Protect Bandhavgarh's Tigers From Poachers

The drought season is almost over with heavy monsoon rains expected any day. With the rains will come new problems for our patrollers to address: it is harder to spot the tracks of would be miscreants because the heavy rains wash these away quickly; the patrolling vehicles aquaplane in the surface water and mud; visibility is down to very few metres (about 6 feet) in heavy rainfall so the risk of wildlife encounters increases; lightning fells trees blocking tracks and roads whilst endangering life too; and if that isn’t enough to contend with it is peak poaching season too! It isn’t all bad news though, wild tiger numbers in Bandhavgarh have almost doubled in the 4 years we have been conducting our patrols, so we must be getting something right, especially with poaching and retaliatory killings on the increase elsewhere….. 

We’ve already had some heavy pre-monsoon rain making visibility difficult for our patrollers in June, none the less they are on high alert because all kinds of miscreant activity increases in the lead up to and during the monsoon period. Once again, our patrollers found evidence of encroachment into protected tiger forest habitat from the villages in the buffer forest around Bandhavgarh, this has been detailed and reported to officials in the forest department who will take steps to reverse the encroachment and reclaim the land. Newly planted areas of the previously denuded forest were also showing signs of cattle encroachment which is having a significant impact on the recovery of the forest. If we can double our patrols during the monsoon period we will be able to monitor this more closely to catch the culprits in the act. To ensure that we can double our patrols we need to raise £2268 ($3040) to cover our additional costs during the monsoon period starting right now, if you feel able to help please donate now at: https://goto.gg/34704 all amounts will help our quest no matter how large or small the donation.

Wild tiger numbers have almost doubled in Bandhavgarh during the time whilst we have been helping to give wild tigers wild futures there, this has been helped significantly by cub mortality rates which have seen almost all cubs born in the last 3 years surviving to adulthood. We recently received news about the patter of even more tiny tiger paws when one of the tigresses in the buffer forest gave birth to five cubs. This brings the number of cubs in pristine tiger habitat to 41, with more cubs expected soon as we’ve received plenty of reports of tigers mating over the last few months. It will be a challenge for both the mother (of the 5 cubs) and our patrollers to keep them safe throughout the monsoon period, but a challenge which our patrollers are ready for. We are delighted to say that the all the females with cubs living in the areas where Tigers4Ever has constructed permanent wildlife waterholes are doing well and the cubs are growing up quickly. You can read more about our waterhole project progress here: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/water-for-bandhavgarhs-tigers/reports/#menu. It really has been a bumper year for tiger cub survival in Bandhavgarh, which means that our patrols now have many more than 100 wild tigers (including cubs) to protect from harm.

Just this week, our patrollers found some discarded metal wire on a tiger trail, thankfully it wasn’t a snare, but it reaffirms why we need to be extra vigilant at this time of year. It isn’t uncommon during the monsoon period for villagers to set traps to catch wild boar and deer which come to the villages to raid the food crops, sadly these snares and traps can be indiscriminate and have killed tigers and leopards in the past. As a matter of course, our patrollers scour the periphery of the villages in and around the buffer forest searching for these ill devices and those who have laid them. With over 70 villages to check, this is no easy task, especially during the heavy rains of the monsoon. Our brave patrollers are not deterred by the challenge, they even scour through the tangled lantana bushes looking for traps and snares, and patrol along the power lines which transect the forest looking for signs of tethered snares. Canes and head-torches are invaluable equipment during these searches, as available light is low which results in poor visibility and an increased risk of the patroller stepping into a trap intended to kill a wild animal. We are eternally grateful for the bravery and ingenuity of the men and women Tigers4Ever patrollers who risk their lives each day to ensure that wild tigers are safe. Did you know that it costs us just £123 ($165) to provide a patroller with full uniform and equipment (including vital head-torch, spare batteries and cane) which usually lasts for up to 3 years?If you would like to help us to provide vital equipment for our patrollers, please donate now at: https://goto.gg/34704 every little helps.

For those of you who have been following the progress about our Senior Anti-Poaching Patroller, Ravi, who was beaten up by poachers towards the end of 2018, he is still receiving specialist treatment for his injuries at a hospital in Jabalpur. We know that like us, you wish him a speedy recovery and hope that he will be fit, healthy and back protecting Bandhavgarh’s wild tigers again as soon as he is able.

Before we close, just a little reminder that peak poaching season is already upon us. We are already on high alert, and we are trying to double our patrols for the duration of the monsoon period. Elsewhere, the poachers have started early, with more than 7 tiger deaths reported already this month. This news is devastating in its own right but when we think about the 41 small cubs who could so easily be orphaned if their mothers were to be poached, the impact just doesn’t bear thinking about! We’ve already asked our patrollers to be on high alert for new miscreant or suspicious activity and tethered snare traps, it is now with some urgency that we therefore ask if you could spare £20/US$26, or more if you can afford it, after reading this report to ensure that we can double our patrolling before the poachers strike in Bandhavgarh: https://goto.gg/34704. We really want to ensure that the 41 plus tiny tiger cubs grow up safely; and that their parents are around to protect them whilst they grow. Your donation will help us to pay a team of brave patrollers to protect wild tigers for a day and will give you the satisfaction of knowing that you are making a real difference today. It is more than 21 months since the last tiger was poached in Bandhavgarh which together with our record of 48 months without a retaliatory poisoning is a great achievement on the part of our patrollers. We hope that we can raise sufficient funds to keep this exemplary record going.

I can’t sign off without thanking you all for your continued amazing support and donations, which enable us to give wild tigers a wild future. I know that many of you will have holidays/vacations to pay for right now, so if you can’t donate £20/US$26 right now, please feel free to donate whatever you can afford, every little really does make a big difference. Finally, I would like to thank you again on behalf of the wild tigers, which we are keeping safe; on behalf of the patrollers we are keeping in work (and their families who have food on the table). I would also like to thank you on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing food/uniforms/equipment for our patrols and from the safety/education advice given by Deepak, Prahlad, Vidya, Ravi and our patrolling team.

Links:

• Tigers4Ever Website
• How to get in touch