Upping the Ante in India’s Efforts to Protect Tigers

Maharashtra State in western India is going after tiger poachers. In a somewhat shocking but perhaps necessary move, the state will no longer consider the killing of poachers a crime.  Eight tigers have already been killed this year in Maharashtra.

Last year it was reported that Maharashtra had a population of approximately 169 tigers.  Given the precarious state of big cats in India (and elsewhere), more aggressive steps are needed to protect them.  All the more reason for India to support rights of nature in its constitution.

A 2011 census counted just 1,706 tigers in the wild in India.

Read more from The Guardian about this latest effort to protect India’s tigers and other species:

Indian state to let forest guards shoot poachers on sight

Associated Press

A western Indian state has declared war on animal poaching, allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight to curb attacks on tigers, elephants and other wildlife.

The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.

A tiger in India’s Corbett national park. Photograph: AP

Forest guards should not be “booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers”, the Maharashtra forest minister, Patangrao Kadam, said on Tuesday. The state will also send more rangers and jeeps into forests, and will offer secret payments to informers who give tips about poachers and animal smugglers, he said.

India has about half of the world’s estimated 3,200 tigers in dozens of wildlife reserves set up since the 1970s. But illegal poaching remains a serious threat, with tiger parts sought in traditional Chinese medicine fetching high prices on the black market.

According to the Wildlife Protection Society of India, 14 tigers have been killed by poachers in India so far this year – one more than for all of 2011. The tiger is considered endangered, with its habitat range shrinking more than 50% in the last quarter-century and its numbers declining rapidly from the 5,000-7,000 estimated in the 1990s, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Eight of this year’s tiger poaching deaths in India occurred in Maharashtra, including one whose body was found last week chopped into pieces with its head and paws missing in Tadoba tiger reserve. Forest officials have also found traps in the reserve, where about 40 tigers live.

Tiger parts used in traditional Chinese medicine are prized on the black market, but dozens of other animals are also targeted by hunters across India. Rhinos are prized for their horns and male elephants for their tusks, while other big cats such as leopards are hunted or poisoned by villagers afraid of attacks on their homes or livestock.

Encounters are rare between guards and poachers, who generally hunt the secretive and nocturnal big cats at night, according to Maharashtra’s chief wildlife warden, SWH Naqvi.

“We hardly ever come face-to-face with poachers,” he said on Wednesday, predicting few instances when guards might fire at suspects.

Instead, he predicted that the state’s offer to pay informers from a new government fund worth about 5m rupees ($90,000) would be more effective in curbing wildlife crime. “We get very few tips, so this will really help,” Naqvi said.

India to Invest $30 million to Save Tigers

I’m on the road and will be giving a presentation on women’s rights and rights of nature in Montreal later today.  I just came across this headline though and wanted to post the article.   It mentions the ‘people vs. wildlife” situation that we will be hearing more and more about, not just in India.

India seeks $30 million fund to save tigers

TNN | May 16, 2012, 01.47AM IST

NEW DELHI: India has sought assistance of $30 million under the Global Tiger Initiative, Keshav Varma, programme manager for the World Bank-led scheme, said here on Tuesday.He was speaking on the sidelines of the first stock-taking meeting of tiger-bearing countries on the Global Tiger Recovery Programme.India has refused to let Bank funds be used for protection and running of tiger reserves in the country but Varma suggested that the funds were to be used for the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and international collaborations.

While India hosted the meeting which saw around 150 delegates and experts come together, the differences of approach between the World Bank initiative and Indian government’s approach were visible even on the inaugural day of the workshop.

While Varma referred to the US law on creating wilderness spaces – wildlife zones with no permanent human presence — environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan emphasized that conservation in India had to be more inclusive, involving and protecting the rights of people living in vicinity of forests.

“The ‘people agenda’ ranks prominently in our ‘tiger agenda’. While we do not imagine any coexistence in the inviolate core areas, a viable inclusive agenda involving local people is fostered in the surrounding buffer,” Natarajan said.

Earlier too, while the initiative was taking off, India had pushed for country-specific solutions to conserve the tiger and won the debate on maintaining the issue as a ‘sovereign one’ – something that member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority Rajesh Gopal stated yet again on Tuesday at the stock-taking exercise.

The workshop is expected to set the agenda for this year and negotiate and deliberate common parameters to assess conservation efforts.

Varma also advocated a greater role for the private sector in conservation efforts – something the government has not allowed so far though several agencies and corporates have shown interest in getting involved in management of such reserves, which improves their branding and is also a lucrative business proposition with tiger tourism being a key market.

The Union government is expected to present before the Supreme Court fresh guidelines about regulating tourism around tiger reserves within the next few days.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/India-seeks-30-million-fund-to-save-tigers/articleshow/13157479.cms

Let’s Talk Tigers

2 Bengal tigers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I put off reading the December 2011 issue of National Geographic until just the other day, even though it had a story on saving wild tigers.  I knew it would be upsetting.  That said, it is worth a read, with superb pictures, and a little bit of hope. There is also an excellent map depicting tiger strongholds in Asia.

Author Caroline Alexander writes about how, despite international conservation efforts, tigers in the wild face the “black abyss of annihilation”.   In particular, she says:

Less acknowledged are botched conservation strategies that for decades have failed the tiger. The tiger population, dispersed among Asia’s 13 tiger countries, is estimated at fewer than 4,000 animals, though many conservationists believe there are hundreds less than that. To put this number in perspective: Global alarm for the species was first sounded in 1969, and early in the ’80s it was estimated that some 8,000 tigers remained in the wild. So decades of vociferously expressed concern for tigers―not to mention millions of dollars donated by well-meaning individuals―has achieved the demise of perhaps half of the already imperiled population. 

It is thought that tigers occupy roughly 7 percent of their former range.  Between human encroachment, habitat destruction, poverty, and poaching, it’s a wonder there are any left in the wild at all.  Tigers are one of nature’s most magnificent creatures, and it is beyond me how anyone could kill one, especially just for a few “tiger parts”.  Same with sharks and their fins.  Senseless killings.

I posted earlier this year on India’s tiger protection force and I am currently doing some outreach to folks to find out what’s taking place on the ground in India’s tiger territories. I’ll report back what I find.

And recently, I came across a blog post by the International Fund for Animal Welfare that mentioned that the organization has published two Chinese language books for young readers on elephant and tiger conservation.

The tiger story is called Run Tiger Run – The Story of a Tiger.  It is told from the point of view of a young Bengal tiger who shares his story of growing up on the Indian subcontinent and the challenges and adversities he has had to face.

The books, reportedly endorsed by many popular Chinese celebrities, “aim to motivate Chinese readers to reject products using elephant ivory and tiger bone, to have concern for the welfare of wildlife and the desire to protect them in the wild.”

There are just 50 wild tigers in all of China.

In other tiger related news, India’s Economic Times reported that India’s forests are in serious decline, both in numbers and in health.  The paper found that the Forest Survey of India had flawed methodologies and definitions.  “It’s an expansive definition, says Harini Nagendra, a researcher studying how forests in India are changing. Under it, tea and coffee plantations, orchards, parks and timber plantations, among others, qualify as forests.”  Obviously wildlife, especially tigers, need native forests for survival, not urban forests.

And a bit of good news, India’s Green Tribunal suspended environmental approval for the Posco South Korean steel company project in the state of Orissa.  The long-delayed project has faced much opposition from environmentalists and forest peoples. The tribunal ruled that the project had been given approval without fully taking into account it effect on its surroundings.  I honestly don’t know what effect it might have on tigers in Orissa, given that there are only approximately 32 tigers in the state.  But given the impact of extractive industries on communities and the environment, surely it wouldn’t be a good thing for tigers or Orissa.

Celebrating Women’s Knowledge on International Women’s Day

Women, Food Security and Climate Change Training Program (photo: WEA)

The 101st International Women’s Day is March 8th.  Despite often hearing about existing obstacles to women’s well-being, there is much to celebrate this year.

Climate change, of course, is an enormous threat to just about every topic one could name.  In India, though, people are taking a holistic approach to the problem, including tapping into traditional knowledge, especially that of women.

I’ve written before on the work of the Women’s Earth Alliance(WEA) and its initiative to improve livelihoods and food security of small and vulnerable women farmers.  WEA works with a local Indian environmental organization, Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, helping women farmers start or strengthen organic farming practices and diversify their food production.  And just as importantly, they connect women farmers, who share best practices with one another and start campaigns to create change in their communities.

According to WEA, the women they are working with are experiencing much success:

• Soma and Thumpa in West Bengal have guided women farmers to set up 20 nutrition gardens, as well as install improved cooking stoves that reduce carbon emissions;

• Manju Devi in Bihar has continued her training on organic farming practices and is encouraging others to plant multi-purpose indigenous trees. “My goal is to see women stand on their own feet and improve their self-reliance,” says Manju who set up her own organic kitchen garden as a demonstration site;

• Kusum Lata in Uttar Pradesh has worked to ensure that rural women have job cards registered under their names. This enables them to get fair wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act that provides 100 days of employment to rural households willing to do public work-related work, including water conservation and reforestation.

Compare this to a recent report by the development NGO Action Aid and the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, that found that more than 80 percent of smaller farmers – who contribute to half of India’s crop production – will be affected by climate change.  One farmer quoted in the report said that “The pattern of rainfall has changed.  It is so scattered that at times it rains but fields remain dry.”

And just last week Indian researchers reported that India’s monsoonal rains are becoming less frequent and more intense.

I heard similar stories from women farmers with whom I met in India a few years back. All over the world we are seeing how changing precipitation patterns are affecting water and food security.    That’s why it’s more important than ever to empower women.

I also saw this news article by Aditi Kapoor, writing on how “Innovative measures by women farmers across India are helping several poor families adapt better to climate change and keep hunger at bay.”  Kapoor interviewed a woman farmer from Uttar Pradesh, who said “Earlier, we could not produce enough food for a year because our village would get water-logged by the flood waters. Now, using early maturing paddy varieties and organic manure to revive soil fertility, we can at least eat for all 12 months from the same piece of land.”

What is needed in India and around the world, in terms of agriculture, is support for seed and grain banks, ecological farming training, appropriate technology, education, and economic empowerment for Indian women and farmers.  This will enable them to improve their food and economic security, preserve the environment and traditional knowledge, build political will, and better their lives.

It sounds to me like we have lots to celebrate this year!

Desert Empowerment

Rajasthani women (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7155605@N03)

Recently I had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Prakash Tyagi, a medical doctor and director of Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS), a rural empowerment organization based in the state of Rajasthan, India.  Dr. Tyagi was visiting the San Francisco Bay Area, courtesy of the International Development Exchange (IDEX).

The mission of GRAVIS, grounded in Gandhian philosophy, is to promote sustainable rural development via capacity building, community and women’s empowerment, social justice, and protecting the environment.  I am familiar with the work of GRAVIS, having written previously on how the organization empowers rural communities through employing traditional knowledge of taankas, a water storage system.

GRAVIS works in the Thar Desert in western Rajasthan.  It is the world’s most densely populated desert ecosystem, with 23 million people.  Life is tough, with unpredictable rainfall, environmental degradation, climatic extremes, resource scarcity, few health clinics, and oppressive social standards for women.  GRAVIS incorporates a holistic approach, focusing on water security, food security, health, and education, and reaches approximately 1 million people.

Dr. Tyagi talked about how GRAVIS works to overcome the difficulties facing women in the Thar Desert by making them equal partners.  They are guided by the idea of “sitting on one carpet”, meaning equal voice/equal rights for men and women.  Much of this work is done through Self-Help Groups, which aid women in life skills and economic self-reliance.  Projects include support for seed banks, micro-credit lending, and nutrition.

Overall, GRAVIS takes a life-cycle approach to meeting the needs of girls and mothers, and promotes leadership development, health education, maternal health, and girls education. Currently, the organization has set up 90 primary schools to help increase girl enrollment.

We discussed family planning, a sensitive issue in rural areas.  GRAVIS has put much effort toward prevention, capacity building, and the training of village health workers.  I asked Dr. Tyagi about the “mother-in-law” effect, as this particular family member has culturally had much influence on births in India (with a preference for grandsons). Though still an obstacle, Dr. Tyagi said they were slowly changing deep-rooted beliefs, especially by involving men in family planning, and by improving literacy.  GRAVIS states on their website that village health workers, who come from rural areas, have the trust of their respective communities, which enables them to overcome some of the village skepticism regarding modern medicine and health practices.

Another cultural barrier to overcome is that of child marriage, a still-too-common practice in Rajasthan, and one rooted in social poverty. Official government figures show the percentage of girls getting married before the age of eighteen is 68% in Rajasthan.  Dr. Tyagi said that their Self-Help Groups work in villages to change attitudes and beliefs. GRAVIS has been able to reduce rates of child marriage by empowering women, educating girls, and improving economic opportunities.

Lastly, our discussion touched upon overcoming desertification, overgrazing, erosion, and other environmental problems.  GRAVIS works with communities through locally-based organizations to create community forests and pastures.  The forests – called orans – are considered sacred, dedicated to a local god or goddess and protected by ancient laws in each community. According to the social entrepreneurial group Ashoka, the land is sacred because it provides villages with grazing land and pasture for livestock, produce and medicinal plants such as berries, roots and herbs, and also fuel, timber and water.  Traditionally, orans allowed for equal access of all people to resources.  GRAVIS is working with communities to protect more orans in the Thar Desert region.

The short time I spent with Dr. Tyagi gave me hope and inspiration that by taking a holistic, traditional, and empowerment-based approach to the critical issues facing not only Rajasthan, but also much of the world, we can create positive change.

India’s Expanding Middle Class

We hear a lot about consumption in the developed world, and rightly so.  As an American, I know that the majority of my fellow citizens and I consume an unsustainable amount of goods and resources.  This needs to change, as the planet cannot support a growing global population of American-level consumers.

But of course, as developing countries grow, prosper, and move into the middle-class, they want the things that we in the developed world want and have.  Cars, computers, smartphones, televisions, lattes and most everything else under the sun. It is a contentious issue, one that has stymied the global climate talks, amongst other things.  We can only hope that we soon find a path that we can all live with and still be content.

What does the situation in India look like?  People often associate India with poverty and rural villages, but that’s rapidly changing.  It is projected that by 2030, approximately half of India’s households are projected to be in the middle class.  That amounts to close to 600 million people.

India's Growing Middle Class

[Graph:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/world/asia/indias-middle-class-appears-to-shed-political-apathy.html?pagewanted=all]

The outlook for India is that growing urbanization, a young working-age population, and higher income will result in increased spending, resulting in a consumption boom over the next two decades.  No wonder Wal-Mart is banging on India’s doors (it currently operates in India as a joint venture with an Indian conglomerate, but foreign investment rules could be on the verge of change).

I started this blog because I find India fascinating and believe that what takes place in that country not only affects the world but can provide a learning experience for us all.  How can we bring 400 million village people who lack electricity into the 21st century without creating huge amounts of carbon emissions?  Like China, India is heavily reliant on coal but is also moving ahead with renewable energy initiatives.  What happens when more and more Indians move to urban cities?  How will India balance growth, poverty, and the environment?  And what about tigers?

I follow and associate with groups that are doing amazing work in India.  These organizations, many focused on women (Navdanya, WEA, IDEX, GRAVIS), and others (SELCO, Husk Power Systems), give me hope that as Indians make progress they will also find a sustainable path to prosperity.  Technology will play a key role, but so will tapping into historical/ancestral knowledge and traditional best practices.

India has existed for a long time.  I’m willing to bet that there is a lot we can learn from the world’s biggest democracy.  At the very least, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

India’s Tiger Protection Force

photo: hdw-inc.com

India’s first anti-poaching tiger unit is now an official entity. Time will tell if it has any teeth (no pun intended).

This Special Tiger Protection Force has its work cut out for it. Stopping poaching and hunting is not an easy task. Poaching is probably a bigger threat to tigers than even habitat loss.

The BBC reports that “The 54-member force will patrol tiger reserves in national parks straddling the borders of Karnataka, Tamil Nado and Kerala states in the south.”

There are plans for a second tiger force to operate in the state of Orissa, in eastern India. The latest tiger census reports 32 tigers in Orissa, though the government disputes this number.

Officials say the unit will deal with poachers and hunters and that unit members have received training in jungle survival and weapons use, with a special course in combat training.

Overview of India’s Tiger Population:

• India: 1,706 (estimated)
• Karnataka: 300
• Madhya Pradesh: 257
• Uttarakhand: 227
• Maharashtra: 169
• Andra Pradesh: 72
• Tamil Nadu: 163
• Assam: 143
• Kerala: 71
• Rajasthan: 36

There were 100,000 tigers in India at the beginning of the 20th century. Today India has over half the world’s tiger population, found mainly among 102 national parks, 515 wildlife sanctuaries, 44 conservation reserves and 4 community reserves. Protecting and preserving wildlife corridors is also key to saving India’s tigers.

Demand for tiger parts – especially skins and tiger bones used in traditional medicines – comes mainly from China. The Environmental Investigation Agency reported last year that even though Chinese Premier Wen Jiaboao promised that his country would “vigorously combat poaching, trade and smuggling of tiger products”, China appears to have quietly reopened the trade in tiger and leopard skins.

What is needed is an all-out global effort to change consumer preferences and attitudes, promote education and awareness, and enforcement of anti-poaching laws to alter the situation.  Not to mention habitat preservation. The anti-poaching unit seems like a good start.  I wish it all the success in the world.