India's central highlands, and northern and eastern terai belt provide the most suitable habitat for the tiger and report the most numbers of them. Threats inevitably follow the numbers. No wonder, therefore, that all recent major seizures of tiger and leopard skins and other items ranging from the seizure in 1993 in Delhi, 1999 in Ghaziabad, Dharchula and Balaghat, 2000 in Khaga and Sunderbans, 2001 in Nagpur and Chandrapur, 2002 in Haridwar, 2003 in Tibet and recently 2005 in Delhi, point to the presence of wildlife smuggling cartels with overseas links operating in north, east, west and central India. Most recently with Sariska and its missing tigers in the limelight, it is evident that a real challenge in wildlife conservation is at hand. Whether a few tigers are finally found or not in Sariska, the situation there is symptomatic of a widespread malaise that has come to grip the forestry and wildlife conservation scene at large. People in the know would vouch that the current state of affairs is the culmination of an administrative drift that started almost two decades ago, compounded by the state’s inability to see the writing on the wall. That today, after more than 30 years of Project Tiger, we still lack a national consensus on tiger numbers and distribution is a sad commentary on the technical competence of our field researchers and managers. Such a situation also leaves enough ground for the prophets of doom to have a field day. It is sad that today one is hard put to find knowledgeable and committed field managers. As a result, the majority who manage our wildlife estates are either inexperienced or unwilling. Officials trained in managing wildlife in the states can be counted on one’s fingers. And in many states they are either not manning the wildlife positions or unable to find a voice within the establishment. The manner in which the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has been allowed to wither away to a mere shadow of its original productive self does not commend even the ministry of environment and forests as the ultimate guardian of the country’s wilderness and biodiversity. The wildlife constituency within civil society has also done little other than cry themselves hoarse over the issue every once in a while. Sadly it is hard to identify organisations or individuals with the notable exception of the Coimbatore-based Zoo Outreach Organisation, and the recently founded Nature Conservation Foundation in Mysore, which have much to show for their labours in recent times. So, given this gloomy scenario, where do we go from here? In the short term, the state can only gird up its loins, find and post the right people at the right places and allow institutions like the WII to regain their vitality. One often hears that in a fast-paced economy like ours, money is no longer a problem, within or outside the state. It is the systemic roadblocks that need to be removed. The recent Forest Development Agency scheme, whereby money from the Centre can directly reach the field, could gainfully be promoted as a model for this purpose. It is claimed that most states have now recovered from the financially debilitating aftermath of the Fifth Pay Commission’s recommendations and that the Central government is now much more inclined to raise the state’s share of the national financial kitty. In short the state’s ability to find developmental funds are improving and yet with the state downsizing itself, imaginative associations with the civil society would need to be developed. In the long term, all the constituents of the state — politicians, the bureaucracy, technocrats and civil society need to get their act together. As a beginning let the incumbent National Forest Commission, come up with an agenda that would ensure that India in 2025 will continue to have its tigers flourishing under conditions which are much more secure than they are today. But the most soul-searching is needed at the forester’s end. The foresters of yore were less in number, less equipped, but technically sound. They loved the outdoors, knew their respective charge like the back of their hands, and were master planners. So when the Indian Forest Service was reincarnated in 1968, many hoped that the forester of the yore would return. Alas! The new breed has by and large turned out to be technically deficient. Some may find comfort in saying that these are but signs of the times. But where does that leave the tiger? The writer was the chief conservator of forests
