Elephants may deal blow to Bihar tiger

Taking a leaf out of Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments' book, the Nitish Kumar regime in Bihar is mulling over a proposal to request the Karnataka government to arrange nine elephants under an animal exchange programme.

Reason: It is rattled over the reports that at least four tigers have been lost to poachers in the Valmikinagar Tiger Reserve (VTR) on Bihar-Nepal border in the last two years. These elephants from Karnataka, if handed over to Bihar, will be eventually deployed in the vast forest area of VTR in the West Champaran district to patrol the tiger reserve and protect the big cats from poachers.

The move comes close on the heels of the Uttarakhand government’s decision to deploy 12 elephants from Karnataka at Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve (near Nainital) for a similar purpose. Under this plan, six elephants were brought from Bannerghatta, four from Dubare and two from Muthodi.

To make pachyderms comfortable, the mahaouts from Karnataka were also sent to Uttarakhand.

Bihar too wants a similar exercise, as it suspects that the poachers from Uttar Pradesh, dealing in tiger skin and organs, which are in high demand in the international market, especially in China, often enter Madanpur through Nepal and kill the dwindling species.

“It is, therefore, necessary that elephants are used in patrolling the tiger reserve area. Often many areas in deep forest cannot be reached by  vehicles. The situation is  worse during rainy season. It is under such circumstances that patrolling by elephants becomes helpful,” field director of VTR  RB Singh told DH. If the proposal fructifies, then some of the elephants, the older ones, could be used for taking the tourists on a jungle safari during tourist season.

Actually, Bihar has its only tiger reserve at Valmikinagar, which is about 380 km  from the state capital. It is not only home to big cats but also to rhinoceros and crocodiles.

According to the census conducted in 2006 (using the camera-trap method), the number of tigers in the Valmikinagar reserve was eight. But as per the 2014 census data, the VTR had 28 big cats. Their numbers, however, dwindled between 2014 and 2016 when five tigers were reportedly lost to poachers. In fact, the first such glaring case was reported in August 2008, when a tiger was killed after it got entangled in a trap laid by poachers in Naurangia village in Madanpur.

It was suspected that poachers from Uttar Pradesh entered Madanpur and killed the big cats.

Valmikinagar is nearly 100 km from Bettiah, the northern most district of Bihar, sharing its border with Nepal. From Bettiah, one has to go to Bagaha and after covering 30 km from Bagaha one can enter the VTR at Rampur. As one crosses the dense jungle area, one can see the steep ravines and knife-edge ridges. The road nearly 30 km runs through the forest leading to Gandak barrage.

The great Gandak and Masan rivers collect all the water from a number of tributaries. The Valmikinagar sanctuary spread over 900 sq km is the 18th tiger reserve in the country. It was ranked fourth when there were only eight tigers. Now with the information that the VTR has 23 tigers,  its ranking would alter in the days to come. 

“Earlier, tigers in the reserve zone were counted on the basis of pugmarks – an old method. But the government has installed cameras to capture their movement and count tigers with more accuracy,” said Bihar’s Forest and Environment Secretary Vivek Kumar Singh, elated over the quantum leap in number of big cats.

The VTR is divided into two forest divisions and eight forest ranges. “Each range needs one elephant while the special tiger protection team deserves to have at least one elephant,” the VTR director said.

“Each tiger needs 40 sqkm to roam around and does not allow other big cats to enter its territory. But since most of the sanctuary borders are heavily populated, it creates great pressure on the big cats in case they move to the periphery,” said another forest official.

The request for elephants has come almost two years after Madhya Pradesh too sought nine elephants from Karnataka for monitoring tigers and patrolling in various tiger reserves. Of the nine pachyderms, some of them were deployed at the Sanjay Gandhi Tiger Reserve in Sidhi, while others were stationed at Bandhavgarh, Satpura and Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Forest department sources here say that getting elephants from Karnataka should not be a problem as the southern state is estimated to have more than 7,000 elephants and  of late, animal-human conflict has increased.

“Due to increase in such conflicts, some organisations have demanded suitable action. Under such situations, it will be better if the services of excess elephants are used in other states,” said the forest official. Right now only nine pachyderms were required to patrol in the VTR, he added.