Lessons from translocating a tiger for population recovery [Commentary]

The territory of the three-year-old tigress, known as T138, spreads across the grasslands east of the Pandai river in Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR). The area lies along the India-Nepal border and is part of the Chitwan-Parsa-Valmiki transboundary tiger landscape. The tigress stalked spotted deer and wild pigs yet rarely encountered people. Two decades ago, however, the landscape was far from ideal tiger habitat. The road from Manguraha, headquarters of the reserve’s easternmost range, to Gaunaha block headquarters passed through a three-kilometre stretch lined with stone crushers. Tractors carrying boulders extracted from the Pandai riverbed through legal and illegal mining operations filled the air with thick dust and the deafening noise of machinery. Tigers largely remained west of the river. Efforts to curb mining in the landscape formed part of a wider legal battle over forest conservation. A key intervention came through the Supreme Court’s proceedings in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India of 1995, a landmark case on forest conservation. In December 2002, the Court stayed a Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) order restoring two mining leases within Valmiki Wildlife Sanctuary. In February 2005, it accepted recommendations by the Central Empowered Committee to stop mining inside national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and their safety zones. The Valmiki landscape, covered by Saccharum spontaneum grass, which provide good cover for tigers. Image by Samir Kumar Sinha. Following the closure of mining operations, grasslands reclaimed the disturbed riverbed, followed by the return of medium and large herbivores — the prey…This article was originally published on Mongabay