Tigger

A century ago there were about 40,000 tigers in India. Over that century the various Maharajas of India set up reserves for those tigers, not necessarily to protect them from being hunted, but to protect them from being hunted by anyone else. These reserves were the Maharajas personal hunting grounds and it was not uncommon for them to slaughter 109 of them each, a number that seems to hold significance for them.
This royal "reserve" system is not found just in India. You can find it in Europe as well. Many British kings had private hunting grounds where only royalty could hunt for sport. The hungry peasants were not allowed in to hunt even if just for food. Sherwood Forest in "Robin Hood" was a protected piece of "wildlife reserve" for the king. In England, the kings would have "Rangers" patrol their royal hunting grounds looking for 'Villains" that were trying to poach the king's wildlife. This term "Ranger" was carried over to America and used with the law enforcement officers who patrolled the wild west for the federal government, as in Texas Rangers. This name would then find its way into the Park Service where it is used to describe some of the employees that protect the wildlife there be it through enforcement or education.
Combine the large amount of hunting by the past royalty of India with a lot of foreign and local big game hunters and you will have a sizable impact on the tiger population. Needless to say, over the course of the century the number of tigers has dropped from 40,000 to about an estimated 4,000. Much of this is also due to government corruption and negligence which has allowed poaching to occur.
While the high price a tiger hide will bring on the black market anywhere in the world is a large factor, the high demand for tiger body parts (as well as other wildlife) in China is also to blame. Two years ago while I was traveling in China I went to the country's largest pharmacy just off Tiannamen Square in Beijing. There I saw boxes and boxes of tiger penises, tiger claws, tiger fat and black bear gal bladders for sale. In Chinese medicine these are very coveted items and bring a very good price. Most of these tiger parts are believed to be poached out of India. The tiger population throughout Oceania nearing extinction and the tigers in China are all but gone. So if you're traveling to Beijing this year for the 2008 Olympics don't forget to pickup your very own package of internationally poached tiger penis before you rush off on a high speed train to Tibet to see how China's "Liberating" has worked out for those folks in the Himalayas and their massively deforested hills. I suppose though, that the tens of thousands of Tibetans who were murdered by the Chinese army shouldn't complain. When the Chinese killed them at least they didn't cut their willies off.
But even this number of 4,000 tigers is deceiving. Many scientists throughout the world who study tigers have been saying that the methods used to count tigers in India are unreliable and inaccurate. They also believe that the number is being inflated to keep tourists coming to India's many Tiger Reserves. Most of the data collection has relied on counting "pug marks" or tiger footprints in the sand.
Finally, about two years ago, a survey was done using more accepted methods and the number came out to be a depressing 1,411. The number is probably a few hundred more than this since they were unable to survey any tigers in the Sunderban Tiger Reserve, the one I mentioned visiting in a previous post, due to the thick mangrove forest. Sunderban is estimated to have a couple hundred tigers. There was also one or two other areas that couldn't be counted. So maybe the total is around 2,000. The Indian government recently made a statement that it would support politically the preservation of the tiger habitat as well as financing the conservation efforts needed to bring the tiger numbers back up. But when budget time came around it dedicated only a little more money than is needed to do one survey. Nothing for patrolling, nothing for enforcement, nothing for reclaiming habitat or reimbursing displaced people. Not quite the political and financial support they were claiming. This is really sad and yet another sign of the Indian government's lack of concern.
It's also very short sighted. Tourism has become huge business for India and it's growing more and more each year. India is trying to promote its tourism industry through ad campaigns such as the "Incredible India" one that is currently out. Many communities in India now depend on tourist dollars for survival. Tigers are one of the reasons many tourist come to India because it's one of the few places left in Asia that you can see one. As I mentioned before, Oceania and China are almost out of tigers.
Sariska National Park, which was considered one of the countries leading wildlife reserves, had been saying they had 26 tigers in their park. The survey two years ago showed that they had none. That's right. Poached out. Put a sign out front. Though I bet you can still buy a stuffed animal one at one of the souvenir stands right out front. Lonely Planet has just listed this information in their 2007 India Guide Book. I guarantee you, no one is going to visit this park any more. And all due to organized poaching and mismanagement. I wonder how many government officials made money off the wiping out of this park.
I went to Ranthambore National Park in the eastern part of the Indian state of Rajasthan. I went there because world renown wildlife photographer Kennan Ward had been there years before and assured me I would see one of the many tigers that prowl that part of Rajasthan's scrub jungle. The park was established in 1955 but somehow remained a Maharajas hunting ground until 1970. In 1979, the animal's oversight was put into the hands of Project Tiger, a group that oversees most of the tiger reserves in India now. Since then, the numbers have not only gone down, but in 2005 government officials were implicated in organized poaching in this park.
The park still stands by it's pre 2005 survey count of 32. The new survey says 15. Locals just outside the park told me, "Maybe 10." Ranthambore itself is a very nice area. A mix of jungle, scrub brush and open grass. There were several other types of wildlife to see but you wouldn't know it from the guides that work there. They have what I like to call, "Tiger Tunnel Vision." To enter the park you need to be on a commercially run "cantor" or open top bus, or a commercially operated jeep. This is very similar to the way Denali National Park in Alaska works, with its concession busing system. On your bus or jeep you also need to have a government approved guide who works there at the park. At Ranthambore, the guide we had on my cantor was about as useful as a seat cover on an Indian toilet. As we blasted through the park, people would yell out when they saw the various wildlife, such as Samba deer, peacock, White spotted deer. But the guide wouldn't stop. He just kept saying we needed to get to the watering hole to look for tigers and that we would look at those other inferior animals on our way back out. We got to the watering hole and sat. And sat. But no sign of tigers the whole day. No scat, no pug marks, no alarm calls by other animals, (which usually occurs when a tiger is in the area), no nothin'. And on the way back out all the other animals had taken off already. Oh, I did see a few ornery macaque monkeys harassing the gift shop owners just outside the park gates.
Then, after we had left the park and were heading back to our guesthouses, we came across a couple other cantors that were parked along side of the road. One of the drivers said he heard some deer alarm calls from off on the hill. So we watched and surprisingly enough, after about 10 minutes we saw what they were all alarmed about. There was a mother leopard with 3 large cubs following her. They were up on the hillside and we saw them cross a clearing less than 200 yards away. It was really cool and it was really lucky. Once they were back in the vegetation you didn't see them again.
But the people who visit are just as much to blame for the Tiger Tunnel Vision. After Ranthambore, I travel two days north by train to the southern part of the Indian state of Uttarakhand, which borders Tibet. The park was established in 1936 as India's first National Park. It was named after the famous hunter turned conservationist Jim Corbett. Corbett use to hunt tigers in this area while growing up during the British Raj in India and was revered by locals for hunting down tigers who had started to snack on some of the townsfolk. But eventually Corbett realized that the tiger population was at risk and turned into a conservationist. Corbett wrote the book, "The Man Eaters of Kumaon". There are parallels between Corbett and Charles Sheldon, a famous hunter turned conservationist who helped establish Denali National Park.
Corbett Park is beautiful. The crocodile strewn shores of its crystal clear rivers wind their way through Sal forests, foothills and grassland. And there's quite a bit of wildlife, from crocodiles and alligators to samba deer, white spotted deer, hog deer and barking deer, which really do. There are peacocks, peahens, jackals and wild elephants. Not to mention my favorite Langur monkeys. I spent 3 days at Corbett trying to spend as much of the day as possible in the park.
On the first day and my first outing (you are required, just like Ranthambore, to have a guide and driver), I was in a small, open top jeep. The required guide actually knew some naturalist information about the flora and fauna which was nice, but right off the bat we headed to the watering hole. After 2 hours of sitting there and seeing nothing, I asked the guy in the open top jeep next to me how long he'd been in the park. "Twenty five days" he said, and each day spent here at this watering hole. He said he had seen a tiger, or "tigger" as everyone in India calls them, I don't know if it's a mispronunciation of the English or an affinity for Winnie the Pooh. Either way, "Get me outta here". I told my guide I was not going to spend my whole time sitting at a watering hole, I wanted to see the park and if a tigger crossed my path, then so be it. Not to mention that we are sitting there in a tiny, Hyundai sized pickup with no top or sides on it. The tigger wouldn't even have to jump in to eat me, he could just stroll up and stick his head in.
We left the watering hole and headed out to the grasslands. I said I wanted to just sit and watch the open expanse of grasslands for a while, as there was a large lake off on the other side of it. The driver, whose name was Imran, pulled down a dirt road that ran through the middle of the grassland and turned the truck off. There were alot of birds and several herds of various deer roaming around. Far off in the distance was a herd of wild elephants. They were maybe a mile or two away, but I watched them through my binoculars. Slowly they worked their way towards us eating grass the whole time. As they got closer I could see that to eat the tall grass, they would first wrap their trunks around a bunch of it and then pull up, ripping out not only the grass but all the dirt and roots too. Then they would, in a lazy figure eight motion, beat the dirt off the roots by banging the grass on the ground. Then they would stuff the green part of the grass bundle into their mouths and chew. Little by little the brown roots would fall out of their mouths to the ground. There were 17 elephants in all in the herd. There was one, massive, dominant "Tusker" or male who had long swooping tusks, and a large female who was smaller than him but larger than the rest. You can tell sexes by who has tusks and who doesn't. Then there was a mix of male and female sub adults and about 4 little guys running around. It was amazing to see their dynamics. The dominant male would steer the herd from behind. Whichever way he wanted to steer them, he would go to the opposite side in the rear of the herd. He wouldn't make contact with any of them, they would just veer in the other direction. As the walked, which seemed casual and slow, the dominant male would go back and forth, basically keeping them in a straight line and keeping them from straying. Out in front was a small sub adult tusker. I imagined him feeling proud that he was leading the pack, even though big daddy in back was doing the steering. To our surprise, they slowly made their way right towards us and crossed the dirt road we were on about 40 yards away. You could hear them ripping out the grass! It was incredible. There was alot of grumbling noises coming from them which I'm told was how they communicate with each other. After they passed us by, they headed down to the large lake at the other end of the grassland. This would take a couple hours, but not before coming across a big mud hole. Once at the mud hole everyone was down rolling around in it, getting covered in mud. This was their way of cooling off. First, they would drop down and roll onto their side in the mud. Then switch to the other side. After that, they would stand back up and with their trunks, grab clumps of mud and flip it onto their backs. It was fantastic to watch. Even big daddy tusker got down. He also did something none of the other males did. He drove his tusks, one at a time, into the mud and held it there for a moment. I don't know why. Then he would switch and lean over and do it to the other one. Once he stood up, he would wrap his trunk around each of his tusks and in one forward pull, would clean all the mud off. He would then throw that mud up onto his back.
After the mud hole, they headed to the lake for a drink and some more rolling around. But in between the mud and the lake, we noticed a sub adult male coming from way off in the distance from where the herd had come from. As it quickly worked its way over to the herd, the dominant male started to make really loud growling sounds. These growling sounds were so loud that even though he was probably 1/2 to 1 mile away, I initially thought the growling was right near us. It was hard to tell if he was agitated and warning the sub adult to stay away or calling it to hurry over. Then he let out a trumpeting that I swear filled the whole valley and echoed when he was done. Eventually the sub adult would join the herd so it seemed there was no threat. That afternoon of watching the elephants was one of the greatest wildlife watching experiences I've ever had. Thank god I didn't just sit and watch the watering hole all day.
On other days I would see a few jackals hanging out together. They looked like cute medium sized dogs. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about them. They appear quite sweet. There were also these crocodiles who's name translates to "Pot nose" due to the long narrow snouts they had with a 'pot like' chamber at the end. The rivers were filled with fish and some turtles and the trees were filled with birds and monkeys. Once in a while, while driving around, we would hear alarm calls. These were made by the deer or monkeys when they felt they were in danger and wanted to warn their kinfolk. The barking deer really do a loud bark that you can hear from far away. We would also see many pug marks in the sand along the road. I was starting to think that someone from the park drove around with a tiger paw on a stick making those pug marks in the sand. I could imagine that he had two different sticks, one with a big paw for adults and a smaller one for cubs.
On the 2nd and 3rd day we kept hearing alarm calls and once in a while we would come across someone who had seen a tiger. "Really?!! You saw one!" "Yes, just down the road about 3 minutes ago." Even I started to get the fever. At one point we pulled up to a jeep with 4 wide eyed people in it. "Did you see them?!" "Where?" I replied." "Just then," they said, "Two tigers ran right behind your jeep as you drove towards us." You've got to be kidding, I thought. I was looking forward and didn't see them. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. All timing and luck. Lots of luck.
The next morning I went on an elephant ride. I had some reservations about this, with the whole riding an elephant thing, mainly because their numbers are disappearing and there are more domesticated ones than wild ones I believe, but I'm not sure. Everyone told me it was a great way to see the park, and I convinced myself that it was and that it was just like riding any other domesticated animal, like a horse. They weren't abused and looked healthy. I know my buddy Trace is going to give me flack about this after all the griping I did in Thailand years ago about riding those poor, dirty enslaved Thai elephants.
I have to admit it was a great way to see the park. You don't realize until you are on an elephant how high up you are. Maybe like 2-3 stories up. And they are really quiet. We left the camp before sunrise and headed out across the grassland. Just before the sun came up there was a morning fog and we came upon one of the sub adult tuskers. The elephants just stared at each other, grumbles were exchanged and off we went. After a couple hours of walking around, we were heading back along the edge of the forest, when we heard a growl. Not an elephant growl, a tiger growl. The elephant driver, handler, call him what you will, quickly steered the elephant right into the brush where the growl came from! Everyone on the elephant was a little shocked (there were four of us plus the driver on top and probably room for 2 or 3 more, I told you, they're big). The elephant plowed through the dense brush, which was easy for him, but we were getting really beaten up by the trees and brush. Even so, it was fun thrashing through the brush on that guy. We followed 3 more growls and eventually lost it, which doesn't surprise me, it's not like a giant elephant with 4 screaming people on top of it is a stealthy thing coming through the jungle.
That night at dinner, I found out why the guides are so tigger crazy. Many of the foreign tourist that I met, usually European, tell their guides, "No tiger, no tip." What a shitty way to view seeing a national park I thought.
At the end of day three, I said goodbye to my guide and he apologized for not finding any tiggers for me. How sad I thought. I told him not to worry about it, that I had an incredible time. And yes, I did tip him. So off I went, with my driver Imran, heading on our 4 hour drive back out of the park. Imran was pretty cool, and though we didn't understand everything each other said, we could still understand each other enough. We would laugh at some of the things we would talk about and he was a nice guy. We spent the bulk of three days together.
As we were driving out, we came across a few other jeeps that were near a watering hole. We pulled up and watched, too, for a little bit. Imran finally said let's go and we pulled about 20 yards away when he quickly stopped again. I was still standing in the jeep from the watering hole. Imran shut off the jeep and stood up behind me. He then grabbed my head and moved it about 6 inches to the right. I had no idea what he was doing. Then he said, "See her?" And I did. There was a huge tiger laying down in the dense brush sleeping. The stripes of orange and black on her body blended so well with the green and brown leaves and streaks of sunlight that she was incredibly hard to see. It was like looking at one of those posters that is a really strange patterned design but when you stare long enough at it you see another 3 dimensional image come out of it. You really had to look at the vegetation and then let your eyes focus past the first layer of leaves and there you would see her lying down on her side, with her big paws out to her side and her abdomin slowly rising and falling in the afternoon heat. Within seconds the rest of the jeeps were all over us trying to see. I moved so others could see but many of them didn't, or couldn't. She was still there though. Even off from the side, if you looked right, you could see a leg or a thick tail. And the thing I didn't think about until that night, was that she was maybe about 12 feet away.
I had had my turn. I said OK to Imran and off we went. The tiger would probably sleep there for a few more hours before moving again as it was hot and she would wait for it to cool off. As we drove away, we passed another watering hole that had no one around. I was still standing as Imran slowed to a stop. We were still rolling a bit when I looked over at the watering hole and could not believe my eyes. There was another tiger walking away from the water. Within 3 to 4 seconds it had disappeared into the tall grass that surrounded the watering hole. Two tigers in about 5 minutes. I only saw them briefly, but it was magical. And it made me feel incredibly good to know that there are still some out there. Like a needle in a haystack and all luck, but that day was my lucky day.
I will try to remember that day when I'm back in Denali National Park and I'm getting bored listening to some visitor who just saw their first Grizzly. I will hopefully remember that it's magical for them and their lucky day too.