the Bandipur forest range, Omkar is ellie country. And we
could see it why. Elephants like to raid the crops in the surrounding villages
regularly. Human-elephant conflict is a big problem here. I could see fresh
tracks of ellies in the farm land outside the fences of the park. They raid the
crops at night. It was highly unlikely to find the ellies in our patrol area
during the day time, as they would have moved back into the forest long time
back. I was still wishing/hoping to see at least a bull during my beat. But I
didn’t see any.
I did see many during other times. My first encounter came
at night in our camp. The camp/forest offices are surrounded by the eucalyptus
plantations. The camp is on the elephant corridor towards the villages. There
is also a water hole nearby where the ellies stop to fill up their tanks! I was
walking along the fence when I heard the sound of branches breaking. My torch
was not powerful enough to see deep into the forest. The Regional Forest
Officer (RFO) was sitting nearby and he asked whether I have seen anything. I
said I heard the sound of breaking branches. He said it should be elephants.
After about half an hour I saw some shining eyes and later
on the ellies. They came closer to the fences afterwards. I could see four of
them – 1 male, two youngsters and probably a cow. There were many more near the
water hole as we could hear them trumpeting. The guards started firing crackers
to scare the ellies away and turn them back o the forest. It was not having the
desired effect, or I would say, they didn’t care!
My guide’s name for the patrol is Ali. Young and a very
friendly guy. He is the only one who could speak Hindi with me. The other
staffs, almost all of them, spoke only Kannada. That was real disappointment as
communication was a big problem. The guards who came with us during the patrol
had more than 25 years’ experience in the forest. Almost all of them were
really good trackers. I would have loved to talk with them, learn about
tracking with them. Now my only chance of communication was through Ali.
Ali told me that during their training they were told to
fire crackers when they come across ellies! When I did the EHRA program with
desert ellies in Namibia, the one thing that really surprised me was that they
never ran when came across wild ellies. Jo, our project leader, didn’t even
carry any arms at all. When I asked him about what he will do if an ellie
charged at him, he said that he will wave his shirt!!! In India everyone runs!
Even the forest guards. My friend once showed me a video taken from the
national park in Thekkady, Kerala. They were on a safari inside the forest with
the guards on a jeep. On seeing a herd of ellies they decided to approach them
to a distance by foot. The ellies got to know their presence and one of them
trumpeted. That’s it! The forest guard shouted “run” and everyone ran,
including the forest guard!
Even in South Africa, the
rangers always said “whatever happens, never run”. Not just for ellies,
but for all kinds of animals. I experienced it first hand in Botswana when two
bulls walked into our camp. My friends ran, and I didn’t. I was scared to
death, but I stood my ground without any movement just as I have learned. The
bull, had a good look at me, smelled the air and after a minute or so (which
felt like ages) lost interest and left. In another case, one bull walked
straight to our parked car and started feeding. It was magical!
In India everything is different. The guards have no idea
about ellies – their family structure, behaviour, manners etc. What they know
or told is to fire crackers whenever you seem them!
I am sure it won’t last for long. The ellies are one of the
most intelligent animals on planet, and they learn fast. I can say whey this
method will fail in the future. The ellies are very protective or aggressive
when there are babies or youngsters in the herd. The group that came to base at
night had youngsters in them. Still, even after firing the crackers, they
didn’t get scared or aggressive. Because they already learned that all these
crackers are just for show or they do not do any harm to them. That’s probably
why they continued to do what they were doing and didn’t run back to the forest
as the guards were expecting. And at some point in the future they will
continue the crop raid without bothering about the crackers. And that will lead
to serious consequences unless they do something about it now.
Since the beat area is a buffer zone and that too a
plantation area I don’t have any hope of spotting resident animals there during
my beat. There is definitely cat movement in the area, especially leopards
along the river bed regularly, in addition to the ellies. But walking along the
eucalyptus plantations most of the time is not much fun. I had been asking the
RFO to put me in in the interior from Day 1. But he doesn’t seem to have any
real solutions. Today he told me that I could finish the herbivores and
vegetation survey for the next 3 days in a day and then he will place me in the
camp in the interior. At least something better than nothing.
Last evening I along with the other two volunteers went to a
water hole about 2 kms from the range office. Since there were no staffs
available to accompany us – all were busy with the ellie crop raid incidents –
we decided to go there on our own. I
just wanted to get out of the office atmosphere away from the people and the
noise. That was a good decision. The pool is called “Southkere”. It’s a huge
area with trees all along the banks. On one side is a kind of a hill with a
small walking path on the top ridge. When we reached there it was around 3.30
pm. I hope to see some animals in the evening coming for their evening drink. I
picked a spot on the ridge, which had good view of the pool, with my
binoculars. I was not disappointed. The first one to arrive was a bull.
Afterwards around spotted deer’s, which grew up to at least 50 in the end.
Later on came a herd of ellies – 2 adults and 2 youngsters. Another herd of 5
ellies came after they left. Altogether 9 ellies in 2 hours time. In addition a
family of Sambar deer – two adults and a kid. I was happy! That visual feast
compensated for the last 3 days of empty early morning trails.
On the 3rd day evening the RFO decided to send me
to the anti-poaching camp at Thavalanere inside the forest. Finally, I had
something to look forward to. I was excited, not because of the hope of live
animal sightings, but simply due to the chance to stay inside the forest.
The camp didn’t disappoint. It was about 10 km away from the
nearest civilisation. And the surroundings was dense shrubs and trees. There
were already 2 other volunteers staying there and I was the 3rd
person other than the 2 forest guards.
The nights were really beautiful with the skies full of
sparkling stars and the sounds of the night time activities of the forest. In
addition, there was an orange tree on one side of the camp with full of
oranges. After our trails in the mornings, the first thing we do is to sit on a
nearby rock and eat oranges. Full of vitamins and nice starter before the
breakfast. The tree though not big was so full of oranges that all we have to
do is just to shake it.
The dense forest means that we didn’t have any live
sightings. As usual it was just pugmarks and scats. But we did hear tiger roar
from a distance. On the second day after coming to the new camp I went to a
nearby waterhole in the morning along with the other volunteers. As we reached
there a sambar dear ran off. Other than that there were only pugmarks of
leopards and tigers on the sides of the water hole. One of the tiger pugmark
was really big, probably a full grown tiger.
The RFO came there while we were at the waterhole. I told
him that we plan to walk from the camp to the RFO’s office through the forest
after the breakfast. He agreed to that as we have already finished our census
work ahead of schedule. Our idea was to stop at the Southkere on the way back
to the RFO’s office. It should be around 10 kms through the forest.
We started our trek a around 11 am after breakfast. It was a
long walk through the forest. It reminded me of the bush walks at the Kruger NP
in South Africa. Of course, it’s a completely different landscape here. The
trek went slowly as it was close to noon and the temperature was already
raising. We didn’t spot anything on the way other than a scared wild pig
running for its life. Still I liked being in the wild again. We reached the
Southkere waterhole at around 1.30 pm. There were no animals to be seen. We sat
on the banks of the lake and enjoyed the silence, calm and beauty of the
nature. The first to arrive were the spotted deers. First a few of them and
then later on the whole herd. Then came the ellies. As always I was happy to
see them. It was a small herd, just 3 females and one of them a youngster. The
youngster was in a playful mood, chasing after the deer and the birds. The
adults moved back into the woods and the youngster continued to play. I am sure
the adults didn’t move far away from the youngster and will be there for the
youngster within seconds if any danger arises.
We stayed there for a long time even after the ellies were
gone. When the sun was slowly setting down a group of sambar deer arrived – one
male, two females and a kid. The lake side was full of activity, the birds,
deer, peacocks and finally a big herd of elephants. The big herd came in
groups, 5 in one direction, 3 from another direction and a lone female from
completely different direction. Initially I was surprised to see a single
female as usually you find the single bulls. I thought it might also belong to
the other herd. Just as I thought the lone cow joined the big group. It was
nice to see the youngsters in the group smelling and touching with their small
trunks as the cow joined their group. It was their way of saying “hello” I
assume. Later on they all moved back into the woods together
At sunset all of us hoped into a truck which was patrolling
the electric fences and firing crackers at the same time to stop the ellies
from crop raiding. One of the guards said that there is already 15 ellies
waiting at the buffer zone to raid the farm land on the fringes! For the ellies
it’s a desperate situation to feed their families a there is not enough food
for them in the forest during summer. And for the poor villagers it’s their
livelihood which is under threat from the ellies. A perfect human-animal
conflict with no permanent solution! It’s really sad!
Instead of staying at the RFO’s office that night we stayed
at one of the forest office camps on the border of the forest that night. In
the morning we moved back to the office by truck. Our last day of census. Since
we have already done our work all that was left was to fill up the forms and
collect the certificate. In between we walked to the Northkere or north pool
which is about half km opposite to the Southkere. We know that there is cat
movement in that area. But since it is lying close to the villages and also there
is a road separating the Northkere region from the Southkere region I was not
expecting much activity. In addition to that we reached the pool a bit late at
10 am. We didn’t see any wildlife there other than some birds. We stayed there
for about an hour and then walked back.
Back at the RFO’s office we submitted our census forms and
collected our certificates. I said good bye to the RFO and Ali and asked them
to keep in touch via mail. I told RFO that I will be sending him the details of
the bee hive project in Kenya and requested him to at least try that near the
border areas with the villages on a trial basis. I really wanted the forest
officials and the villagers to stop attacking the ellies with fire crackers as
it can lead to serious injuries not just to the ellies, but also to the
villagers in the chaos.
Since my return bus is only on the next day I decided to go
back to the main office at Bandipur on the last day. I wanted to jump into one
of the late evening or early morning safaris to try my luck to spot the
majestic tiger. The other two volunteers agreed to drop me at the main road
from where I could catch the bus back to the head office. After a little bit of
sign and mixed languages in different attempts at the passing vehicles I
managed to reach the Bandipur camp at around 1 pm.
There in the dormitory I met some of the other volunteers
whom I met in the beginning of the census. It seems that almost all the other
volunteers in other forest ranges has sighted the tiger at least once during
the census. Some lucky guys even spotted tiger with cubs, leopards, sloth beers
etc. Other than the army of ellies that we have seen our range sounded like the
worst area to spot the king of the jungle!
I jumped into one of the safari trips in the evening which
was free for the volunteers on the final day of the census. The safari was for
a duration of around 1.5 -2 hrs. Still we couldn’t spot any tiger. The ones
that I could spot was a couple of white breasted vultures and 3 gaurs from a
distance. Again no luck with cats!
There was some confusion regarding our accommodation. We
were initially put in a 20 bed dorm. Then some family of 8 members booked 8
beds online. The forest officials shifted us to a cottage of 4 people. The
cottage was nice, but the only problem was that we were 15 people in total! And
there were only 4 beds! I found it irresponsible on the forest officials and
arrogance on the part of the family to be allowed/expected to occupy a 20 bed
dorm after paying only for 8 beds. In the end after a lot of discussions it was
decided to pull out the beds from the dorms and sleep on the corridor so that
the family had the ‘privacy’ they needed and the volunteers had the ‘beds’ to
spend the night! This is how one treats volunteers who take time off from their
private lives to help the forest officials in preserving the nature and
wildlife that we all care for! That says a lot about the ‘Indian’ way of doing
things and the peoples attitude towards conservation in general!
Next day at around 6.30 am I jumped into one of the early
morning safaris. The best time in general to spot the cats is early morning,
especially for leopards. They are mostly nocturnal and early mornings they will
be about to wind up their hunting activities before they recede to the shade of
the bush or the branches of the trees to doze off for the rest of the day. And
this time we were really lucky. After about 20 mins into the drive we spotted
“The King”. A male adult tiger walked through the bush, crossed the mud road in
front of our vehicle, and then walked to the water hole on the other side of
the road before disappearing into the bush. Altogether around 7 mins of rare
sighting. What more can I ask for. After being unlucky for the last 7 days it
was heart-warming to spot and watch the majestic animal for such a long time. I
badly missed my camera though. Still to watch the beautiful cat was definitely
a wonderful experience.
The rest of the time I just walked around. I also got a
chance to visit the tamed ellie with its baby at the Bandipur forest range. I
never liked seeing the ellies in chains. And this time it was not different.
The baby, few months old, was not chained. And like any other babies it was in
a playful mood. I was patting on its back and he was trying to push me in
return. I just loved being there with him. The little little things in life
that can bring more joy than money can buy. Though a baby, it was still very
strong and I doubted that if it wanted it could push me down without much
effort. The mahout who was watching us somehow didn’t like the baby pushing me
and started hitting it with a stick. It had the intended effect and the baby
stopped pushing me, but I was really angry. I was surprised to see that another
volunteer who was also with me, and who could also speak the language that the
mahout spoke, didn’t bother to stop him. I was shouting at him to tell the
mahout not to hit him. And the mahout was arguing back that it need the
punishment so that he will not do any mischief later. The other volunteer also
started saying the same and I lost my nerve. I shouted at him that the animals
don’t have to learn the stupid culture of humans. We should just let them to be
animals. And I told him that if this is his opinion then he is not fit enough
be a volunteer here.
I left immediately so that the poor ellie does not get
further beating because of me. The rest of the day I just walked around
watching the stream of tourist arriving there for the evening safari. It was
soon overcrowded and many of them had to turn back. I left the reserve in the
evening. Over all it was an interesting experience. My first experience in the
jungles of India. Still I would say I enjoyed my times in the African bush
better. Don’t know why! May be because the chance for animal sightings are more
there. Or maybe because it is far away from any kind of human interference and
you truly get a sense of being in the wild. It was still interesting as I got
to see first-hand the human-animal conflict in this part of the world. It also
gave me a chance to see how successful we are in the fight for preserving this
beautiful nature. Honestly, it doesn’t look good!
