With the passing of Vallu, Ranthambhore has lost one of it strongest voice. Today as we gather to celebrate his life I would like to share a few words on how I look at their life together. I had a ring side seat.
Dad gave Vallu a purpose in life at a time when he was trying to find one and Vallu gave Dad a voice for the Tiger. To me it resembles a Tango that danced them through lifeтАЩs ups and downs on a roller coaster ride unlike any.
What a ride they had together?
What they had in Ranthambhore cannot be had even if you were a billionaire today. How they complimented each other in making Ranthambhore what it is today?
It is a partnership no other park had, has or will have again. Together they painstakingly crafted Ranthambhore into what it has become today. The reason such a partnership may never happen again is not that it canтАЩt happen again but those engaged in Tiger conservation are territorial just like the Tiger.
There is so much competition to be called the Tigerman that such a partnership is the rarest of the rare.
Dad and Vallu had their own competition, but they always managed to find a way around it. Ranthambhore owes a huge debt to them because it would not be what it is if they had not walked this ground together.
50 years is no small length of time.
In this territorial quest they had another amazing quality in that they would find a way to reach out and bring people together even if they didnтАЩt agree and rarely did anyone refuse. ThatтАЩs a vacuum that will be hard to fill if not impossible.
Vallu was not a people person and like Dad he believed the park has a boundary and that needs to be inviolate and what happens to the people outside is another matter. For them, the Tiger came first. Although Dad was a lot more empathetic because he saw the heart wrenching moments when he relocated 16 villages out in 1976 and his early years were spent to secure the park boundary from villagers who lived outside at all costs. This was also the time when Vallu came for the first time to Ranthambhore in 1976 so he saw the flag end of that process.
This bullish protection of the Park saw increasing conflict between the park authorities and the people eventually culminating in 1981 with a brutal attack on Dad by illegal graziers near Lakrda. This one incident ushered in the first thoughts that the park cannot be saved without the people who live around it. I believe this is most likely the time when they started to have conversations about what to do and maybe set up an NGO. In 1987 the Ranthambhore Foundation was set up with the help of some of DadтАЩs dearest friends and ardent Ranthambore fans. Vallu took the initiative with Avninder Singh, Mala, Tejbir, Bharat, John Singh to name a few and set up the Foundation. Then there were those that were not part of the Foundation like Peter Lawton who raised the first major tranche of funds.
They were all people with passion and great connections and were able to raise substantial amount of funds to help the people centric projects.I became the first Field Director and later a member of the board.
It would take forever to even begin to explain the profound impact these first steps of community conservation had over the years. The next 5 decades will see the establishment of a few more NGO encouraged by Vallu and Dad with the Foundation being a sort of umbrella. A state of the art hospital was built and it continues to offer affordable health care, a CBSE school that continues to offer scholarships to children living in the immediate vicinity of the park many of whom are now Doctors and Engineers including girls. A non formal environment education that has partnered with local schools and brought environment awareness to hundreds of thousands of children. Breed improvement programs and dairy development projects have helped improve milk yields dramatically with a couple of private dairy operatives collecting milk a change from a time when even the government run RCDF would not because milk yields were not there, alternate energy programs like growing wood for wood (over a million trees distributed and planted) and biogas won Ranthambhore the Ashden Award for sustainable energy. Dastakar, Dhok and the Anokhi production unit all started by friends to help provide employment to local people. Tiger watch became the flag bearer of Vallu and Dads main thrust of monitoring Tigers and keeping an eye on the park and its management and proved critical in 2003-4 in exposing the rampant poaching that was happening right under the eyes of the Park authorities. Had Dad and his TW team not done this Ranthambore would have most likely lost all its Tiger. Vallu became the national voice for the Tiger at this time spotlighting its plight not just in Ranthambhore but through out India. God knows how many young people took to nature and wildlife as a direct result of the books they wrote together and the films in which they represented wildlife and Tigers. Valmik became the Attenborough of India spreading the message of conservation world wide while Dad stayed close to Ranthambhore guarding it like a soldier. Today their forays are the largest employers in the District after the government.
Together, they Tangoed for the Tiger; and what a Tango they danced.
Bhardwaj, G.S., Selvi, G., Agasti, S., Kari, B., Singh, H., Kumar, A., Gupta, R. & Reddy, G.V. (2021). The spacing pattern of reintroduced tigers in human-dominated Sariska Tiger Reserve, 5(1), 1-14
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Meenu Dhakad (L)┬аhas worked with Tiger Watch as a conservation biologist after completing her MasterтАЩs degree in the conservation of biodiversity. She is passionately involved with conservation education, research, and community in the Ranthambhore to conserve wildlife. She has been part of various research projects of Rajasthan Forest Department.
Dr. Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj (R), IFS is APCCF and Nodal officer (FCA) in Rajasthan. He has done his doctorate on birds of Sitamata WLS. He served in the different ecosystems of the state like Desert, tiger reserves like Ranthambhore and Sariska, and protected areas of south Rajasthan and as a professor in WII India. He is also a commission member of the IUCN SSC Bustard Specialist Group.
The Caracal (Caracal caracal) is among the most widespread small cats in the world. However, knowledge of its conservation status and ecology in its Asian range countries is minimal and severely outdated. Consistent reports however do originate from India, Israel and Iran. The┬аCaracal has interestingly been considered rare in India for a little more than three centuries. In 1671,┬аPresident Gerald Aungier, British East India Company Officer who became the second Governor of Bombay, was presented a Caracal by the Mughal General Diler Khan in exchange for a pair of English greyhounds. Even back then, Aungier was made aware of what a rarity the Caracal was in India and thus arranged to have it shipped back to England. Naturalists have continued to comment on the CaracalтАЩs rarity in India since then┬аto the┬аpresent day, with some even going as far as to suggest that it is on the verge of extinction.
However, little is known of the CaracalтАЩs ecology in India during the last four centuries. In order to understand whether the species has indeed experienced a decline in India, Dr. Dharmendra Khandal and Ishan Dhar of Ranthambhore based NGO, Tiger Watch and Dr. G.V. Reddy, recently retired as Head of Forest Forces for the state of Rajasthan conducted a study on┬аthe┬аHistoric and current extent of occurrence for the Caracal in India┬аpublished in the most recent special issue on small wild cats in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. This is the culmination of two yearlong effort, which involved the review of several books and journals as well as sourcing and interacting with individuals from all walks of life who might have crossed paths with this elusive animal in India.
Cover photo of December month edition of Journal of Threatened Taxa
Despite the CaracalтАЩs rarity, it has an extraordinarily rich history with humans in India. The Caracal was prized for its ability to hunt birds mid-flight. The vernacular name, Caracal, originates from the Turkic word┬аKarakulak, which literally translates to тАШblack-earтАЩ, drawing emphasis on its long black tufted ears. In India, the Caracal is vernacularly known by its Persian name,┬аSiyagosh, which also directly translates to тАШblack-earтАЩ. A fable from the Sanskrit text, the┬аHitopadesa, focuses on a small wild cat named┬аDirgha-karan┬аor тАШlong-earedтАЩ┬аpreying on a birdтАЩs chicks. This is the closest we come to what could possibly be a Caracal in Sanskrit literature. In fact, it was only in 1953, that a Sanskrit name,┬аsas-karan┬аor тАШrabbit like earsтАЩ was proposed as a part of a broader attempt at formulating Sanskrit nomenclature for the fauna of India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka following the Linnaean system of classification.
The Caracal was first used as a coursing animal in India during the Delhi Sultanate. In the 14th century, Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq established a тАШSiyah-Goshdar KhanaтАЩ┬аfor the maintenance of his vast collection of coursing Caracals. The Third Mughal Emperor Akbar also used the Caracal extensively for coursing. It was during the AkbarтАЩs reign that the Caracal also began to be represented in illustrated simplified Persian illustrations of Sanskrit, Arabic and Turkic texts literature such as┬аAnvar-i-Suhayli,┬аTutinama, as well as Persian classics such as the┬аKhamsa-e-Nizami┬аand┬аShahnameh. The CaracalтАЩs extensive use historically as a coursing animal and the lack of a Sanskrit name led to some questioning whether the species is indigenous to India at all. However, in 1982, a scientist with the ZSI, Mranomoy Ghosh re-examined a skull fragment purported to have been the earliest fossil of a domestic cat in India. The fragment had been collected from Harappa in 1930 and had been erroneously identified as that of the domestic cat. Ghosh reviewed the skull and discovered that it in fact belonged to a Caracal. This fossil record is IndiaтАЩs oldest Caracal finding, dating to 3000-2000 BC and establishing that the Caracal was present in the Indian subcontinent during the Indus Valley Civilization.
The vernacular name, Caracal, originates from the Turkic word┬аKarakulak, which emphasis on its long black tufted ears. (Photo: Dr. Dharmendra Khandal)
However, it is possible that the CaracalтАЩs rarity can be explained by landscape-level anthropogenic changes that have occurred in India since at least 1880. Examining changes to the CaracalтАЩs extent of occurrence in India is a step towards understanding how such change could have impacted the species. In this endeavour, the authors of the study attempted to collate all records of the Caracal in India from the start of recorded history until April 2020, map its historical extent of occurrence and evaluate any changes to its present extent of occurrence. An endeavour made all the more challenging by the prevalence of coursing Caracals historically as well as the at times frustratingly elusive behaviour of wild Caracals.
The authors search entailed an extensive review of literature from the onset of recorded history to the year 2020, spanning almost four centuries. This included the writings of naturalists, zoologists, natural historians, historians, forest officers, gazetteers, chroniclers, erstwhile royalty and army officers. An examination of Caracal specimens deposited at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), the Natural History Museum in London, private trophy collections in India and other museums was also conducted, along with open-ended interviews with forest officers and biologists who observed the Caracal in the field and people who provided photographs. The authors collated and categorized reports according to their reliability in the following manner: A.) confirmed reports based on tangible evidence like photographs, specimens including animal carcasses or body parts that can be accessed currently; B.) confirmed reports based on direct sightings of live or dead individuals, specimens submitted to museums that are no longer accessible or missing, photographic reports that are no longer accessible, destroyed or missing; C.) confirmed reports that indicate Caracal occurrence through species specific information which includes species description and the provision of distinct vernacular names; D.) unconfirmed or questionable reports without any accompanying description, photos or erroneous description.
Indeed 33 reports were considered тАШunconfirmedтАЩ as they were questionable or erroneous. Misidentification with the Jungle Cat is also an ever -present challenge, with erroneous reports continuing to be perpetuated to this day, simply because they have been published. The authors strictly did not include any reports of captive or coursing Caracals as their wild origins were unknown unless explicitly stated. In addition, a regular camera trapping exercise carried out by Tiger WatchтАЩs Village Wildlife Volunteers in and around the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve since 2015 was also drawn upon. For this exercise, camera trapping is carried out by trained pastoral herders monitoring tigers outside the Tiger Reserve. All reports gleaned from this search were geotagged onto maps to determine the historical and current extent of occurrence areas.
In India there are only two potentially viable populations of Caracal, one in the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve and other in the Kutch district of Gujarat. (Photo: Dr. Dharmendra Khandal)
The authors collated 134 reports starting from the year 1616 until April 2020. The Caracal was historically present in 13 Indian states and in 9 out of 26 biotic provinces.┬аSince 2001, the CaracalтАЩs presence has been reported in the three states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and four biotic provinces, with only two possible viable populations in the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan and the district of Kutch in Gujarat. Prior to 1947, the Caracal was reported from an area of 793,927┬аkm2. Between 1948 and 2000, the CaracalтАЩs reported extent of occurrence in India decreased by┬а47.99%. From 2001 to 2020, the reported┬аextent of occurrence┬аfurther decreased by 95.95%, with current presence restricted to 16,709km2, less than 5% of the CaracalтАЩs reported extent of occurrence in the 1948 to 2000 period and just 2.17% of the period before 1947.
In Rajasthan, there have been a total of 24 Caracal reports since the year 2001. 17 of these reports are backed by photographic evidence. 15 of which are from Ranthambhore, along with a photograph taken from Sariska in 2004 and a camera trap picture from the Keoladeo Ghana National Park in Bharatpur in 2017. However, from 2015 to April 2020, the Village Wildlife Volunteers obtained 176 camera trap pictures of Caracals from 6 locations in and around the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. Their camera trapping efforts even conclusively established the CaracalтАЩs presence in the district of Dholpur in Rajasthan. This is the largest repository of photographs for the Caracal in India and quite possibly its entire Asian range. With Ranthambhore being one of two possible viable populations in India, the Village Wildlife Volunteers will be indispensable to any forthcoming conservation intervention concerning the Caracal in India. Since 2001, there have been only 9 photographic Caracal records from Kutch and no photographic records from Madhya Pradesh.
Camera trap photo taken by Village Wildlife Volunteers (PC: Tiger Watch)
It is possible that the Caracal might still be present but underreported in states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and the eastern parts of India. Targeted surveys will be required to further verify and adjust the putative reduction in range size established by this study. With the exception of a handful of studies, there has been virtually no contribution to the knowledge of Caracal ecology in India in the 21st century. Surveys on Caracal population size, reproduction, mortality, home range sizes, and prey dynamics are the need of the hour. A review of just how the categorization of land as a wasteland, impacts the Caracal, which is a scrub dwelling species is also urgently required. Long-term studies focusing on the movement patterns of Caracals to determine and establish wildlife corridors that are suitable to connect the remaining fragmented population units are equally essential. The authors of the study hope to inspire conservationists to join the fight to prevent the Caracal from becoming extinct in India.
Authors:
Mr. Ishan Dhar (L)┬аis a researcher of political science in a think tank. He has been associated with Tiger WatchтАЩs conservation interventions in his capacity as a member of the board of directors.
Dr. Dharmendra Khandal (R)┬аhas worked as a conservation biologist with Tiger Watch тАУ a non-profit organisation based in Ranthambhore, for the last 16 years. He spearheads all anti-poaching, community-based conservation and exploration interventions for the organisation.
Meenu Dhakad (L)┬аhas worked with Tiger Watch as a conservation biologist after completing her MasterтАЩs degree in the conservation of biodiversity. She is passionately involved with conservation education, research, and community in the Ranthambhore to conserve wildlife. She has been part of various research projects of Rajasthan Forest Department.
Mr. Ishan Dhar (L)┬аis a researcher of political science in a think tank. He has been associated with Tiger WatchтАЩs conservation interventions in his capacity as a member of the board of directors.