Diary - Tales from Wild India » Tales from Wild India

Wildlife on the Rise?

N. Lakshminarayanan — Sun, 06 May 2012 12:51:22 +0000

Wildlife on the rise ? A False Perception!

A perception created by people living around the forests and and lapped up by journalists is that the wildlife populations, especially that of large mammals have increased phenomenally. In places where the intensity of human-animal conflict is high like Coimbatore, Valparai, Sathyamangalam, Anyrangal, Borivali, Guwahati, this perception is widespread and getting stronger with each passing day. There are several reasons for the wildlife to be visible on the outskirts of national park boundaries and other protected areas and that does not mean their numbers have overshot.

Let’s take the case of Elephants. Elephant is the largest mega herbivore in our country that is unfortunately a party to the Human-animal conflict owing to many factors. In India less than 25% of the total elephant habitat is falling within the Protected Area (PA) network that comprises of the Wildlife Sanctuaries and the National Parks. The rest of their habitat lies outside the PA network which is a mosaic of multiple use forests (Government reserved forests), plantations and cultivations that have come up in the place of the natural forests. Elephants have been destined to live outside the forested landscape, simply because of humans steadily encroaching on the forests and converting those to human habitations, cultivated lands etc. This has fragmented their habitat and their survival outside the Protected Areas has become extremely tenuous as exemplified by increased conflict related deaths.

A Charging Elephant

Increasing human wildlife interface

Even the 25% of the elephant habitats falling within PA network is not completely devoid of problems. Within PAs (Protected Areas) we have linear intrusions like roads, canals, dams, railway lines and settlements fragmenting the habitat and reducing the habitat quality. Some of the PAs and Reserved Forests have very high density of cattle that competes with elephants and other wild herbivores over the available plant biomass. Even the better large mammal habitats like Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in the Nilgiris continue to suffer from annual man made fires that destroys the precious fodder available for the ungulates.

An elephant struggles to find food in an invasives dominated landscape

Quality of habitats has also degraded due to our intrusion resulting in proliferation of invasive toxic plants like lantana camara , Parthenium hysterophorus, Chromolaena sp and score of other Forest Invasive Species (FIS) that have colonized good wildlife habitats. In many PAs productive riparian forests and vayals (=swamp fallows) that support luxuriant vegetation were taken over for paddy cultivation depriving the food availability for the herbivores. Collection of huge quantities of minor forest produce that includes edible fruits and even the bamboo has depleted the food source for the wild animals. All these factors have directly or indirectly forced wildlife to seek out food outside the human defined National Park boundaries. There is also a hypothesis of population constriction of large mammals in some PAs because of indiscriminate habitat loss in the surrounding areas and wildlife obviously seeks refuge in the areas with minimum human disturbance. This again cannot be claimed as an increase in population.

Comfortably ignoring all these facts, there is a vehement claim that wildlife populations have increased everywhere. The human – wildlife interface has indeed increased significantly as more roads are laid inside the forests and lengthy hard edges are created around the wildlife habitats. Even the once obscure forest roads now have many visitors and the forest boundaries have been filled up with tourist resorts, industries and housing colonies. Wildlife habitats continue to suffer from shrinkage and fragmentation. These days an elephant or any wildlife for that matter may have to ‘encounter’ human beings several times a day during its daily movement within its range. A decade ago elephant herds might have peacefully crossed the Mettupalayam to Ooty road in the cover of the darkness. This is just not possible today with over 3000 vehicles on an average plying in this road day and night. Elephant herds stay baffled in the road side awaiting a lull in the traffic to cross the road. They stand exposed being watched by hundreds of people most of who think that the elephant numbers have increased just because they saw them! Mere increase in the sighting rate within or outside the habitat does not mean that there is a true increase in the wildlife population.

Declining wildlife populations

Wildlife populations, especially the large cats and even the elephants suffer high mortality rates. The unnatural mortalities resulting from poaching, road kill, electrocution and others continue to haunt wildlife populations threatening their very existence. Further, there is no factual basis for claiming the increase in wildlife populations as we don’t have reliable base line information to compare the numbers over a period of time. Moreover, scientifically accepted manner of enumerating wildlife populations is nonexistent in most of the areas.

An elephant herd running away from people

A recent article published by a renowned Primatologist Titled “Monkeys common no more” claims that even the common monkeys around us are dwindling in numbers and they occur in low densities in the forests. This is contrary to the popular belief that monkey populations have dramatically increased. Wild boars were in the news for wrong reasons. Kerala government had recently allowed killing of wild boars that ‘stray’ out of the forests in some districts. This decision is based on the opinion that wild boar numbers have exploded in the state. Wild boars belong to the family of Suidae and they are the most widely distributed prey species for the tigers. All the three major predatory carnivores in our region, the tiger, the leopard and the dhole (mistakenly known as the Indian Wild dog) predate on the wild boars. Long term scientific study on tigers conducted in the tropical forests of Karnataka by deploying techniques such as scat (faecal matter) analysis has revealed that on an average 9.5% of tiger’s diet constitute wild boars. Experts with years of field experience assert that wild boar population is subject to high seasonal fluctuations. Increase of their numbers in some forests may be a temporary phenomenon. So knee jerk reactions to specific situations and ordering “culling” of wild boars may reduce the prey base of the predatory carnivores and even increase the human – carnivore conflict.

Worried by traffic, a wild asian elephant looks at left and then at right before crossing the road in Nagarhole National Park, India

A cursory look at the census figures tell us that the human population is exploding and our demand on forests and Non-timber forest produce (NTFP) is reaching a point of no return. The baseless claim about the population increase of wildlife species is the result of arm chair theorists and is going to change popular perception and make it anti-conservation. It is also leading to a false complacence that wildlife is doing well despite our negative interventions on the habitats. Major threats for long term survival of wildlife such as the poaching and habitat loss are getting overshadowed. False propagation of number increase in wildlife populations will only distract us from key conservation priorities and wipe off the last level of sympathy people have towards wildlife.

N.Lakshminarayanan

Wildlife Conservation Society – India Program

Coimbatore

N. Lakshminarayanan

N Lakshminarayanan works in Wildlife Conservation Society – India Program and is based out of Coimbatore.

Shoulderpod: Bush Hawk 320D

Sabyasachi Patra — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 05:24:03 +0000

Bush Hawk 320D

I have been photographing handheld from the back of an elephant for a long time. I faced many situations where the tiger was sleeping in shade and the light was low resulting in a low shutter speed. With a moving elephant, the challenge increases. At times I have told the mahout to restrain the elephant from moving resulting in the mahout beating up the poor elephant. The elephant becomes restless due to the weight on its back and also because despite the huge size of an elephant, the tiger’s presence is unnerving. Proper handholding techniques can help you a lot. However, there are situations when a support inform of shoulder pod is a must. I have tried many local made contraptions. I have perfected a technique using monopod with ball head and can get sharp images on a swaying boat or elephant. However, I finally decided to search for a suitable shoulder pod which will not break down at vital moment. About 5 years back, I finally found the Bush Hawk when I saw Frans Lanting’s comment and got it from US.

This is nicely designed shoulder pod and it appears as if one is holding a rifle. In the place of a trigger is a button which is connected to the camera by a remote. So you just need to gently press the trigger to actuate the shutter button. The eye piece is adjusted so that it rests on your eye, like our normal photographing position. One can easily hold this in the right hand with the “butt” of the bush hawk placed on your shoulder, the way you would do while firing. (If any one of you fired with a gun/airgun then you would be able to visualize better).

I have successfully used my shorter lenses like the 300mm f4 with a 1.4x TC attached, 70-200 f2.8 with EF 2xII TC attached etc.
I have also tried my heavy EF400mm f2.8 L IS USM lens with 2XII Tc attached with my 1D series body. With this attachment, it actually becomes difficult to hold for a long time due to the long length. Anyway, this lens is not to be handheld, though I have successfully have got many sharp images handholding it. Once in Nagarhole, when langurs were giving alarm calls due to a leopard, one langur looked at me and started giving alarm calls. The leopard kind of got spooked due to it.

The other challenge I found was while trekking, it became difficult to carry the bush hawk holding it ahead like a gun. Unless one is a soldier and has been trained to move ahead in the bush with the gun ready to fire, for us mere photographers it was a challenge. I don’t want my lens to get scratched by any vegetation.

In insurgent infested areas and in sensitive places, it is better not to be carrying this. Else, you are inviting trouble from the security forces.

Of late this doesn’t get used much, as I have too many equipment to carry and I am more involved in filming than in photography. However, this is also good for handheld filming. You can hold it in one hand and do the focusing with the other hand. My EF 70-200 f2.8 L IS USM with a converter works well for filming with this bush hawk shoulder pod as well.

Overall, this is a good design.

Sabyasachi Patra

I am passionate about wildlife conservation. I am striving to make my films and photographs full of life and emotion and write articles to educate and evangelise the need for conserving the last tracts of vanishing wilderness sand wildlife in our country. I pray to the almighty that my wildlife films, photographs and writings force people to pause, look, ponder and ultimately take action. To make my ends meet, I work as Executive Director at MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology)

Right of Way

Sabyasachi Patra — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:16:47 +0000

Right of Way

Roads have been the bane of most of our wild areas. Some of the pristine wildlife habitats have been dissected by roads. In the early part of the 21st Century, the motorable roads were much less. The dirt roads were not much of a menace, as less population and a low frequency of vehicles on these roads didn’t create much of adverse impact on the wildlife.

Today, the quality of roads has improved a lot. The dirt roads have given way to metalled four lane or at least two lane roads. Increase in vehicles and increase in disposable incomes have led to a boom in tourism. The improvement in quality of roads has led to more and more people driving to destinations, instead of taking public transport.

And along with that comes accidents, throwing of garbage, teasing animals, zooming past animals at high speeds to terrorise them etc. At times, you would be amazed at the level of immaturity and recklessness shown by the people.

This shot shows a huge adult Gaur (Bos gaurus) crossing the road. Often mistakenly called as Bison, these can weigh upto 2 tonnes and when violent can topple vehicles. This shot was taken in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

The road from Bandipur to Ooty passes through the Mudumalai Tiger reserve. The shorter road passes through Segur and is known as the Segur road. It is steep and several years back diesel vehicles could not negotiate the steep inclination of this ghat road. Hence most of the traffic used to pass through the other road which is about 30 kilometers longer than the Segur road.

I was coming back from an afternoon Safari in Bandipur National Park in July 2008. Dusk was fast approaching and the showers few minutes back had decresed the light. I was driving slowly when a vehicle from the opposite direction slowed down near me and the occupants excitedly told me that there is a herd of elephants ahead. After moving ahead in the winding road, about hundred meters or so, I came across a herd of elephants. The elephants numbering about forty were feeding near the road. I brought my Safari (an SUV) to the left and parked. Soon other vehicles overtook me and stopped about 15 feet away from the elephants. The elephant herd had three small calves, about a few months old, who appeared to be still in awe of their trunks.

A lady from one of the vehicles, got down and was trying to move closer to the elephant. People don’t realise the difference between pet animals and the wild ones. Soon a herd of four Gaurs appeared and tried to cross from the left to the right. One of the adolescent elephants, with the impetuousness of youth, started chasing the gaur. In the meanwhile, vehicles from both the sides had created a traffic zam. People had got down from their vehicles and were watching the drama, oblivious of the danger of being too close to these wild animals.

The Gaur was crossing about a few feet from the cars. The cars appear to be dwarfed in front of the Gaur. An annoyed Gaur, can cause significant damage to a vehicle like Maruti in the picture. Apart from the danger to the people, due to their irresponsible acts of getting two close to these animals; it also causes stress to the animals as they are not used to such close proximity with humans.

Most of the people are ignorant. A quick briefing of people entering the sanctuary should help. The briefing can be just two or three lines while opening the forest entry gates, like “Please don’t Honk”, “Please don’t litter” and “please maintain 30kmph speed limit”.

People also violate rules as they don’t feel that there is any patrolling by the forest officials. Forest department is in perennial shortage of staff. Most of them are old and on the verge of retirement. Meager salary also doesn’t help in motivating them.

Most of the vehicles given for patrolling are used by the officials. So the forest department should provide battery operated vehicles that you mostly find in Golf courses. These vehicles, apart from stopping pollution, also won’t be misused. As officials won’t be seen taking these vehicles for any other purpose.

What you can do:

You can spread the message and educate people.

You can write a letter to the forest department and the ministry highlighting the issues and ask them to sanction more posts for the forest department and urge them to fill the existing vacancies.

I look forward to your comments and your ideas on this topic. Let us know when you take any action, so that I can mention it here. It will serve as motivation for others.

Sabyasachi Patra

Elephant Swallows Polythene Bag

Sabyasachi Patra — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:51:35 +0000

I was trekking on the outskirts of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in July 2008 and came across elephant dung about few hundred meters from the Segur road, a prime elephant migratory corridor. The elephant dung contained polythene bags. The elephant had eaten the polythene bag along with some other garbage and the polythene had come out undigested with the dung, but torn into smaller scraps. Probably, it was swallowed by an adult elephant and somehow, it didn’t die due to the undigested polythene. However, a smaller elephant or smaller herbivores like deer, sambar, barking deer, wild boar etc would have definitely died if they would have swallowed a polythene bag.

The usage of polythene bags and other materials which are not biodegradable has increased phenomenaly. When I look back at my childhood days, I realize that a big change between today and our child hood days was the way we used to buy groceries. I still remember, going to the shop with a cloth bag and carrying the groceries packed in paper bags. Today, the paper bags have given way to the polythene bags.

The polythene bags have scored over the paper bags due to the ease of use and higher carrying capacity. However, we have been oblivious to the deleterious effect of the polythene bags on the environment.

A number of reports have blamed polythene bags as the cause of choked drains and sewage systems in urban areas. These reports were highlighted when Bombay was waterlogged due to heavy rains in 2005. However, public memory being short, we have forgotten this issue.

There have been reports of cows, goats and other herbivores choking to death when they unwittingly consume polythene bags along with paper and other garbage. Unfortunately, polythene doesn’t decay even after several decades in a landfill.

The launch of the Golden Quadrilateral by the then Prime Minister of India Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, propelled roadbuilding as a primary mode of infrastructure creation and the quality of roads in India has vastly improved. This has given rise to more and more tourists driving to destinations. And the tourists have brought along their bad habits of throwing garbage at any point on the road. Most of our highways cut across our wildlife sanctuaries and National parks. And today, you can see lot of garbage along the roads passing through our wilderness. If herbivores in the cities are choking to death due to undigested polythene in their stomach, can our Deer, Sambar and other wild herbivores remain unaffected? People speculate about the impact of polythene bags consumed by the unwary herbivores in our wildlife sanctuaries and National parks; however no study has been conducted till date.

I hope that people reading this incident would take steps to sensitise others about the impact of polythene and would take steps to use alternate biodegradable packaging material like jute, paper bags etc.

You can take action:

You can send this link to people to educate them about the huge impact of polythene. Ask people to use biodegradable material and adopt safe disposal practices for their trash.
You can stop using polythene. When you go to the grocery shop, carry your own bags with you. Ask the grocery store not to give you polythene bags.
You can ask the authorities to set up waste bins and ensure trash regular collection.
At the moment few hillstations like Nainital have banned polythene bags. We can campaign to make more and more cities, especially places around our forests, rivers, lakes no polythene zones.

Spreading this message will help in stopping the ever increasing usage of non biodegradable materials like polythene. Let us all work towards a better tomorrow. I look forward to your comments and actions. Let me know when you take any action. I will highlight it here so that others can get inspired.