Trapped from all sides by expanding towns, heavy traffic highways and railway tracks, mining and poaching, can the precious little strip of Rajaji National Park save its tigers?
Akash Bisht Chilla/Rishikesh
As the tussle between the Union ministries of environment and surface transport intensifies over environmental clearances for 17 highways across tiger reserves in the country, two choked highways - NH-58 and NH-72 - are piercing through the heart of the ecological hot spot, Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand. It is effectively killing the twin hopes of repopulating tigers in the entire Shivalik Forest Region, while maintaining a healthy core population at the Jim Corbett National Park.
NH-58 connects Haridwar to Delhi, while NH-72 (A) connects Haridwar to Dehradun. Both witness heavy traffic and vehicular movement every day. Increasing tourism and developmental activities in recent years have led to massive increase of vehicles plying on these highways. "They bifurcate the park and obstruct the passage of animals from one forest division to another. This traffic is like a cancer which is spreading and eating into the park's vital organs," says SS Rasaily, Project Director, Rajaji National Park.
In 2007, park authorities conducted a survey to calculate the number of vehicles that pass through the two highways everyday. The results were shocking: 29,000 vehicles ply on these highways on a daily basis and as many as 600 from 1:30am to 2:30am. According to the National Highways Authority of India, these two highways witness a vehicular traffic growth of nearly 7 per cent each year. Rasaily pegs the current numbers at close to 50,000.
This virtual wall of fast moving vehicles deters the animals from passing through their natural habitat or even going to the nearby rivers to quench their thirst. Additionally, 40 trains plying on the same route during early mornings and late evenings - peak time for animals to move around the forests - are inflicting daily and long-term damage on their free movement.
"Human expressions are rude and animals do not understand them. Their natural environment is shrinking by leaps and bounds while traffic and railways play havoc on their well-being in Rajaji. A train engine's sound or a loud horn can be very discomforting for animals,
The park shot to fame after reports confirmed that the park has the capacity to sustain a healthy breeding population of wild tigers and act as a catalyst for ensuring healthy tiger population across north India. A Wildlife Institute of India report, The Status of Tigers, Co-Predators and Prey in India, 2008, declared it as the most promising landscape for long-term tiger conservation that would help in repopulating the forests which were once ruled by this majestic predator. The report reads: "If such small breeding populations in mini core areas are fostered in Rajaji by good management practices and protection, there is a possibility of repopulating the Shivalik Forest Division (UP) by dispersing tigers from Rajaji."
Mindless development activities in and around Rajaji Park is turning into a nightmare for conservationists who dream of turning the landscape into a tiger haven. Says Chandola, "Rajaji is a thin strip of forest that is surrounded by big towns like Haridwar, Rishikesh and Dehradun. These expanding townships are confining the animals to small spaces which can spell doom for all the species, including tigers."
He mentions how villages have turned into towns, towns to cities while forests have only shrunk in recent years. He recalls, "Gone are the days when I would sit in a village courtyard and watch wild animals from close proximity. This 'islandisation' of the park will devastate its pristine ecology."
Also posing a threat to the ecology of Rajaji Park is a toxic foreign weed (lantana). This rapidly growing weed is ruining the habitat, spreading its tentacles through most of the park, eliminating the diversity of species and sub-species of grass, small plants and shrubs. "Due to its toxicity, the weed is usually avoided by the animals. Though it increases the green cover of the forest, it deprives herbivores of their diet of grass and other smaller plants," points GS Rajwar, an environment scientist.
"Lantana is turning Rajaji into an ecological desert. It adapts perfectly to any environment and allows nothing else to survive," informs Rasaily. According to the forest department, 5,000 hectares of land out of the total of 26,000 hectares was cleared of lantana, but to everyone's dismay, the weed had spread further to 36,000 hectares. "Such is the endurance of the weed that even its seeds have a life of 60 years," he says.
Poaching too is a dangerous threat. Though no cases of tiger poaching have been reported from the park, poaching of other animals is a routine. "We are not aware of any tiger poaching in the area, but cases of leopard and deer poaching have been brought to our notice," says Tito Joseph, Programme Manager, Wildlife Protection Society of India. CBI sources confirmed Tito's views. Timber poaching and illegal mining is shrinking crucial habitat too.
However, despite several adversities, the park authorities are hopeful of turning Rajaji Park into a tiger retreat. Chandola is optimistic and claims that the 14 tiger mark could easily reach to 60 if the government shows the will to save the tiger and its habitat in Uttarakhand. Confirming Chandola's view, a forest official in Dehradun points to a study which claims that the park and its adjoining areas have the largest prey base for tigers in the world. "If managed and monitored strictly, we can achieve these numbers as these forests are a haven for the tigers to bloom," says Chandola.
The forest department has initiated several steps for tiger conservation by proposing to build three flyovers - two flyovers on NH-72 and one on NH-58 - to ensure peaceful animal passage. Rasaily has vowed to annihilate any sort of poaching from the forests under his jurisdiction and plans to add huge tracts of grassland for tiger survival. Locally extinct from 29 per cent of the districts of the Shivalik Gangetic flood plains, the great predator could make a grandiose return to these forests only if the breeding populations of tigers thrive inside the Rajaji Park. "If the tiger has to survive in India for generations to come, Rajaji needs fostering and care. Only then will the wild cats flourish in the forests that were their natural home before we forced them out," says Rasaily.
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