Using science to save a cat
G. ANANTHAKRISHNAN
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A tour de force of science-driven conservation advocacy by a tiger biologist
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A VIEW FROM THE MACHAN — How Science can Save the Fragile Predator: K. Ullas Karanth; Permanent Black, D 28, Oxford Apartments, 11, I.P.Extension, Delhi-110092. Rs. 350.
Tigers are increasingly becoming difficult to spot even in their reserves and experts wonder whether the big cat is on the road to extinction. It has vanished in Sariska, and in other fragmented forests. The national debate today revolves round how tigers can be saved from the cruel fate of extermination in the remaining wild places. It is an intensely contested area in conservation, and often viewed as a tigers versus people question.
There is little doubt that science can illuminate the path to a safe future for tigers and their co-existence, in a wider sense, with humans on the planet. Wildlife scientist, K. Ullas Karanth, who has been researching the tiger for a quarter century, makes his own valuable contribution to this debate with this book, turning his complex scientific investigations into an eminently readable set of articles.
Personal insight
This is a slim book illustrated with simple monochrome art rather than colourful images, but replete with the vast body of tiger research communicated with delightful simplicity. Karanth speaks with personal insight on how tigers live, what they eat, how many prey animals they need in a year, how the populations of tigers and their prey can be assessed (you can never count every single animal) and the effects of fragmented habitat.
One learns, for instance, that killing 50 deer or other prey species in a given area will remove the food needed for one tiger to survive a year. The significance of such evidence becomes clear when it is revealed that communities living around some protected areas kill deer routinely and often as a matter of traditional pride. Fundamentally, the scientist looks at the question of whether humanity stands to gain by saving the tiger. He argues that we must act from a scientific and an ethical standpoint and very practically because we know so little about how they are inter-related. Losing them forever may jeopardise our future in unimaginable ways.
Impact of humans
The book provides convincing treatment of the impact of human pressures on wildlife, whether it is on the lions in Gir or tigers in Nagarahole. It may disappoint the advocates of the politically correct `co-existence' vision for people and tigers that their theory has no evidentiary legs to stand on. Nagarahole in Karnataka is one hotspot in which Karanth and his colleague M.D.Madhusudan have gathered evidence to prove that curbs on hunting (by neighbouring communities) led to the recovery of deer, sambhar and bison, and thus of the tiger; conversely, lack of enforcement reduced their numbers. "We cannot wish away the fact that saving tigers will require human society to sacrifice some of its immediate interests," he says, acknowledging the long and troubled relationship that people have had with the cats.
There is inspiring advocacy of public support for nature, when he argues that humans are genetically programmed to love nature and if only they avoid being desensitised by the pressures of `human culture,' no harm can befall nature. Those who survive the process of `attrition' are one with nature, never tiring of it — true naturalists.
But his endeavours to extend the boundaries of scientific understanding have not ensured him a smooth ride. Most other scientists and conservation-minded forest officers have also had traumatic experiences at the hands of those who have, ironically, been given the task of protecting the wilderness.
Dwindling numbers
The book presents the well-known story of one such individual, K.M. Chinnappa, who was hounded by poachers and forced to retire prematurely from the forest service for his unbending defence of Nagarahole. There are sober articles on other topics too. Two years ago, Project Tiger operated by the Environment Ministry dismissed some of Karanth's observations on tigers as baseless, but was soon embarrassed by the disappearance of the cats in Sariska, where it had been announcing annual `counts'.
His radio collaring experiment proved to be a thankless exercise for long and his thesis on use of camera trap evidence to assess tiger populations found few takers in the bureaucracy — despite its validation by peer reviewed journals. Yet, as George Schaller, the doyen of wildlife research in India notes in his foreword, Karanth remains steadfast in his optimism that tigers can be saved. Some of the stories reveal the deep attachment that he has to the forest. They speak of his admiration for Kenneth Anderson (whom he knew personally) and his love for the thrilling stories, often embellished by fictional elements about man-eaters, that he wrote.
Optimistic he may be, but this engineer-turned-biologist is also a realist. He explains in the last chapter that in material terms Nagarahole can never have enough to give to a society that is geared to mass consumption. Certainly, the forest cannot supply a growing demand for leaves, fruit, honey and other `minor produce' that people may be allowed to extract.
"Delinking Nagarahole (a reserve with six lakh people in the neighbouring local communities) from globalising markets and providing alternative livelihood opportunities for people who depend on its forests now, holds the key...in the long run," he suggests. That is a message applicable to all tiger habitats.
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