Table Of ContentC H A P T E R
Fifty Years in the Tiger World:
An Introduction
Peter Jackson
Chairman Emeritus, Cat Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, IUCN
o u T l I n E
The Plight of the Tiger 3 Bone, Skin, Tooth,
and Claw 0
Scientists Move in 5
The End of Complacency 0
Attacks by Tigers on Humans 6
CITES
Freelancing 8
Chairman of the Cat Specialist Group 9 Counting Tigers
A Time of Complacency 9 The Tiger’s Future 3
The First Tigers of the World Meeting 9 References 4
Mount Everest landed me in the Tiger World. It all began on 1 April 1953, when I was the
correspondent in Pakistan for Reuters news agency. I received a cable from London: ‘You
assigned cover British Everest Expedition.’ I knew that British mountaineers were planning
another attempt to climb the world’s highest mountain in Nepal, following failures in the
1920s and 30s; my assignment came as a surprise.
I flew to Delhi to meet Adrienne Farrell, Reuters correspondent in India and Nepal,
who helped me prepare my expedition. She had suggested that Reuters send a reporter to
Everest, and she even contemplated making the 170 mile trek herself; since she was small
she thought she could be carried in a basket in traditional Nepali style on the back of a por-
ter. In the event, Reuters decided to send the nearest man, and that was me.
Tigers of the World, Second Edition © 22001009 Elsevier Inc.
1. FIFTY YEARs In THE TIgER WoRld: An InTRoduCTIon
I set off from Kathmandu with 10 porters carrying my makeshift load, including a sleep-
ing bag made of chicken feathers, rice, sugar, and tinned food. A chest of silver coins (the
hill people did not accept paper money) and a large portable radio needed a porter each.
I trekked to the foot of the Everest icefall at 5,500 meters (18,000 feet), visited the expedi-
tion base camp, and then settled at the Thyangboche monastery below the massif. When
the climbers descended after their success, I was the lone reporter present. I got the first
interviews with Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the successful summit pair, and pho-
tographed them against the backdrop of Everest.a
Everest not only led to a scoop. The color and variety of the birds and the beauty of the
mountains opened my eyes for the first time to the magnificence of nature; and then some-
thing else.
Back in Delhi, Adrienne and I were completing the Everest accounts when I suddenly
proposed to her. She says she was so surprised that she didn’t have the wit to accept. It was
five months later, when she was on leave in Yorkshire, that I successfully renewed my pro-
posal by cable from Karachi. We were married in England and Reuters posted us together to
Delhi.
It was 1954 and now I was in the Tiger World. one can hardly live in India without being
aware of the exuberance of wildlife. Blackbuck were still browsing in the countryside near
Delhi. Leopards roamed the nearby ruins of Tughlakabad. Tigers were still being hunted less
than 50 miles from the capital.
Tigers were notoriously secretive, and were only likely to be seen when attracted
by buffalo baits. Adrienne and I drove through tiger forests without seeing the great cat.
Sometimes we found pugmarks on top of our tire tracks. Eventually it was only on a bait in
the Sariska reserve that we saw our first tiger.
only 3 years earlier, Adrienne had been invited to a tiger shoot by the Maharajah of
Bundi in Rajasthan, and a photo (Fig. 1.1) shows her looking sadly at the magnificent dead
animal.
I became a keen birder and bird photographer in my spare time, and was encouraged by
Dr Sálim Ali, India’s leading ornithologist, who had become a friend.
We went with Sálim to the Bharatpur bird reserve, near Agra, where trees were weighed
down with storks, spoonbills, egrets, and cormorants. It was there that I later met George
Schaller, taking time off from his pioneer study of tiger ecology in Kanha National Park in
central India.
My interest in wildlife grew stronger, and when the International union for the
conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IucN) held its General Assembly in Delhi
in 1969, I met the heads of IucN and World Wildlife Fund and offered my journalistic
abilities for wildlife conservation. The following year I left Reuters to become Director of
Information for WWF International, working closely with IucN, both based in Morges,
Switzerland.
aEditors’ note: For his journalistic efforts, Peter Jackson has been honored by Reuters, which today operates the world’s
largest international news and television agency, as one of the company’s eight ‘Famous Reuters People’ along with the
likes of Ian Fleming of James Bond fame and novelist Frederick Forsyth. For more see www.thebaron.info/ (click on
Archives/Everest conquered). All of us contributing to this book certainly recognize that Peter is also one of the world’s
‘Famous Tiger People.’
INTRoDucTIoN
3
THE PlIgHT oF THE TIgER
FIGURE . Adrienne Farrell (on left) views a tiger killed in a shoot in Bundi, Rajasthan. The Maharaja of Bundi,
in dark clothes, stands with the successful guest on his left. (Reproduced with permission from Reuters Limited.)
THE PlIGHT oF THE TIGER
The IucN General Assembly was dominated by the decline of India’s tigers. Hunting in
India was legal, and international trophy hunters were joining Indians in taking their toll.
In 1970, Parliament was told that 480 tigers had been shot in the previous 4 years. Between
1965 and 1969 a total of 698 tanned and dressed tiger and leopard skins, and 18,179 kg of non-
dressed skins, had been exported, mainly to the uSA and Europe (a Press Trust of India, New
Delhi, report dated 26 February 1970). Given an average skin weight of 5 kg, the non-dressed
skins alone could have accounted for the death of 3,635 tigers and leopards (Fig. 1.2).
A British tea planter, E.P. Gee, a respected naturalist, had speculated that there might
have been 40,000 tigers in the Indian subcontinent at the turn of the century, and that there
were only about 4,000 in 1964 [1]. Now, at the General Assembly, Kailash Sankhala, a Forest
officer, estimated that by 1969 there remained only 2,500 [2].
The General Assembly called for a world-wide moratorium on tiger hunting. Tigers in
other countries were already on the list of endangered tiger subspecies, and now the Bengal
tiger Panthera t. tigris was added to the Red Data Book [3].
Despite opposition from Indian tiger hunters and shikar (hunting) companies, and some
State Governments, a 5-year moratorium on tiger hunting was imposed throughout India in
1971, and later made permanent.
IucN declared that ‘to maintain a genetic pool of sufficient variety in a population of
animals like the tiger, it is essential that a contiguous population totaling at least 300 head
exists. All known tiger populations in India are of a much smaller number than this, and the
areas separating these small remaining populations are of such a nature as to be absolutely
INTRoDucTIoN
4
1. FIFTY YEARs In THE TIgER WoRld: An InTRoduCTIon
Amateur hunters are massacring Indian wild life
By ADRIENNE FARRELL
AMATEUR hunters, prowling the countryside by night with high-velocity rifles, are massacring India’s wild life.
Herds of deer and nilgai (bluebull) which used to roam freely through the jungles and fields of northern India, unharmed
by the villagers, are being liquidated by poachers from the towns who hunt them down in the headlights of cars and jeeps.
Many of these hunters take no note of close seasons, nor of the sex or size of the beasts they kill, but slaughter indiscrimi-
nately for “sport” or for food. Even the villager, with an ancient muzzle-loader now joins in the hunt.
As the deer vanish, so the bigger game, tigers and panthers robbed of their natural food, begin to raid villages, killing
cattle. Some of them become man-eaters, so that expeditions have to be organised to hunt them down.
TAKE ACTION
The problem of India’s vanishing wild life is worrying naturalists there and governments in several of the states have
already taken action to try to protect wild animals.
Some are already extinct. The last report of a wild cheetah in India was several years ago, though in Mogul times they
used frequently to be caught and used as “hunting leopards” to catch game.
Lions, the symbol of India, now survive only in the Gir forest of Saurashtra, where they are carefully protected. They are
the last lions in Asia. A census of them taken last year by counting pug marks on a single day, showed that there are only 250
left.
The Rhinoceros, once on its way to extinction, has been protected for the past 40 years by law. There are still about 300
great one-horned rhinos living in the game sanctuaries of northern Assam and Bengal, and a few more in Nepal.
NUMEROUS
Elephants in India are still numerous, despite the shrinking of forest areas. Large numbers of them still inhabit the jungles
of Assam or Travancore Cochin, and the Terai jungle area bordering on Nepal. They are also protected in game sanctuaries.
But some of the other famous Indian animals are fast vanishing; the musk deer killed for its scent, the wild buffalo, the
bison, and the wild ass, which now survives only in the desolate Rann of Cutch, on the north-west coast of India.
Some of the famous birds, too are disappearing. The great Indian bustard is now becoming rare. The pink-headed duck,
once common in north-eastern India, has not been seen for several years past anywhere in the country.
Tigers in some states of central India are on the increase. Maharajahs who used to organise big shooting parties can no
longer afford the cost of large-scale shikar, and tigers and panthers have begun to multiply. But organised shooting parties for
tourists, often arranged by members of the princely families now in search of jobs, are beginning to take the place of the old
big game hunts of Indian princes or British officials.
In other parts of India, however, tigers are declining in numbers and it is likely that, unless preserved in sanctuaries, they
would die out completely in another 25 years.
To preserve the fauna of the country, the Indian government has set up a Wild Life Board which will study the problems
of conserving each species and draw up strict regulations against illicit shooting.
SANCTUARIES
Several states have declared large tracts of land as sanctuaries, where no animal or bird life can be taken. Most famous of
these is the game sanctuary round the Periyar Lake in Travancore Cochin. A 300-square-mile area of land round the lake has
been turned into a vast natural zoo. Visitors coasting the lake shores by boat can get within a few yards of elephants, bison,
deer and panther as they come down to the water to drink.
Another vast sanctuary has been made in the wild jungles of Northern Assam.
The only kind of Indian wild life which seems to be permanently on the increase, and for which few have a good word to
say, is the monkey. Villagers regard them as sacred and will not allow them to be shot, despite their depredations on the
country’s food supplies, which cost India every year thousands of tons of grain. (R.)
THE EGYPTIAN GAZETTE, MONDAY, SEPT. 21 1953
FIGURE . A Government report published by the Press Trust of India in 1970. (Reproduced with permission
from Reuters Limited.)
prohibitive to regular genetic exchange between them. Hence the estimated number of two
to four thousand tigers still existing in all of India is misleading, since no single population
is large enough to maintain a healthy stock’ [4]. Now, almost 40 years later, that statement
remains valid.
INTRoDucTIoN
sCIEnTIsTs movE In 5
Kailash Sankhala was commissioned to carry out an all-India census in 1971. His estimate
was 1,827 tigers, with a caution that there were weaknesses in the census.
In 1972, WWF launched an appeal, called ‘operation Tiger’, for one million dollars to
support tiger conservation projects. Within the first 3 years it raised uS$1,800,000, of which
uS$1,000,000 provided equipment and training for India.
Guy Mountfort, the WWF International Trustee who had proposed operation Tiger, flew
to India to discuss conservation measures with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She needed
no persuasion and India’s Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973 in corbett Tiger
Reserve in the Himalayan foothills. Many tigers were in other protected areas and forests,
and as time went on they became tiger reserves under Project Tiger, totaling 37 by 2009.
In Nepal, Prince Gyanendra took responsibility for tiger conservation. Bangladesh’s
President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, put the tiger on Bangladesh banknotes, but other
action was difficult while his country was busy organizing itself after breaking away from
Pakistan.
As I was the only person in WWF and IucN who had seen tigers in the wild, and was a
friend of Kailash Sankhala and other Indian tiger specialists, I volunteered to manage project
funding. I visited India and Nepal to arrange for the provision of essential equipment: jeeps,
motor cycles, speedboats (for river areas), wireless systems, binoculars and night viewers,
even two camels, with saddles, for the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve.
SCIENTISTS MovE IN
The plight of the tiger, publicized by the IucN Delhi assembly, alerted scientists.
Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington Dc, launched a study
of the ecology and behavior of the tiger in Nepal’s chitwan National Park, where John
Seidensticker, Mel Sunquist, and David Smith were to make their names in a long-term
study. For the first time, tigers were radio-collared to track their movements, and reveal
their behavior and ecology.
Maurice Hornocker, then Director of Hornocker Wildlife Research Institute, and the uSSR
Academy of Science, set up a Russo-American scientific study of the ecology of the Amur
tiger in the Russian Far East in 1990. It proved crucial to the campaign for saving the Amur
tiger after the Soviet union collapsed and widespread poaching occurred.
Hornocker’s Institute later merged with the Wildlife conservation Society (WcS), which
has a dozen tiger projects in china, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Thailand.
Indian scientist ullas Karanth is especially notable for his leading role in the develop-
ment of photo-trap methodology to measure tiger density and provide realistic estimates of
the number of tigers in selected areas. The ability to identify individual tigers by their stripe
patterns is a crucial part of the system. It has also been applied to jaguars whose spot pat-
terns can identify them.
Big business moved in with the establishment of Save The Tiger Fund (STF) in 1995, finan-
cially backed by ExxonMobil, and managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to
support conservation projects throughout tiger range. Grants to over 300 projects in 13 tiger
range countries and international projects totaled uS$15.7 million by mid-2007 [5].
INTRoDucTIoN
6
1. FIFTY YEARs In THE TIgER WoRld: An InTRoduCTIon
Europe has contributed 1,627,368 dollars for projects through 21st century Tiger, a part-
nership of the Zoological Society of London and uK-based Global Tiger Patrol.
Genetics opened the way to better understanding of species. For a century and a half
subspecies had been identified by their physical appearance and measurements, but now
fast developing genetics made it possible to examine the evolution of species and provide a
scientific basis for classification.
Since Linnaeus named Panthera tigris in 1758, about 20 tigers had been described as sub-
species, but, in 1930, the British taxonomist R.I. Pocock reduced the number to eight [6].
Four are still used—Bengal tiger P.t. tigris, Sumatran tiger sumatrae, Javan sondaica and Bali
balica (the last two extinct), to which the Amur tiger altaica, Indo-chinese corbetti, Malayan
jacksoni and South china tiger amoyensis have been added [7]. However, in 1986, Stephen
o’Brien, head of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity in Frederick, Virginia, and colleagues
found minimal genetic differences between P.t. tigris, altaica and sumatrae, which suggested
that tigers should not be divided into subspecies [8].
In 1998, Joel cracraft and team from the American Museum of Natural History, applying
the Phylogenetic Species concept, which does not recognize subspecies, classified all main-
land tigers as a single species, Panthera tigris, and declared the Sumatran tiger a separate
species, Panthera sumatrae [9].
The following year, another study at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, led by
Joelle Wentzel, concentrated on five tiger ‘subspecies’—P.t. tigris, corbetti, sumatrae, altaica
and amoysensis—and found ‘a minimum of molecular genetic support for classifying
subspecies’ [10].
But in 2004 yet another study at the laboratory, led by Shu-Jin Luo, identified six living
tiger subspecies, including the five previously recognized, plus a newly identified sub-
species, the Malayan tiger [11]. It was named P.t. jacksoni in recognition of my conservation
work. I said later that I felt that it should have had a regional name P.t. malayensis.
understanding tiger genetics is very important, but in field conservation the aim has to
be to save all wild tigers, regardless of specific species.
ATTACkS By TIGERS oN HUMANS
In 1978, I visited Nepal to obtain information for an article in the Smithsonian magazine.
I met David Smith of the university of Minnesota and accompanied him when he sedated a
tigress and fitted a radio-collar on her in chitwan National Park. As she appeared, her small
cubs ran under the tree in which I was standing. The tigress was recognized as ‘chuchchi,’
so named in Nepali for her long toes. My account became the cover story of the Smithsonian
magazine [12], with a wrap-around cover photo of a resting tiger I had taken in Kanha Tiger
Reserve (Fig. 1.3). In the years to come chuchchi contributed much to the understanding
of tiger behavior. until killed by a young male when 16 years old, she had born 16 cubs, of
which eight survived to disperse.
By chance I dropped into Nepal the following year to find out how chuchchi and her
cubs were doing. It turned out that one of those cubs, now sub-adult, having set off to estab-
lish himself, had been seriously injured by an adult male. This led him to return home where
INTRoDucTIoN
ATTACks bY TIgERs on HumAns
FIGURE .3 Peter Jackson with the tranquilized tigress chuchchi in Nepal’s Royal chitwan National Park.
he fed on village cattle, easy prey. I was with Dave Smith when a villager came to report
that a tiger had just killed their schoolteacher. It was obviously chuchchi’s son, now radio-
collared and named Tiger 119. We found the teacher surrounded by mourners. Tiger 119 had
met him by chance; each was surprised. Tiger 119 leapt on him and bit his skull, then ran
away. He had not attacked anyone before, although his inability to hunt normal prey could
have led to him becoming a man-eater later on. Next day he was captured and spent the rest
of his life in Kathmandu zoo [13].
Another death from a tiger attack occurred in India’s corbett Tiger Reserve that was also
the result of surprise contact. A British tour leader was taking a group of birders along a
dry river bed when he dashed into the bushes to identify an owl. His screams were heard.
When guards on elephants retrieved the body the tiger had disappeared. Nearby sounds
suggested that the killer might have been a tigress with small cubs and she was given the
benefit of the doubt. A year later, a local male killed a man, and it is thought that this tiger
was the one that killed the tour leader. He was captured and sent to a zoo.
In Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park I found that a tiger had grabbed and dragged away
a young girl when she crawled under her stilt-supported house to recover a pencil. The tiger
ran away when people rushed out on hearing the girl’s cries. She died.
That night two guards moved into the house and stood by an open window. In the early
hours, the tiger appeared from under the house. It reared up and killed one guard with a
blow to the head. The following night the tiger appeared again, and was shot dead. I exam-
ined a mount of the tiger and found it in poor shape, with broken canine teeth and a mangy
skin; it was in no condition to kill its usual prey. It had not killed a human before, and could
have mistaken the girl for an animal when she was crawling under the house. But, like Tiger
119, it too could have become a man-eater.
INTRoDucTIoN
8
1. FIFTY YEARs In THE TIgER WoRld: An InTRoduCTIon
on the other hand, tigers in the Sundarbans mangrove delta have centuries-old records made it possible for me to meet senior officials and scientists and discuss wildlife conser-
of killing fishermen, wood-cutters, and honey collectors. While I was there a tiger killed a vation. We saw several subspecies of tigers in zoos in Beijing, Shanghai, chongqing, and
fisherman, and I was able to follow its tracks. The source of the Sundarbans tigers’ aggres- Guangzhou.
sive nature is still unknown, but the mental effect of having to drink saline water has been
suggested, and even lack of large prey, which no longer exist there.
CHAIRMAN oF THE CAT SPECIAlIST GRoUP
FREElANCING
I regularly visited the IucN Species Survival commission office and talked about my
tiger experiences. one day, in 1983, I was surprised to be asked to become chairman of the
In 1979, I decided to become a freelance writer and photographer on wildlife and I left
IucN cat Specialist Group. I said that I was not a scientist, but, in view of my 18 years in
WWF. Adrienne took on my job as editor of the WWF Annual Report.
India, where I became interested in the tiger, followed by 9 years in WWF, dealing with tiger
My final three months luckily included the first International Tiger Symposium, held in
projects, it was felt that I could manage the group.
Delhi, and I attended as a WWF’s representative. The Symposium brought together interna-
My first step was to get about 30 international cat specialists to a workshop, held in
tional tiger specialists, among them, for the first time, two chinese biologists. They told us
Kanha Tiger Reserve in central India. Hemendra Panwar, Field Director of the reserve, built
that only about 150 Amur tigers were left in china. In the adjoining Soviet Far East a popu-
a bamboo hall—ideal for the hot weather—where we discussed the little known status of
lation estimated at fewer than 50 in the 1940s was now recovering and had risen to over 100.
cats and how to conserve them. It was specially enjoyable when we went out on elephants
There were still thousands of South china tigers. Today they appear to be absent in the wild,
to see tigers and other wildlife.
the only survivors being about 70 captive bred animals.
The proceedings, ‘The Plight of the cats,’ are available on the cat Specialist Group dig-
Project Tiger leaders were proud at that time of the increase in India’s tiger population,
ital library www.catsglibrary.org [14]. It was the first step towards the publication in 1996 of
claimed to have risen from 1,827 in 1973 to 3,015 in 1979. But specialists doubted that there could
Wild Cats: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan [15]. A summary served to launch Cat
have been such a large increase. Later census estimates were also considered to be exaggerated.
News as the group’s newsletter.
After the symposium I headed for Nepal and chitwan to spend some time with Dave
Smith. From the air he picked up the signals of 11 of his 19 radio-collared tigers, and we
spotted one with cubs. our pilot swooped down and circled low, and I struggled to aim A TIME oF CoMPlACENCy
my camera each time we passed the tiger (the cubs had hidden). I took chance shots. one
caught the tiger just at the edge and may have been the first aerial photo of a tiger.
The 1970s and 80s were great decades for India’s Project Tiger, seen as one of the
In the Bardia National Park, to the west of chitwan, the Director said that they didn’t
world’s major conservation programs. census estimates rose. There was a worldwide air of
often see tigers. Five minutes later, a tiger walked on to the track about 100 meters ahead of
complacency about the tiger in India, although little news came from other tiger countries,
our jeep. We drew closer and stopped. The tiger lay down by the side of the road and looked
except Nepal, where a successful conservation program had been established.
towards us. I slipped out of the jeep and walked slowly forward—but not too far for a quick
Valmik Thapar, a young man who had dedicated his life to the tiger, became a power-
return—and took photos from behind a tree.
ful figure. Field observation by Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore, Field Director of the
The tiger got up, scent marked, and walked down the road towards me. At about 20
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, revealed the fascinating family life and behavior of the tiger,
meters it paused, looked at me and then moved into the bushes where I thought it lay, fac-
which had till then been considered as a dangerous, man-eating beast. under Fateh Singh’s
ing me. I slipped back to the jeep and found it standing just behind, looking at us. It walked
control, Ranthambhore became famous when the secretive tigers ceased to fear humans and
slowly away and we followed until it turned again into the bushes and disappeared.
became visible by day in the early 1980s. People came from all over the world to see the
In Kanha, in central India, one of India’s finest wildlife reserves, I met several of India’s
great cats. Tigers also became visible in Bandhavgarh, corbett, and Kanha reserves. In most
top tiger specialists. While out on elephants we encountered tigers and viewed large herds
other Indian reserves you have to be lucky to see one, especially so in other range countries.
of spotted axis deer. one day we found that a buffalo bait had been killed by a tigress with
well grown cubs. The kill was attracting crows and vultures. A large cub resting in the grass
reacted furiously when he saw the vultures. He charged the seething mass of hungry birds
THE FIRST TIGERS oF THE WoRld MEETING
and brought one down with a great swipe with a paw. As it crawled away he got another,
this time leaping on it. As he lay on the carcass, tail twitching, the crippled vulture painfully
struggled away, doomed. In 1986 Ron Tilson and ulysses Seal held a symposium called ‘Tigers of the World’ in
In September 1979, Adrienne and I set off on a 6-week Grand Tour of china. our eldest Minneapolis that drew international tiger experts together. It led to the publication of the
daughter, Paddy, was teaching translation at Beijing Normal university. Her fluent chinese first edition of Tigers of the World: The Biology, Biopolitics, Management and Conservation of an
INTRoDucTIoN
THE FIRsT TIgERs oF THE WoRld mEETIng 9
made it possible for me to meet senior officials and scientists and discuss wildlife conser-
vation. We saw several subspecies of tigers in zoos in Beijing, Shanghai, chongqing, and
Guangzhou.
CHAIRMAN oF THE CAT SPECIAlIST GRoUP
I regularly visited the IucN Species Survival commission office and talked about my
tiger experiences. one day, in 1983, I was surprised to be asked to become chairman of the
IucN cat Specialist Group. I said that I was not a scientist, but, in view of my 18 years in
India, where I became interested in the tiger, followed by 9 years in WWF, dealing with tiger
projects, it was felt that I could manage the group.
My first step was to get about 30 international cat specialists to a workshop, held in
Kanha Tiger Reserve in central India. Hemendra Panwar, Field Director of the reserve, built
a bamboo hall—ideal for the hot weather—where we discussed the little known status of
cats and how to conserve them. It was specially enjoyable when we went out on elephants
to see tigers and other wildlife.
The proceedings, ‘The Plight of the cats,’ are available on the cat Specialist Group dig-
ital library www.catsglibrary.org [14]. It was the first step towards the publication in 1996 of
Wild Cats: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan [15]. A summary served to launch Cat
News as the group’s newsletter.
A TIME oF CoMPlACENCy
The 1970s and 80s were great decades for India’s Project Tiger, seen as one of the
world’s major conservation programs. census estimates rose. There was a worldwide air of
complacency about the tiger in India, although little news came from other tiger countries,
except Nepal, where a successful conservation program had been established.
Valmik Thapar, a young man who had dedicated his life to the tiger, became a power-
ful figure. Field observation by Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore, Field Director of the
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, revealed the fascinating family life and behavior of the tiger,
which had till then been considered as a dangerous, man-eating beast. under Fateh Singh’s
control, Ranthambhore became famous when the secretive tigers ceased to fear humans and
became visible by day in the early 1980s. People came from all over the world to see the
great cats. Tigers also became visible in Bandhavgarh, corbett, and Kanha reserves. In most
other Indian reserves you have to be lucky to see one, especially so in other range countries.
THE FIRST TIGERS oF THE WoRld MEETING
In 1986 Ron Tilson and ulysses Seal held a symposium called ‘Tigers of the World’ in
Minneapolis that drew international tiger experts together. It led to the publication of the
first edition of Tigers of the World: The Biology, Biopolitics, Management and Conservation of an
INTRoDucTIoN
0
1. FIFTY YEARs In THE TIgER WoRld: An InTRoduCTIon
Endangered Species [16] covering every aspect of the tiger, from the extinction of the Bali and
Javan tigers to current status, behavior, reproduction, management, genetics, captive-breeding,
veterinary matters, etc., and a draft of a Global Tiger conservation Plan.
BoNE, SkIN, TooTH, ANd ClAW
In the late 1980s, tiger skins were being found in India with the bones missing. Suspicion
arose that china was involved, where tiger bones were used to treat rheumatism and
arthritis.
central china, home of the tiger P.t. amoyensis, had become an agricultural area in the
1950s after the long civil war had ended, and tigers were not welcome. communist ruler
Mao Tse-tung declared South china tigers as pests, and ordered them to be killed. over
3,000 tiger skins were handed in by hunters [17], leading to a collapse of amoyensis in the fol-
lowing decades. It appeared likely that china had run out of those bones, and needed a sup-
ply for medicines, and India’s nearby large tiger population became the target.
Poaching of tigers in Nepal and northern India and seizure of sacks of bones, obviously
en-route to china, were increasingly reported. Half of the tigers in the western sector of
Nepal’s chitwan National Park vanished over a few months.
china had started a tiger breeding farm at Hengdaohezi in the north-eastern province of
Heilongjang in 1986, to supply bones. The government prepared a proposal to permit inter-
national trade in tiger parts to be authorized at the cITES conference of the Parties in 1992.
In fact, chinese packets of medicines said to contain tiger bone were already available in
many parts of the world—I got one in Delhi. Faced with overwhelming opposition, the pro-
posal was withdrawn, and the following year china banned its domestic trade. However,
when I visited Hengdaohezi, I was shown large containers that I was told contained tiger
bones.
Not only china was involved. TRAFFIc, a WWF/IucN organization that monitors wild-
life trade, reported that South Korea imported 1,700 kg of tiger bones between 1985 and
1990. Judy Mills, TRAFFIc’s East Asian representative, found legal trade records in South
Korea showing that nearly half of the imported tiger bones had come from Indonesia, home
of the Sumatran tiger. Twelve years earlier, TRAFFIc had drawn attention to a magazine
article about a brewery in Taiwan importing 2,000 kg of bones (roughly equal to about 160
tigers) every year to produce 100,000 bottles of Tiger Bone Wine. In Hanoi, Dave Smith and I
found 30 tiger canine teeth, as well as claws, on sale as lucky charms.
THE ENd oF CoMPlACENCy
In the early 1990s, census takers in Ranthambhore found only 15 tigers, compared with
over 40 reported the previous year. A tribal hunter was arrested and confessed that he had
poached eight tigers in a few months. Some accomplices said they had poached about 20
during the previous two years. Such tribal people, traditional hunters, serve illegal wildlife
traders in many reserves.
INTRoDucTIoN
