The fading pugmarks in tiger land ...by P. Devarajan in THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE.

Pench (Maharashtra) :: , "Where are you going into the jungle/with forests all round/where the kuala (tiger) and bana (sloth bear) abound;/ walk in fear for help is never there." This is a Korku poem told me by Kishor Rithe as we were moving in the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. "Those were the days when even the Korkus were probably afraid to enter the forests. Today, everybody can enter the forests except its first citizens, the birds and animals," Kishor mused as we went up and down the dirt tracks in his Gypsy.

We made three rounds of Pench Madhya Pradesh, where temperatures are slightly lower than in Pench Maharashtra. Yet, the forest snaps in the heat. There is no desire to talk. One only observes and a sip of water every 10 minutes keeps one going. The animals gaze at you and unhurriedly go their way. The dry deciduous forest has teak trees in the nude and look stunted compared to those in the Melghat Tiger Reserve. When the first rains drop, the teak trunks will sprout green buds and one would not be there to see the change.

On the afternoon of the second day at around 3.30 p.m. we saw a pair of jackals some 30 feet away from our Gypsy. Kishor shut down the vehicle to watch the proceedings. The two halted near a water hole and watched us before one of them entered the water hole, had a drink before deciding to have a body soak. The second fellow too had his drink before both together moved past two spotted deer without even bothering to look at them. "They had come only for the water," remarked Kishor. At 4.30 p.m. we spotted a second pair spraying a tree to define their territory with one clawing the tree trunk standing on its hind legs.

A jackal at a water hole in Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh. The jackal (Canis aureus), has a black and off white coat and lives anywhere from a height of 12,000 ft in the Himalayas to hill stations located 4,000-7,000 ft above sea level. S.H. Prater writes: Jackals usually come out at dusk and retire at dawn; but in cool or cloudy weather they may be up and about by day; also on a very hot day jackals often come out in quest of water to drink or lie in. Sometimes they form packs, but usually go about alone, or two or more may hunt together." But what surprised Kishor and Ajay Dhyaneshwar Sakure was the clawing of the tree trunk. In the time we stayed in the area Kishor spotted just one tiger pugmark even as its prey base of sambhar, chital, wild boar and the rest is sizable.

One noticed herds of cheetal and sambhar moving across the forests as most of the water sources have dried up. Two out of about seven hand pumps are in disrepair, most of the eight talavs (ponds) of two to four hectares each have no water and a large number of water holes have dried up. It could be the tigers have relocated themselves near some water holes deep in the forest and one cannot guess at its population density. But an expert like P.M. Lad is not quite sure whether the tiger census reveals anything. There is the suspicion that forest administrations in the national parks are trying to save their pay packets by upping tiger numbers. A note elaborating on the technicalities of pug marking sent by P.M. Lad to P.B. Gangopadhyay, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wild Life, M.P. says: "Most Protected Areas have got GPS maps of all their roads. The pug impression strips should be located on all maps by GPS and the pug impression studied on a daily basis through staff for daily reporting and charting on the map. This will give home ranges of all tigers now definitely identified and a wealth of information. It will also stop criticisms of the kind now coming up with an unassailable reply. There is one danger. The present reported number balloon may get seriously deflated in most Protected Areas, if pugmarks are so finely and unmistakably identified. Can we not face the truth?"

The Pench (M.P.) forest administration seems to be busy putting up cement structures inside the Park with one two- storey cement entity meant for tourists now standing half-empty. Having cynically pushed the fishing problem on Maharashtra, the Pench (M.P.) forest team is keen on helping tourism. At one end of the Park is a huge board proudly claiming Pench (M.P.) is the only tiger reserve in the world providing rafting facilities for tourists. With the Pench river a thin piece of string one wonders whether its waters can sustain rafting inside the Park. At another place one saw six to seven motor boats stacked one on top of the other as there is little water in Pench for boating. There are six elephants to take tourists on a Tiger Show. One saw two elephants wasting time in a forest they are not used to having been brought from Kanha. For the time we were there one did not notice any tourist on an elephant. In the evening they are let loose and bring down the tree cover with ease.

Just outside the Park there are four private resorts with one — Kiplings Court managed by the M.P. Tourism Development Corporation — boasting a bar and a restaurant (Phone nos. 07695 - 232830). Land prices have moved up from Rs 20,000 per acre to Rs 1.16 lakh per acre in the last five years and will only go up as tourist resorts in nearby Kanha move to Pench. One operator told us of tour operators offering discounts to foreign and Indian tourists if they are unable to sight a tiger. Business is aware the Tiger is getting scarce.