Tiger Tales - Tracking the big cat across Asia, Edited by Dr. K. Ullas Karanth

TIGER TALES: Tracking the big cat across Asia

EDITED BY DR. ULLAS KARANTH

The book is an anthology, a collection of articles and writings from famous naturalists, conservationists and writers about the trend of the survival of tiger in this human dominated world. The book takes the reader through the various phases of tiger lore starting from the rule of the British in India where tigers and other carnivoures were treated as vermin and deserved extermination to the current conservation efforts to save them.

‘Venomous Snakes and Dangerous Beasts’  a chapter from ‘India’s Wildlife history’ from the famous historian Mahesh Rangarajan, describes about the ruthless slaughtering of wild carnivoures and herbivoures like the Nilghai, wild buffaloes, tigers, leopards, wolves and snakes, by the british, soon after their regime at the Bengal province (Battle of Palashi, 1757). The carnivoures were treated as vermin which killed the herbivoures which were meant for the royal game. The slaughter was similar to the elimination of wolf at the British Isles. People such as Major Tweedie and T.T Cooper give errant suggestions to eliminate the carnivoures which they considered as dangerous beasts and the numerous pests of herbivoures like the wild buffaloes which were plenty in number. Bounties were declared for every kill of lions, tigers, leopards, cheetah and wolves. The conversion of forests into agricultural land cut down the migration routes of larger mammals leading to heavy human animal conflicts. The cheetah was completely eliminated, lions were pushed to the only habitat at central India, wolves became scarce, tigers survived only in deep jungles and leopards due to their adaptive nature survived the slaughter. Official records say that around 80,000 tigers, 150000 leopards, 200000 wolves were killed. Large mammals like elephants though initially killed were later promoted up from the vermin status and were protected as they were required for various purposes.

It also gives an account of the slaughter done by the Indian princes which outnumbered the British officers. People like Sadul Singh (Maharajkumar of Bikaner), Colonel Kesari Singh (Jaipur), Gayatri devi (queen of Jaipur), Ramanuj Saran Singh Deo of Sarguja, The rulers of Udaipur and so on, with nature as a surrogate for the political power they had lost.

‘The Tiger (Felis Felis)’ by C.E.M. Russel, from his ‘Bullet & shot in Indian forest, Plain & Hill’ a British Conservator of forest in the Mysore state (a fire line exists in Nagarahole in his name) writes about various methods used to hunt tigers. He goes about giving advice to hunters on the ways tigers are to be hunted and the precaution to be taken while hunting. A few incidences during his tiger hunting days have also been sited. Shooting tigers on elephants (as in north & eastern India), beating (southern India) and shooting them over kills have been mentioned. He also mentions G.P. Sanderson, author of ‘Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India’

‘Photographing Tigers’, by F.W. Champion, a british officer who can be called as the first one to shoot tigers with a camera, discusses through his books ‘With a camera in tiger land’ & ‘The jungle in sunlight & shadow’, the various ways of photographing wild tigers. Methods such as beating, using elephants, sitting over a tiger kill have been mentioned. The author also is the first person to use self triggered camera traps with flash to capture wild tigers in their natural environment.

‘Tiger: Distribution, Size & Habitat’ by A.A.Dunbar Brander from his book ‘Wild animals in central India’(1923)  gives an insight into the distribution of tigers around the world, the different sizes of tigers recorded over the past century and also deals with the behaviour of tigers under circumstances… their sounds for communication, man eaters, cubs and so on…

The author pays excellent emphasis on documentation rather then story telling.

‘The swami of Valaithothu’ by Kenneth Anderson’s ‘This is the jungle’ (1964) narrates a thrilling tale of a man eater that the author succeeds in killing and of a swami who brings a terror among the innocent villagers by mimicking his transformation into a man eater at will.

‘The Tiger at home’ by ‘William Baze’ from his books, ‘Just elephants’ & ‘Tiger! Tiger!’, gives an account of the life of tiger in the Indo – Chinese region. The tiger migrating along with its prey which switched places with respect to the season of the year clearly illustrates the dependency of the tiger on its prey base. The author also discusses about shooting tiger using baits. (Live and even dead and rotten baits)

The author is a French adventurer and chief elephant catcher and tamer for emperor Bao Dai of Indo china. He killed many tigers in this region during world wars.

‘Diet, Kills & Area Covered’ from Arthur Locke’s ‘Tigers of Terengganu’ (1954) provides an insight into the life of the tigers in the Malayan region. Here the author writes his observations on tiger kills, territories and behaviour. In the end he also gives a very curious note that he has never come across a Malayan tiger getting injured while hunting a Porcupine while its Indian counterpart has been frequently reported to.

From the books ‘The Tiger of Rajasthan’ & ‘One man and thousand tigers’ authored by Kesari Singh comes the chapter ’Lion and Tiger’. Here the hunter comes of the opinion that Tigers being more powerful and cunning than the lions were a main reason for lions lose their ground in India. He gives illustration of an attempt made by the Maharaja of Gwalior to reintroduce lions in Rajasthan in which the tigers were successful in driving away the lions from their home territory. The author also writes about the Tiger hunting sport in which the tigers were beaten to come along a narrow netted corridor which would then be blocked and the tiger subsequently speared and killed. (Kesari Singh used to arrange several such hunts for western tourists and enthusiasts)

‘Forests of the night’, an article from Jack Denton Scott’s ‘Forests of the night’ (1959) is about the experience of Scott during his visit to India for official Shikar. This American syndicated columnist for the New York Times was here on an official invitation from the Indian government to promote western tourists to visit India for hunting safaris.

‘Javan Tiger’, an extract from ‘Udjung Kulon: The land of Javan Rhinoceros’ (1970) gives an account of the tiger in the islands of Java that are now extinct. Working for the Dutch government, the author refers his experiences, encounters with the Javan tigers.

An extract from E.P Gee’s ‘Wildlife of India’ narrates the experiences of the author in the forests of Kanha and Shivpuri. The author also attempts to give a rough estimate of the tiger population in India at that period and the same has been repeated by people in the later stage, without basis.

‘Saving the Tiger’ by Guy Mountford, the founder president of World Wildlife Fund narrates the experience of the author during his attempts to persuade the governments of India (Indira Gandhi), Nepal (King Mahendra) and Bangladesh (Mujibur Rehman) to take up immediate actions to save the perishing tigers, by establishing tiger reserves. The author talks about the actions taken, the problems encountered and the success in that first big attempt made to save the Tiger in the Indian Peninsula.

‘Project Tiger’ by Kailash Sankhala, the first Director of Project tiger writes about the challenges and the events that happened during the launch of ‘Project Tiger’ in India. He talks about how they took the project about, how people doubted the idea of a tiger reserve and how they achieved success in it.

In ‘The way ahead’, Arjan Singh, the hunter turned conservationist talks about the various other possible ways, challenges and the steps to be taken in securing the future of tigers in India.

Valmik Thapar, in ‘A Tiger Kingdom’ writes about his days in Ranthambore national park, the days which saw a secure place for the tigers in Rajasthan.

‘The Year of the Tiger’ by Vladimir Troinin, a Russion based game manager writes about his experiences following the tracks of the Amur tiger in the land of Taiga. He talks about how tiger adapted to the cold weather, living in and around the cities and living on stray dogs, city dumps and domestic foul.   

‘My year with the tiger’ by George Schaller is an excerpt from one of his several contributions which describes his experiences in the Indian jungle, attempting to study them. The author describes his experiences, understanding their behaviour, way of living, social life and hunting methods in this juncture.

‘Problem Tiger in the Sunderbans’ by John Seidensticker, R.K. Lahiri, K. C. Das & Anne Wright is a description of the human – tiger conflicts at the Sunderbans. The auhor describes his experiences during that time where he was called to tranquilise the tigers that came too close to the human establishments and were planned to be relocated.

‘The Tiger Singles scene’ by Mel and Fiona Sunquist gives is an excerpt from their studies at the Royal Chitawan National Park, Nepal, a brief about how tiger establish and lose their home ranges.

‘Understanding Tigers’ by K. Ullas Karanth, accounts his observations and experiences that he recorded during his studies at Nagarahole National Park.

‘Time for tigers’, taken from the field diary of John Goodrich along with Dale Miquelle, Linda Kerley & Evgeny Smirnov, shows how the construction of roads in tiger habitats resulted in the destruction of tigers and their habitat due to accidents and poaching, recorded during their study of Amur tigers in the Russian far east during 1998

Geoffrey Ward, in ‘Making room for wild tigers’ talks about various threats faced by the tiger in its process of conservation. The author talks about his experiences in Ranthambore, Nagarahole, Kaziranga, the increase in poaching, the scientific methods and studies, field observations of Dr. Karanth necessary to effectively know about tigers and conserve them.