Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
POWERFUL CREATURES IN PERIL
There are now far more tigers in captivity – at least 13,000, the vast majority in the United States – than there are in the wild. More than half of those that do survive in the wild, at least 2,200, are found in India.
In the past century, more than 90 per cent of the tiger population has been wiped out. Poaching is fuelled by the demand for tiger products in China, which continues to grow. In the early 1990s, a survey in the Ranthambore National Park in northern India, once a hotspot for tigers, found just 15 individuals – poachers had killed the rest in order to supply the lucrative trade in skins and other body parts. Soon afterwards, the authorities in Delhi seized a haul of almost 500kg (1,100lb) of tiger bones.
In 2010, the umbrella conservation body the Global Tiger Forum was established. Tiger experts from all over the world came together to try to stop, or reduce, the illegal trade by promoting anti-poaching measures and working closely with local communities to get people on the tigers’ side. Campaigners are also trying to change attitudes in China.
Conservation scientists have identified five major areas in India, collectively covering an area of nearly 60,000 square miles, that offer the tiger its best chance of survival. Each region is capable of providing enough food for 200 tigers – about a thousand in all. The plan is to double wild tiger numbers by 2022: ambitious, but a target certainly worth aiming for.
finishes eating and heads to the pool for a drink – where a male tiger is taking a dip. Curious, she approaches – an act that could be fatal, as males will usually kill any cubs they come across that are not their own. But fortunately, the male recognises her as one of his own cubs. She’s very lucky: he’s the only tiger in the whole of Bandhavgarh who won’t harm her. Male tigers rarely bump into their young and when they do, they just move on. Sadly, Biba’s troubles with her siblings didn’t end and, aged 17 months, she moves away to find her own territory – some six months earlier than normal.
Raj Bhera now feels the immense strain of providing for her three remaining cubs while trying to repel Solo. ‘When we first met her, Raj Bhera was in glorious condition,’ says director Theo Webb. ‘But towards the end of filming three years later, she had become thinner and thinner, and her fur looked rougher. You could tell she was having a really tough time.’
Then Raj Bhera makes the decision to leave the sanctuary of the park and head towards a village – one of about 60 settlements supporting 40,000 peo- ple around the park borders. Here, she causes panic and mayhem, as the villagers gather around the tiger, beating the scrub with sticks and shouting in a desperate effort to see her off.
Their response is understandable: few wild creatures are as dangerous as a cornered tiger, and many people fall victim to them each year. When they hear Raj Bhera is outside the park, Theo and the team race to her. Just as things are about to get nasty, the park rangers arrive. ‘The tiger had been cornered in a patch of bamboo where rangers managed to tranquillise her, so they could take her back to her territory,’ says Theo. ‘It was a real race against time, before the effects of the tranquilliser wore off. This incident showed the lengths Raj Bhera had to go to, to find food for herself and her cubs.’
Raj Bhera’s absence gave Solo the perfect opportunity to take over her mother’s territory permanently. But she did not have time to do so, as the rangers soon released Raj Bhera. By reclaiming her territory from her daughter, Raj Bhera had re-established herself as the Queen of Bandhavgarh’s tigers. She has successfully raised three of her cubs to adulthood, and can continue her dynasty and raise another generation of Bandhavgarh’s tigers.
‘Raj Bhera got thinner and her fur was rougher’