Can’t Bell This Cat
The tiger tried to charge once again at the elephants and, in a failed attempt, returned to the thick vegetation… The two trained elephants charged back at the tiger, trumpeting, roaring and running seemingly at will against the mahout’s control. My heart skipped a beat when the tiger strode past with its mouth barely a foot away from my leg.” Aaron Wesly, the Wildlife Trust of India veterinarian on call at Pilibhit, recounts yet another day in the life of a rapid response team member.
“Not many of you have heard the blood-curdling roars of wild tigers at close range. Most people are scared witless at the menacing sound.” Colonel John H. Roush’s introduction to
Hunting Dangerous Game with the Maharajas is as relevant in India today as it was when men shot tigers for sport. The tiger Wesly, sociologist Prem Pandey and two forest officials had tracked had killed four men, a woman and a child in twoand-a-half months in just one forest patch. It was saved from being lynched by a mob, tranquilised and taken into captivity.
Three things strike me. One, this is by no means an isolated incident in today’s India. There are leopards outside Delhi and Meerut, tigers in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur and Wayanad in Kerala. In and around Dudhwa and Pilibhit alone, there have been 44 cases in the past five years. Two, tigers and leopards are big cats. If you understand big cat ecology, the irony of declaring a reserve and expecting the animal to sit inside it strikes home. It is as useless as expecting your tabby at home to not wander, come night, spray a territorial scent or two at bushes and lamp posts and scout the neigh-
bourhood for prospective mates. To keep a big cat’s wild roaming instincts at bay within man-made boundaries is a plan fraught with disappointment.
Three, most of these cases are a result of the success of big-cat conservation, not its failure. Large animals need space and big cats are moving out of protected areas, seeking new territories. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by people and farms, roads and railway lines. Big cat meets angry people and one or both are in danger. Short-term solutions include primary and rapid response teams and immediate care of the animal coming out. Long-term solutions will have to include planning on use of land that sets aside enough area and prey to sustain these majestic denizens of our forests. The writer is a conservationist, author and CEO of the Wildlife Trust of India