ACHANAKMAR DYING
PRODIPTO lAHIRI
Sanctuary Asia, June 2009
FIELD REPORT
Last year, as I drove slowly in broad daylight
on the Achanakmar-Amarkantak highway, I was
glad to find pugmarks of both the leopard and the
tiger. I had traveled to the park along with
P.S Lahiri, well-known photographer and
conservationist, and we had many delightful
wildlife sightings and evidence to support the fact
that Achanakmar (Sanctuary Vol. XXVIII No.)
was doing well.
Earlier this year, on March 15, 2009, I found
myself waiting in the blistering heat, with
enthusiasts from Nature Club Bilaspur, of
which I am a part, ready to conduct an annual
tiger enumeration along with the Forest
Department, but in vain. It was 7 a.m. and
there was not a single beat guard or ranger. In
my view, the lackadaisical attitude of forest
guards is the first alarm bell of a dying park but
I refused to be disheartened. The previous year’s
enumeration had reported 27 tigers and we were
hopeful that this year would be even better.
When my assigned guard arrived I decided to
visit the Bokrakachar beat where last year I had
seen several pugmarks of a large male. This time,
however, even though we retraced our steps many
times, meticulously checked each waterhole and
optimistically listened for alarm calls, we did not see
a single tiger or leopard pugmark. Instead, we found
seven dead babblers lying, unmourned, under an
Arjun tree and as I held one of them in my hand,
two more fell from the branches. I suspected that
the nearby waterhole had been poisoned by
poachers and attempted to take a sample of the
water for testing, but was, amazingly, stopped by
the beat guard who said it was against the rules.
Back at the guesthouse, the news was bleak.
At the Kumbhipani waterhole (Chaparwa range),
a leopard, a hare, a barking deer and countless frogs
and bees were found dead and peacock feathers
lay scattered on the ground.
HEART WRENCHING FIGURES
Our enumeration concluded with a
dismal estimate of seven tiger and 17 leopard
pugmarks (which does not indicate the
number of animals, but rather the number of
pugmarks encountered). The Satapani,
Saraipani, Sambhar Dhasan and Darrapani
beats did not reveal even one pugmark this
year. Only the Lamni range seemed to be
thriving, recording the maximum pugmarks,
a sign of the dedication and commitment of
Range Officer Mr. Sidar.
Achanakmar is another Sariska and Panna
in the making. There too, the Forest
Department was unwilling to accept that their
reserves were the hunting grounds of poachers
and not cats. Evidence of past tiger numbers, as
recorded by our nature club, are quickly
dismissed as are our cries for help.
What is even worse is the reason why
patrolling continues to be weak despite the
confirmation of poachers being active. In the
last few months, the vast bulk of forest officials
were stationed at election polling booths and
had in effect abandoned post. Almost all forest
vehicles were similarly taken by the state election
committee, leaving the park exposed to poachers.
DESTROYING A FOREST
Poachers have even been discovered skinning
dead chital on the Bilaspur-Achanakmar highway.
How much more evidence does the Forest
Department require before it acts? The scattered
carcasses of birds and small reptiles on the banks of
waterholes are considered mere coincidences and
forests officials are unwilling to test the water, citing
frivolous legalities and loophole-ridden rules.
Instead of investigating the death of the
leopard that was found during the enumeration,
the forest department passed it off as an accident,
saying the cat was suffering from a physical ailment
and had slipped off the cliff and died.
There can be no reason to justify a park falling
into ruin. It is a blemish on India when wildlife
laws are not implemented and when a state’s forest
department itself sanctions the passage of trucks
and jeeps through a Protected Area under the
Rozgaar Guarantee Yojna which has approved
repairing roads even in the core area. In the melee
of tractors, trucks, dumpers and hundreds of
workers, identifying poachers is impossible,
further compromising the park’s future.
It has been a year since the park was notified
as a tiger reserve but it is still in the control of the
Bilaspur Forest Division and although the
Achanakmar-Amarkantak highway was
supposed to be shut in 2008, it continues to be
used, threatening the few animals that are still
found here. Not surprisingly, timber mafias and
cattle grazers have the run of the reserve.
Officials showing any promise and
dedication are quickly transferred, thus squashing
any hopes of renewal in Achanakmar. Just last
year, the park superintendent B.P. Singh was
shifted from the park on flimsy grounds ignoring
the fact that he was putting up effective
strategies for the area.
The Supreme Court’s Central Empowered
Committee recommended the relocation of
seven villages and five acres of agricultural land
and a house for each family was found, but
not a single village has yet been shifted. Instead,
the Forest Department has built five tourist
This is possibly the only image of the elusive Western
Tragopan (top left) in the wild. The final notification of
the park, coupled with efforts to involve villagers in
conservation has reduced the villagers' dependency on
park resources and allowed populations of the enigmatic
Western Tragopan, Himalayan Monal and Koklass
Pheasant to recover to some degree. There is greater
awareness among villagers of the conflict between their
traditional, unsustainable livelihoods such as
uncontrolled firewood collection (above), extraction of
medicinal plants and mushrooms,
bungalows, three of these in the heart of the
jungle. Rumour has it that inebriated officials,
politicians and their guests roam freely through
the park, placing themselves and the animals
they are sworn to protect at risk. Senior
naturalists and researchers who object are
harassed and threatened.
Achankmar is dying, but the people
charged with her protection are turning a
blind eye to her peril.
EPILOGUE
As Mansoor Khan the convener
of the Nature Club, Bilaspur, Anurag
Shukla, a senior conservationist, and
I sit near the dead leopard with our
heads down and tears in our eyes,
we cling tenaciously, like the big cat to
its fragile home, to our hope that India
will come together to protect Achanakmar
and her denizens.
ACHANAKMAR DYING
by Pradipto Lahiri
