It all began with a couple of whiskers. When the Crime Branch of the Rajasthan Police began their sweep to track down suspected poachers in the Ranthambore National Park, they were led to a village called Karwar in Kota district, where they found remains of several animals. Among their macabre catch, which included the carcasses of turtles, the skull of a wild boar and the claws of owls and falcons, the police also found a few strands of hair. Rather than treat their seizure as routine, the police decided to investigate whether the hair could indeed have belonged to the animal whose disappearance had led to a national outrage.

PICTURE SPEAK
PRIZE CATCH: (From left) Nainya, Devi, Kesra and Prithviraj; a tiger in Ranthambore (above)

The fall in the number of tigers in two key reserves in Rajasthan is a scandal the state Government and its Forest Department find hard to live down. The Forest Department continued to be in a state of denial even after surveys estimated that the tiger population in Ranthambore had fallen by at least 18. It is officially established that no tiger has been seen in Sariska for the past one year.

Ajit Singh Shekhawat, IGP, crime, Jaipur who was in charge of the Karwar case, said the police decided to consider the hair found "a vital clue without establishing through tests whether these were actually tigers whiskers or not". The police team had been led to Karwar on a tip off from Fateh Singh Rathore, a Ramthambore-based retired forest official now associated with wildlife group Tiger Watch. The chain of information began with the arrest of a poacher called Rajmal for hunting a sambar at Ranthambore in January this year. It ended with Shekhawat's team tracking down four dreaded poachers-Devi Singh, Kesra and the father and son team of Nainya and Prithviraj Mogiya-in November.

FATEH SINGH RATHORE RETIRED FOREST OFFICIAL "A missing tiger is like a missing human being. You must trace it or conclude that it is dead."

Information obtained from Rajmal's associates led the police and Rathore to the hunting tribe of the Mogiyas. The four poachers confessed to having killed nine tigers and one leopard in the past three years. Their last hunt was in March 2005.

A major catch among the four poachers was Devi Singh, sarpanch of Sheopur village in Madhya Pradesh. Devi, popularly known as Shikari, claimed to have killed five tigers with a rudimentary muzzle-loading gun. He also claimed that he used no traps, but rather hunted in the manner of the 19th century rajas, sitting atop a tree, luring the animal with a bait and then shooting it down. Devi is also suspected to be related to the people of the Kuchbandia tribe, who often make a living as travelling "doctors", selling products made from wild animals.

The seizures made by the Rajasthan Police, however, were not backed by the recovery of tiger skins. Given the high-risk nature of the poaching industry, skins are bound to be smuggled out of the crime scene as quickly as possible. After interrogations, the police have found new leads. An important lead is a Madhya Pradesh-based conduit who paid Rs 35,000- 40,000 for the skins.

ROUTE TO RECOVERY

More effective patrolling by installing pickets and watch towers at the 82 entry points to Ranthambore National Park. Setting up a panel of credible wildlife volunteers who have access to campsites to provide a monitoring system. Discourage the practice of having top forest officials escort visiting VIPs; ensure that officials return to their patrolling, night vigil duties. Set up a system to coordinate information-sharing between the major reserves involved in the anti-poaching cases.

The Vasundhara Raje Government has sought to punish the laxity on the part of the Forest Department by removing the field director of Ranthambore, Shafait Hussein, as well as the Deputy Conservator Govind Sagar Bhardwaj. On hearing of the poachers' arrest, forest officials remained sceptical. Some even feared a set up by NGOs to prove a point about the maladministration of the reserves.

There is also a certain degree of political paranoia in what is essentially a conservationist crisis. Many in the BJP ranks wondered why poachers began to target tigers when their administration came to power. Rathore dismisses those claims as specious, saying a few tigers were probably being killed every year. The increase in demand coincided with growing negligence, all of which encouraged poachers to go for bigger kills. Foresters blamed the disappearance of tigers on the changing territories or migration into Madhya Pradesh, an explanation that Rathore strongly contests.

"A missing tiger is like a missing human being," he says. "You must move the entire machinery to either trace it or conclude that it is dead," he added. What cannot conclusively be established is the poachers' connivance with forest officials, as the arrested poachers said they were given only Rs 40,000 per kill. This amount is considered too little to include a senior official's share, though some security guards may have been bribed.

Rathore, a colourful and controversial figure, whose tip off was central to the arrest of the poachers has often been criticised for selling a part of his land bordering the Ranthambore reserve to the Oberoi Group who have set up a resort on the land. He in turn says that those who cannot manage the park should be asked to leave.

There is no doubt that no matter where you stand on the Rathore issue, the shocking tiger crisis has given enough indication that the established patterns and practices of forest management in India need a rethink. Some measures have been suggested by a task force constituted by Chief Minister Raje and headed by V.P. Singh, MP. The task force has recommended better patrolling, using hunting tribes for tracking poachers and giving encouragement to credible wildlife volunteers to live within the forest and set up an independent but supportive monitoring system.

All these moves will have to be backed by political will. Already, there are suggestions to dismiss the current investigations as evidence against poachers may be impossible to gather. There is no coordinated effort in the state to share information on poachers. The party investigating the Ranthambore area has no idea of the leads or details in the Sariska case.

A sizeable population of tigers has vanished very quickly from the reserves in Rajasthan, but the efforts to save those that are left are hardly proceeding at a commensurate rate.

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