Successful completion of the Project Hunting the Hunters

A human Resource development
and action programme against poaching of tigers
with assistance to legal and awareness program

A Report of the Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme
Bandhavgarh National Park, M.P. India

The program was initiated to expedite hunting the hunters by working towards conviction of poachers. Tiger Trust was successful in getting the conviction of poachers of world famous "SITA TIGERESS". They were convicted for 3 years with maximum fine of Rs. 25,000 on 30th June 2005. This case was decided in record time of 16 months. In this project tiger trust has got number of convictions in tiger cases in state of M. P.


The Tiger Habitat Conservation Program
It was one of the novel eco-development projects ever attempted in India that called for the cooperation of communities located in the vicinity of a national park.

We at Tiger Trust had to carefully plan out our goals and objectives when embarking on this novel programme. As a result, we conducted a series of visits, meetings and discussions, besides surveying the demography of the community. The discussions involved the villagers, community leaders, lawyers, businessmen, law enforcement agencies, senior government officials and those associated with for eco-development activities.

Our findings showed that our task was not going to be easy. The first and the foremost of our challenges were to build confidence among the local community to overcome their fear that similar projects would take away the rights and land of the people. We instilled confidence among the locals that such project was not meant to cause inconvenience to their livelihood, rather it was to conserve the eco-system, which was their lifeline. The same has helped the Tiger Trust as well as the government agencies in pursuing our mission of nature conservation.

The main activities of the Project are outlined below:

Health

The issue of health was the most practical and immediate concern of the community. Initially we had to instill confidence among the locals to go for the allopathic method and not to be hesitant to reveal their illness, however serious it might be.

However, we persevered to continue our service to the people and we decided to encourage those who had confidence in us to use our facilities. Slowly the community could see that the facilities and treatment the medical clinic provided was helping improve their lives. Skin diseases, liver-related illness, malaria and tuberculosis etc. were being treated successfully. This helped make changes their minds.

Teams of visiting doctors operate the clinic. The clinic is well-equipped enough to be able to conduct preliminary tests and begin treatment without loosing time.

An average of 60-70 patients come to the clinic each day. The medical center is one of the most successful programmes launched by the Tiger Habitat Conservation Project.

Owing to the response from the local communities in regard to health programme, Tiger Trust introduced periodic free Medical and Health Check-up Camps at different villages on rotation basis. Specialist doctors are invited to conduct these camps and medicines are distributed on prescription on the spot. Diagnosis, medicines and all others facilities are made avail of free.

Education

Education is a novel way to make the locals responsible and aware. We started a free educational and tutorial program fro the children of the neighbourhood community. The response has been extremely encouraging with over thirty students getting enrolled in the first programme. The classes are held seven days a week and the students are given light snacks each day.

In addition to a basic curriculum, we used to instill nature conservation and the importance of the national parks in their lives.

We value the relationship we have with the parents of our students and they are deeply appreciative. We plan special evenings for parents so that they also can also be nvolved in the education programme.

Regular interaction with the villagers

Through our work with the children, patients and the craft training programme, we were able to establish regular interaction with the village community and discuss with them the importance of nature conservation and the role they could play in it. We have been holding community meetings twice a month to facilitate better communication with the neighbourhood community.

Villagers Visit the Park

The first visit to Bandhavgarh National Park by the villagers turned out to be the most emotional experience. Most villagers had not been into the park ever since they were translocated into the outer periphery of the park. They realized deeply the co-existence within the eco-system since they were travelling in jeeps that did not disturb the animals.

It was also a very moving experience as some of them expressed emotion passing through abandoned villages and pointing out the trees they had planted and the houses they had built, the trees under which they had played and the well which had been their only source of water.

During the visit we could tell the villagers the importance of the park, the gene pool, the web of life, the biological cycle and the importance of nature conservation in simple ways. They also visited the Interpretation Centre in the middle of Bandhavgarh National Park, which left a lasting impression on them. This park visit was a greater success then we had anticipated. Later, we have involved students, villagers as well as visitors in this programme.

Community and Education Center

The community and education center was established as an interpretation center where we could explain, demonstrate and show our work to the community.

Our interpretation center has an elaborate display of charts, photographs, paintings and list of activities, which the project is conducting with international collaboration. It is also equipped with a video library from which we screen selected videos for the villagers.

We have also established a medicinal plant nursery. This nursery is of great interest to both the local community and the visitors from India and overseas. We wish to communicate a message that all the medicinal plants are from the local forest. It is for this reason that we must save all plants in the forest and not only look at certain plants.

The Bio Gas Plant is another important demonstration unit with which we are able to explain that we can get fuel from alternate sources, such as cow dung. Also one can later use the residue for agriculture. This is intended to help cut down the collection of firewood from the forest and come up with a alternate source of energy.

We have established some 'honeybee' colonies as demonstrations units for villagers to understand the process and possibly use it as an alternate source of income.

Ecotourism

One of the most important aspects of saving national parks is to provide visitors with the right knowledge of the park and to let them have a good learning experience. This goes a long way to build friends of the park all over the world.

Therefore, we conducted Nature Guide training programme for the Guides who were already doing their jobs but have not yet been given training from the perspective of nature tourism. The training programme was a great success. Twenty guides participated in the first programme and learned from a faculty of experts from the local community, as well as officials from Delhi and Bharatpur. We have been requested to repeat the programme.

Survey

From the beginning, we have been aware that it is important to know the profile of the neighbourhood community and their relation as well as dependence on the National Park. We have been conducting surveys in regard to the same. The findings help us devise our strategy to involve them in the efforts of Nature Conservation.