Long
Term Tiger Monitoring Project
In 1973 the Tiger Ecology Project was launched in Royal Chitwan National
Park, supported by the Smithsonian Institution and the World Wildlife Fund (US
Appeal). A number of intensive
studies about various aspects of tiger ecology and behavior were completed by US
and Nepalese scientists. In 1980
Dr. Charles McDougal, ITNC Trustee and a well known tiger specialist, was
appointed a Research Fellow of the Smithsonian in order to carry out a Long Term
Tiger Monitoring Project (LTTM) as a follow up and continuation of the earlier
studies. This project has continued
to the present, with the result that the present data set on Chitwan’s tigers
spans more than a quarter of a century. This is the longest study devoted to the
species, and it has provided a wealth of information on movement patterns,
social behavior, and habitat requirements. The complete reproductive histories
of 46 tigers (31 females and 15 males) have been recorded. Most of what we
presently know about tiger population dynamics is derived from this ongoing
study.
When the project was initiated there were 7 tigers that
still had active radio collars and these were followed by telemetry as long as
the batteries lasted. The last one
went off the air in 1982. Meanwhile
Dr. McDougal and his wildlife specialists have developed a reliable method of
identifying individual tigers by diagnostic features of the tracks or pugmarks
made by all four of the tiger’s feet, which was facilitated by the excellent
substrate afforded by Chitwan’s alluvial floodplain.
Ad hoc camera trapping was used as a crosscheck on pugmark analysis.
Beginning in 1995 camera trapping was begun on a systematic basis, made
possible by the development of inexpensive but highly effective units developed
by Goodson and Associates in the USA. The Chitwan
tiger population, from Kasara in the centre of Royal Chitwan National Park to
the western boundary, is monitored by camera trapping and pugmark
identification. Over 500 photos of more than 60 individual tigers have been
obtained. Two ITNC wildlife specialists are based at Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge and
are aided by Tiger Tops’ own expert naturalists.
The LTTM Project has been financially supported by ITNC and J & B
Whisky “Care for the Rare Programme.” Tiger Mountain Group in Nepal
has provided logistical support.
Research is the key to sound management
of protected areas. In addition,
research, coupled with other efforts, will help develop policy for management of
areas not directly covered by government protection.
The ITNC’s camera trapping in Royal Chitwan
National Park has been very effective not only in collecting valuable
information on tiger population dynamics but has also been extremely useful in
monitoring any incidents of poaching. The camera traps will show if a resident
animal has disappeared from its territory, or if an injured tiger passes through
a trap the injuries can be analysed. Any
such incident is reported to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife and
can be quickly investigated by the ITNC’s highly skilled tiger trackers.
From time to time tigers will shift territory, one female has seceded her territory to her cub during the running time of the project. In these cases both the ITNC trackers and camera traps set out to locate the animals or discover their fate. It is in these situations that the skills of the trackers are fully tested.
Although this method is easily the most cost effective used to accurately study the tigers of a given area there are still many costs involved, during the 2000/01 trapping season five camera traps were lost. Three were lost to tigers, mainly young and in-experienced, taking exception to being photographed on a quiet jungle night - the first time a tiger is photographed the flash and click can prove a disturbance, generally though, even these tigers ignore it or just glance across by the second time.
Less forgiving are illegal wood-cutters who took two cameras in the same season, once caught on film they are reluctant to have that film developed. Great care is taken when choosing the camera placements to avoid contact with people, the cameras are also put out as late as possible and collected at first light, very few people voluntarily move about the jungle at night!
In the 1960s, Billy Arjan Singh bought
Tiger Haven, a remote farm in Dudhwa, Northeast India, close to the Nepal
border. Leopards and tigers had been hunted to the verge of extinction in
the area and their survival was
threatened by the demands made on their natural
habitat by humans. Arjan Singh lead a victorious campaign for a wildlife
sanctuary. Victory came in the '70s when Mrs Indira Ghandi designated some
200 square miles as Dudhwa National Park.
It was at Tiger Haven, on the edge of the Park, that Arjan Singh re-introduced into the wild orphaned leopards and a tigress bred in captivity. Some of their descendants now roam free in Dudwha National Park.
In 1988 Dudwha became part of 'Project Tiger'. However, there is mounting conflict over the Park's resources between its wildlife and farmers on the periphery. With Arjan Singh's help, ITNC is consulting local communities to see how best wildlife and human beings can live together in harmony throughout the Dudwha area. One solution is in a series of projects giving villagers access to fuel, fodder and croplands away from the Park as well as helping them improve the protective compounds for their domestic animals.
The full story of Arjan Singh's dramatic struggles and triumphs are contained in the books that he has written. These are available from good book stores or from the internet.
In 2001, ITNC conjointly with John Hatt, donated
£2,600 to the Tadoba-Andharit Tiger Reserve which covers 240 square miles in
Maharashtra, India. This Reserve is one
of the remaining bastions of the
tiger in India. The money has been donated to purchase 90 bicycles to be
given to forest workers (Van Majurs), who assist the For
est Guards by
undertaking most of the basic work which includes clearing the fire breaks,
animal tracking, driving water lorries and manning checkpoints. These
bicycles will increase the workers' mobility around the forest, which helps
deter poachers. Also, because almost no-one is allowed to live in the
Tadoba-Andharit Tiger Reserve the families of the Reserve workers often live a
long way away, the bicycles can be used as transport to and from workers'
villages.
These bicycles are painted green and will have the name of the reserve and ITNC painted upon them. The NGO looking after this project is the Tiger Research and Conservation Trust run by Poonam and Harshwardhan Dhanwatey.