thoughts of an ex poacher

[Ranbir Mahapatra]

I think, Pawan’s suggestion is being misconstrued here.

He was giving many examples. Hunting to control overpopulations was one such example that happened in past. It might not be prudent in current scenarios though. Later he gave instance of the power a forest ranger enjoys in the US, compared to India. However, his moot point was to identify the trackers and poachers in highly infested areas and utilize their services for another kind of shoot – photography. That he believed would dissuade the poachers to hunt for a living.

As suggested by others, wildlife reserves in India have to be contained and isolated. I want to ask how and against whom? For the past 30 years or so, it has always been a million dollar question, so let us inject some liquidity into this question now.


After the Sariska tiger genocide, the wise men of Project Tiger did some introspection and brought out a comprehensive post mortem report on why Sariska happened and future of the Tiger in India. Vikram Thappar had strong reservation to this report.

Mr. Thappar indisputably explicated that man animal conflict was the cause of vanishing forest & wildlife. The official project tiger report inclined towards a more co-existence kind of solution.

It’s a clichéd statistics, there are 230 million Indians living below poverty line. They lead either a wretched “slumdog” existence in urban areas, or an equally tough life in villages. When push comes to shove, they move on to other locations, easiest hunt being forest reserves, where they practice agriculture or raise livestock.

Contrary to popular believes forest soil is not necessarily fertile all the time. If you burn a section of the forest for cultivation, it might give you yield for 3-4 seasons and then become less tillable. Mind you, the yield is never high in the first place.

Nevertheless, the BPL migrant forest usurper has to survive for more than 3 seasons! His answer to depleting yield is livestock. Goats are hardy and so are the Indian cows. With the initial capital made in the first seasons, the migrant buys livestock. Livestock will eat any vegetation. We all know what happens next.

Due to overgrazing the forest top soil erodes. Every now and then leopards, dholes and at times tigers snatch livestock as easy meal. The migrant gets angry as the loss hits him where it hurts most: the stomach.

Enter poacher or “hunter”. He suitably utilizes the concoction of this migrant resentment with the fetish for products related to tiger, leopard and other wild animals.

If I were a poacher, I would not even give the migrant a paisa of my poaching loot. I will be his friend, his confidante against the forest guards and “tiger enthusiasts” and tell him I will risk my life to save his livestock against the big cats and the dhole. Every now and then, I will provide a lantern or radio set etc to the migrant as a token of gratitude.

Now who will stop me from poaching??

Anyways, coming back to the point, here we are talking about containment and isolation to preserve forests. How do we draw the line about containment?

Who has the right to go in the forest? Are they:

• Office bearers of Project Tiger and their cronies.
• Self appointed experts on tigers and wildlife.
• Wildlife enthusiasts & nature lovers
• Photographers who want to get a good shot of the big cats.
• Venture capitalists and other such deep pocket individuals who want to open “eco-tourists resorts”
• The Migrant
• The tribal

Whom will you make to stay out of the forest? Why?

India has survived on the pillars of co-existence. With India’s population exploding, the idea of iron hand isolation and containment is not feasible immediately. We are not talking of a zoo here that at best is spread over a few 100 acres and thus can be monitored.

If it comes to hunger and survival, you and I might poach the 1300 or so wild tigers left today.

If man is the problem for vanishing forests and tigers, address him first. Though the logic of isolation is perfect, I feel treating poachers and migrants as pariahs and thus ostracizing them will compound the problem. Isolation is not a long-term solution at all.

We should be ideating of how to make the migrant make money, which is not in conflict with the wildlife resource. Eco-tourism, taking help of poachers to track animals for shooting, rehabilitations could be starts.

The solution to India’s forest & wildlife conservation has to be social.